Introducing Educational Games in the Learning Process

Within the last years educational games have attracted some attention from the academic community. Multiple enhancements of the learning experience are usually attributed to educational games, although the most cited is their potential to improve students' motivation. In spite of these expected advantages, how to introduce video games in the learning process is an issue that is not completely clear yet, which reduces the potential impact of educational video games. Our goal at the <;e-UCM> research group is to identify the barriers that are limiting the integration of games in the learning process and propose approaches to tackle them. The result of this work is the <;e-Adventure> platform, an educational game authoring tool that aims to make of video games just another educational tool at the disposal of the instructors. In this paper we describe how <;e-Adventure> contributes to the integration of games in the learning process through three main focuses: reduction of the high development costs of educational games, involvement of instructors in the development process to enhance the educational value, and the production of the games using a white-box model. In addition we describe the current research that we are conducting using the platform as a test-bed.