Exploring Learners’ Problem-Solving Behaviors in an Educational Game for Computer Assembly Instruction: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

This is a pilot study aimed to explore students’ problem-solving behaviors in a room escape adventure game for computer assembly instruction. The participants were 18 night school students at a university in Taiwan. Students’ game playing actions were screen recorded, classified into different problem-solving codes, and descriptive analysis, difference analysis, and correlation analysis were then conducted. The results of this preliminary analysis showed that students performed more than half of their actions in exploring the game context. Male students were seemed to apply more trail-and-error behaviors than female students. Students who successfully achieved the game goal demonstrated more active behavior engagement than those who failed to complete the goal. It is suggested to conduct a future study to collect a larger sample and analyze students’ behaviors using different method.