Bio Detective: Student Science Learning, Immersion Experience, and Problem-solving Patterns

Abstract

Many studies have shown that there is a positive impact of serious educational games (SEGs) on student learning. Because of the game graphics, animations, sounds, and narratives, the learners can immerse in the virtual surroundings. Once they immersed, they might try their best to solve the in-game tasks. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a SEG–Bio Detective and to evaluate its impact on student science learning outcomes. Moreover, we further investigated the relationships between students’ game immersion experience and their science learning and problem solving. The obtained results showed that student science learning can be significantly improved through Bio Detective play, but there were no significant correlations between game immersion and learning outcomes. Comparing the problem-solving patterns and problem-solving abilities between students with high- and low immersion experience, we found that students with high immersion experience had a more complete problem-solving pattern and a better problem-solving performance than students with low game immersion experience.