A smartphone game to promote self-learning in chemistry

Abstract

© 2019 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age, CELDA 2019. All rights reserved. In Thailand, for most students in high school, remembering the periodic table is an important part of learning chemistry and to pass a university entrance examination in their scientific program. As many students live in the bigger city areas in Thailand, most of them encounter the same problems such as limitations on lesson time, and their involvement in a wide range of high school and extra-curricular activities which reduces the student's study time. Self-learning is one method that has been proven to be effective, convenient, and fast. Presently, there are few effective resources for students to enjoy self-learning. Game-based learning is one of the approaches that has been suggested, but most of them are too difficult to learn how to play, not attractive and not challenging. In this study, a smartphone-based learning game was designed and developed with better level design, including color emotional theory, and quality graphic design to provide a better user experience. The game consists of three stages, and at each stage, a mini-puzzle game is presented which plays a different style with different goals to be achieved. The first stage of the game is to remember the names and symbols of elements. The second stage is to remember the group and period, while the third stage allows students to apply elements to form chemical compounds. The results from an evaluation showed that 96% of 102 students, enjoyed playing the game, 87% said the game was challenging, and 94% remembered at least 3 elements more than before playing. The satisfaction questionnaire demonstrated the benefits of the game-based learning system on self-learning in chemistry.