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Fighting COVID-19 at Purdue University: Design and Evaluation of a Game for Teaching COVID-19 Hygienic Best Practices

Authors:

Christos Mousas,

Abhigna Peddireddy,

Arjun Kramadhati Gopi,

Bethany S. McGowan, and

Jason B. ReedAuthors Info & Claims

FDG '21: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 2021

Article No.: 15, Pages 1 - 23

https://doi.org/10.1145/3472538.3472552

Published: 21 October 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

COVID-19 has upended lives everywhere, causing millions of deaths and tens of millions of infections worldwide. Nevertheless, for many people, staying in permanent isolation is neither desirable nor possible. To mitigate the spread of the disease, we iteratively developed a game that teaches hygienic best practices for preventing COVID-19. We consulted professional game designers, health experts, and educational technology designers. We then compared the effectiveness of the game to an equivalent video in two longitudinal experiments during the pandemic: 1) an experiment in a programming lab (N=11), and 2) an online-only experiment (N=475). In Experiment #1, we observe that participants in the game condition had higher intrinsic motivation, and a more sustained rise in hygienic self-efficacy, compared to participants in the video condition. Both conditions saw a rise in COVID-19 knowledge and positive hygienic attitude. Both conditions were relatively unchanged in COVID-19 anxiety and hygienic behavior. In Experiment #2, participants in the game condition experienced greater intrinsic motivation than participants in the video condition. Both conditions saw a sustained rise in COVID-19 hygienic self-efficacy, positive hygienic attitudes, and knowledge. Neither condition saw an effect on COVID-19 anxiety. Our work demonstrates that game-based learning can be an effective approach for teaching COVID-19 hygienic knowledge, for improving COVID-19 hygienic self-efficacy, and for fostering COVID-19 hygienic positive attitudes, and is more intrinsically motivating than video-based learning.

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Cited By

Kermavnar TVisch VDesmet P(2023)Games in Times of a Pandemic: Structured Overview of COVID-19 Serious GamesJMIR Serious Games10.2196/4176611(e41766)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.2196/41766
Joshi AMousas CHarrell DKao D(2022)Exploring the Influence of Demographic Factors on Progression and Playtime in Educational GamesProceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3555858.3555873(1-15)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555858.3555873
Kerdvibulvech C(2022)Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Digital and Metaverse GamesHCI International 2022 Posters10.1007/978-3-031-06391-6_69(561-565)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06391-6_69

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FDG '21: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 2021

534 pages

ISBN:9781450384223

DOI:10.1145/3472538

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Published: 21 October 2021

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FDG'21: The 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games 2021

August 3 - 6, 2021

QC, Montreal, Canada

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Cited By

Kermavnar TVisch VDesmet P(2023)Games in Times of a Pandemic: Structured Overview of COVID-19 Serious GamesJMIR Serious Games10.2196/4176611(e41766)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.2196/41766
Joshi AMousas CHarrell DKao D(2022)Exploring the Influence of Demographic Factors on Progression and Playtime in Educational GamesProceedings of the 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games10.1145/3555858.3555873(1-15)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555858.3555873
Kerdvibulvech C(2022)Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Digital and Metaverse GamesHCI International 2022 Posters10.1007/978-3-031-06391-6_69(561-565)Online publication date: 16-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06391-6_69

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