Developing an interactive digital game-based learning system for astronomy

Tomo Goto^1*, Poya Wang¹, Tzuyin Hsu¹

¹Astronomy, NTHU, Hsinchu, Taiwan

* Presenter:Tomo Goto, email:tomo@gapp.nthu.edu.tw

Can we make undergraduate astronomy education easier and more fun? By the end of 3-hour astronomy lectures, I often find many students are tired, and lose their focus. In such situations, learning efficiency is low. I tried to answer this ambitious question by developing a digital game-based learning (DGBL) tool. In the physics literature, DGBL is becoming more and more popular, and successful in increasing the efficacy of learning because the DGBL makes students feel easy and fun. However, not many examples can be found in astronomy. Some contents in astronomy are so different from our daily-life experiences, and notoriously difficult to be understood by students. Such topics include the expansion of the Universe, non-Euclidian geometry, Einstein’s concept of the space-time, and general relativistic time-delay. I aim to fill this gap by developing a DGBL platform for astronomy classes. The effect will be two-folded, (i) first, we let students design and develop the DGBL during the class. To build the DGBL, students first need to understand the concepts to be implemented. They also need to interact with each other. This will be a natural learning process. (ii) After completing the DGBL, students will have a chance to play it. While playing the DGBL, students will have another learning opportunity. In this talk, I will report an experimental attempt and results in my class during the last semester.

Keywords: astronomy, DGBL, game