JISC

Racing Academy was specifically designed as a way to engage and motivate students in physics and engineering. It aimed to achieve this by engaging them in tasks that were authentic, that involve real practice and through which they can see the effects of their choices, interventions and actions. The players had to handle and analyse multiple and multimodal data sources to make considered choices, to reflect on and review their interventions and actions and to collaborate with others and play the game itself.

Executive Summary

A further aim was to explore how the use of Racing Academy, implemented on a large scale, impacts on the teaching and learning processes and associated organisational issues.

It was designed to develop and support a community of practice based not on fictional qualities, but on real physics principles. Players have to engage with the underlying physics and engineering. They work as a member of a community of practice where practice arises out of real physics and engineering.

It was used by 219 students on five different courses in three further and higher educational institutions. The institutions involved were Barnfield Further Education college (where it was used to support an IMI nationals: Motor vehicle engineering course and a BTECH vehicle engineering courses), Penwith Further Education College (where it was used to support an AS/A2 Physics course) and the University of Bath, where it was used to support two undergraduate mechanical engineering courses.

The project was evaluated using a multi-methodological approach. An evaluation framework was developed based on Activity Theory and it was used to evaluate the impact of Racing Academy on the teaching and learning process in engineering and physics.

The project found that after playing Racing Academy there was a statistically significant increase in students’ knowledge and understanding in all five of the courses, in which Racing Academy was used. The students found Racing Academy motivating to play, but there was no increase in students’ motivation towards engineering or physics after playing Racing Academy

The project developed an evaluation framework based on activity framework to investigate the impact of Racing Academy on teaching and learning, which proved very useful. The analysis identified a number of issues which impacted on the successful implementation of Racing Academy.

In conclusion Racing Academy did successfully support learning in physics and engineering. It provides an example of how game based learning can usefully support learning in further and higher education.

Report available electronically only. See full report below.