Student’s habits and preferences in digital game : a case of designing an educational game for primary schools student

Abstract

The embedded technology in learning for primary school students is seen as a paradigm shift in education. However, in developing countries, technology is more actively utilised in higher education and secondary schools rather than primary school. Digital game, on the other hand, is much preferred by primary school students after their school time. Educational games or even entertainment games can be found online or in the market, however, most of the designs are not user centric. This paper will further discuss the initial study phase which was done to; (1) identify student’s habits towards digital game usage; (2) identify digital game design preferences by students and; (3) purposive sampling findings. This investigation is to identify interested and capable students in engaging future digital game design activities. In order to further investigateon students’ habits and game design preferences, we will use the first phase of PDEduGame framework process. Hence, a preliminary investigation was done with 287 primary school students aged 10 to 11 years old. The Islamic Religious Primary School (KAFA) in Selangor District was selected for this investigation purposes. The next part of this study is the elaboration on the methodology used during the investigation. Some teachers were interviewed to support the investigation. The results from the investigation will be further discussed and elaborated in the descriptively. Finally, from the results, we suggest the input generated for the initial study stage for the second stage of the participatory design framework process.