Serious Games in an Information Technology Course: Opportunities, Challenges, and Outcomes

Serious games (SG) and Game-Based Learning (GBL) have frequently used for teaching purpose in different courses including Information Technology (IT). However, qualitative studies of students ’ experience in using this approach have been subject of less attention in the related literature. The current study employs a qualitative approach to gain insight on students ’ opinion after using the SGs in an IT course. The study particularly pays attention to potential opportunities and challenges of using the approach in IT course. Moreover, we asked students’ about the possible skills which they learnt through use of SGs. Fifty four students participated in a written survey which contained three open-ended questions about students ’ experience in using this approach. After analysis of the results three groups of opportunities (learning outcome, engagement, and real life opportunity), three groups of challenges (learning curve, capacity of learn, and design of the game), and six groups of possible skills (human resource management, resource management, leadership, management and business skills, strategic skills, and technical knowledge) are recognised according to students ’ experience. This study concludes with some implications for practice and research