Habit and perception towards games and game-based learning in India: A survey study of awareness and experience with digital games

Abstract

In this study, 701 Indian persons responded to a survey asking them about their game-playing habits and perceptions towards learning through games. The survey instrument was used to gauge the participant demographics, awareness towards types of games, experience with various genres of games, playing habits, and perception towards the use of games for learning in schools. The paper also grouped participants through their age groups and gender and tried to extract preferential patterns. Findings show that a majority of respondents were positive about the integration of games for the purpose of learning within the classroom. When presented with a hypothetical opportunity, STEM subjects overwhelmingly opted for learning through games, followed closely by history, geography, business studies, and programming. An analysis of keywords indicates that the participants connotate games with words like ‘challenge’, ‘competition, ‘fun’, and ‘learning’, indicating a primarily positive association. The findings also highlight disparities and similarities in preferential patterns when the responses were grouped according to their age and gender. The findings of the study provide support to the use of game-based applications in Indian education. It can motivate policymakers of pedagogy to experiment with the use of game-based learning applications in the classroom to utilise and optimise teaching-learning methodologies. Future research would include such studies that analyze the effectiveness of various game-based applications in the Indian classroom. It would potentially be comprised of experiment setups where the participants can experience educational games and then self-report on perceived learning and compare the experience with the traditional classroom teaching-learning methodologies.