Students' learning outcomes and learning experiences through playing a serious educational game

This study attempted to examine students' learning outcomes and their learning experiences through playing a Serious Educational Game. A mixed-method research design was employed collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. A total of 98 middle-school students ranging from sixth to eighth grades participated through paper- and- pencil instruments, interviews and video recordings as data sources. A series of paired t-tests was used to analyse whether there were differences in learning outcomes and attitude changes toward methamphetamine use. The results showed that students learned more neuroscience content after exposure to the game (p < 0.01) and their attitude toward methamphetamine use became more negative (p < 0.01). Moreover, they actively performed several cognitive and metacognitive strategies to help the learning activity to best fit individual learning styles and to make the cognitive processes more efficient while interacting with the Serious Educational Game.