The Effect of Educational Game on Children Learning Experience in

a Slovakian School

Nour El Mawas

, Peter Truchly

, Pavol Podhradský

and Cristina Hava Muntean

CIREL(EA 4354), University of Lille, Lille, France

Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia

School of Computing, National College of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Keywords: Game based Learning Education, Solar System Concepts, STEM in Primary School Education.

Abstract: Preparing our children for the rapid economic, scientific and technological developments ahead is a top

research aspect for many research communities and state institutions. In this context, STEM topics have an

important role in the earlier educational stage and more specifically at primary school level. This paper

investigates the learning impact of using Final Frontier, an immersive educational video game in a Slovak

school for teaching concepts related to the solar system. The experimental study involved 44 children

divided in two groups, a control group and an experimental group. The aim of this paper is to present an

investigation on the effect of educational game on the learning outcome of the children when the Final

Frontier game is used. The results show that Final Frontier game based learning brought better knowledge

gain values. In addition, the majority of children perceived learning more entertaining and they believed that

the game helped them to learn through problem solving tasks and interactive exploration of the planets

virtual environment.

1 INTRODUCTION

STEM education is very important nowadays as the

entire economy and our general well-being rely

heavily on by science, technology, engineering, and

math. In order to motivate the young generation to

follow an engineer or scientist career path, STEM

topics must be introduced at primary school level to

show to the children what an engineer or scientist

can do. Research has proved that STEM subjects

should be highlighted long before students begin to

choose their specialisms at secondary school, high

school or university. The young people are already

aware that STEM is all around in their daily lives

and they are curious to know how they can better

use their STEM knowledge to solve problems in the

world. Teachers have also recognized the need to

equip our young people with a strong STEM

foundation and they are willing to participate in

hands-on professional learning activities that prepare

them on how to introduce STEM topics to children.

Interactive computer-based educational games

have gained wide recognition as an effective way to

create interactive and constructivist learning

environments through the use of technology. Game-

based learning teaching approach has been

introduced in both formal and informal education

worldwide for teaching STEM related subjects.

Recent studies that proposed and/or evaluated

educational games for teaching concepts related to

the solar system are presented in the next section.

A part of game based learning other approaches

such as hands-on projects, lab experiments, inquiry-

based learning, use of Virtual Reality (VR) and

Augmented Reality (AR) have been investigated by

researchers and applied when introducing STEM

topics to young children. Gamification can provide

another means of promoting students’ active

participation and investment into something beyond

the academic expectations of a lesson (Papadakis

and Kalogiannakis, 2017). Digital games are gaining

wide recognition as an effective way to create

socially interactive and constructivist learning

environments (Papadakis, 2018).

The team of researchers, scientists, engineers,

educators, psychologists and developers part of

NEWTON project

have instigated innovative

technologies to be used in primary schools,

secondary schools and Universities for teaching

NEWTON Project - http://newtonproject.eu

El Mawas, N., Truchly, P., Podhradský, P. and Muntean, C.

The Effect of Educational Game on Children Learning Experience in a Slovakian School.

DOI: 10.5220/0007764104650472

In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019), pages 465-472

ISBN: 978-989-758-367-4

465

STEM topics. NEWTON Project’s innovative

technologies include Augmented Reality and Virtual

Reality (Bogusevschi et al. 2018a) (Bogusevschi et

al. 2018b), Virtual Teaching and Learning

Laboratory (Bogusevschi et al., 2019), adaptive and

personalised multimedia and multiple sensorial

media (Bi, et al., 2018; Moldovan & Muntean, 2017;

Moldovan et al. 2016), personalisation and

gamification (El Mawas et al., 2018a) and

interactive educational computer-based video games

(El Mawas et al., 2018b). Different innovative

pedagogical approaches are also deployed as part of

the STEM teaching and learning process such as

flipped classroom, game-based and problem-based

learning (Muntean et al., 2018; Muntean et al., 2017;

Zhao et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2019; El Mawas et al.,

2018c; Zhao et al., 2019; Bradford et al., 2014; Chis

et al., 2018).

In the context of NEWTON project this paper

presents a case study that involved the use of an

educational immersive game to teach concepts

related to the Solar System in a Slovak primary

school. The most important findings include the fact

that game based learning brings a comparable level

of knowledge acquisition over a teacher based

learning approach and even higher level when we

concentrate on a knowledge gain.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2

presents research work done in the area of education

games, focusing on solar system related games.

Section 3 introduces the research methodology of

the case study and a description of the Final Frontier

game. Section 4 presents the results of the case

study. Section 5 summarizes the conclusion of this

paper and presents its perspectives.

2 RELATED WORK

Few studies have proposed and/or evaluated

educational games related to planets or the solar

system and they are presented next.

Titans of Space

is a free educational game that

offers to the learners a guided virtual tour of the

solar system. The player travels through the planets

and stars inside a small spacecraft. There are many

tour stops where the player can look around, read the

information panel and proceed to the next

destination when he feels ready. Note that the

number and the duration of stops can be configured

by the player. The learning objective of the game is

to learn about the planets from the solar system. The

Titans of Space - http://www.titansofspacevr.com/

game is designed to look inside the solar system

with the following route: Earth, Mercury, Venus,

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

However, the game was either not evaluated or the

results were not published. The game does not

provide planet exploration though problem solving

tasks and therefore it does not support development

of problem solving skills.

Odyssey

(Chakraborty, 2015) is an interactive

simulation game to learn concepts of the solar

system. The game consists of navigation menus to

look at various objects from different vantage points.

Many topics can be studied like Lunar Phases,

Seasons of Earth etc. Setting a particular date in the

date picker shows the state of the Solar System on

that particular date. Odyssey serves as a medium for

the teachers to explain various phenomena like

phases of moon, apparent retrograde motion of

planets, and path of the Halley’s Comet. Students

are expected to read from their textbooks and then

test out their understanding through Odyssey. They

can also explain various concepts like the changing

of seasons due to the earth’s tilt through Odyssey.

However, there are no research papers that evaluate

this game.

(Majgaard et al., 2017) introduces the design of a

learning application about the Solar System suitable

for 6th graders. Students participated in the design

phase to increase their motivation and help them to

overcome difficulties related to the understanding of

the Solar System. The students learn via the

application the distances between the Sun and the

planets and their proportions relative to each other,

as well as planetary motion through space. The

application is based on augmented reality design in

order to make unobservable objects visible in a

learning context. Moreover, the authors of the paper

(Majgaard et al., 2017) consider that the application

promotes an engaging learning experience but there

is no research that proves that.

Space Rift

(Peña and Tobias, 2014) is an

educational game that teaches children concepts

about the solar system. The player explores planets

in a virtual environment. In this game, the player is

free to navigate around the solar system with full

control rather than just be fixed with the tour stops.

Information about planets is visible when the player

hovers close to a planet. Space Rift was tested with

fifth-grade students. The students described the

game as enjoyable and immersive, although they had

http://coffeeandjunk.github.io/odyssey/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/437080/Space_Rift_

_Episode_1/

CSEDU 2019 - 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

466

problems distinguishing some of the images due to

lack of sharpness. However, the game evaluation

involved only 5 students and was mostly focused on

usability rather than educational aspects.

(Ranka et al., 2018) proposes Space Invaders, an

educational game in a virtual reality mode that

allows users to discover facts about the planets that

exist in the Solar System. Each planet constitutes a

level in the game, while the player tries

simultaneously to evade and defeat aliens that are

encountered. Initially, the main screen is displayed,

which consists of all the planets, along with the Sun.

Then the learner has to select Mercury as his first

level and clear it by combatting the aliens. Once all

the aliens on this level are killed, before the time

runs out, the player will be able to attempt a quiz,

otherwise the player loses. Once the level is

completed the player will be taken to the next level.

And in the similar way the player has to invade the

space by capturing all the planets. Several

experiments have been conducted to illustrate that

the game can work effectively on any personal

system and smartphone but there is no study on the

learning impact of the game.

SolarSystemGO (Patricio et al., 2018) is an

augmented reality based game with astronomical

concepts. The game's aim is to provide awareness of

the vastness and proportionality of the Solar System

objects, such as the Sun and the planets. The player

embarks on a voyage through the Solar System and

its planets. He collects points as he reaches each

planet. The planets are augmented objects placed on

a scale with the Sun position, in a real outdoor

space. The work reported in (Patricio et al., 2018)

presents an evaluation of the game performance,

especially on low-end devices and discusses the

need to include other objects types such as satellites

and asteroids.

The Final Frontier educational game that

supports learning through problem solving, direct

experience, challenges and fun interactive tasks.

This paper in particular analyses the impact of the

educational game on the learning process when the

Final Frontier game was deployed in a primary

school from Slovakia.

3 CASE STUDY

This research study is focused on knowledge

acquisition of students when an educational game is

incorporated in pedagogical process.

3.1 Final Frontier Game Description

The Final Frontier, immersive and interactive

computer-based educational game investigated in

this paper, was developed as a part of the Earth

Science Large scale NEWTON pilot (Bogusevschi

et al., 2018) and it was used through the NEWTELP

platform by 10-13 years old children in three

European schools.

The Final Frontier game supports knowledge

acquisition on 4 rocky planets and 4 giant gas

planets from the Solar system, e.g. Mercury (Figure

1) and Venus (Figure 2). A game level corresponds

to each planet to be explored. For each level, game

objective (i.e. mission to collection stars or

meteorites) and constrains (e.g. coolant time) are

defined. The stars, meteorites, jetpack and coolant

time are ludic elements in the game; they are very

important to ensure the balance between the

gamification and the learning scenario. Once a level

is completed, the player must answer correctly a

multi-choice question in order to progress to the next

level. The player is allowed to try to answer the

question multiple times if a wrong answer is

provided and extra information is provided.

Figure 1: The player on the Venus surface.

Figure 2: The player with jetpack on Mercury.

The Effect of Educational Game on Children Learning Experience in a Slovakian School

467

Figure 3: The evaluation process scenario (FF1/2 – Final Frontier game part 1/2).

Details on Final Frontier game description and

the game design methodology are presented in (El

Mawas et al., 2018b; Muntean and Andrews, 2017).

The game can be played in 6 different languages:

English, Slovak, Czech, Spanish, Italian, and

Romanian. The paper (El Mawas et al., 2018b)

presents a case study on using the game in Irish

primary school. This research paper investigates the

use of the game in the Slovak school.

The game was deployed in pedagogical process

to analyse its impact on a state of acquired

experience and knowledge compared to the standard

(classical) educational process.

3.2 Research Methodology

As this research study is focused on knowledge

acquisition aspect of game-based learning in a

STEM-related topic, pre- and post-test assessments

were run before and after the use of the game.

The research methodology applied in this case

study involved a random distribution of the children

that took part in the case study into two groups: a

control group (CG) and the experimental group

(EG). The experimental group learned about the

planets by playing the educational game. The control

group was exposed to the classic teacher-based

learning. The case study consisted of several phases

which cover the collection of assent and consent

forms, description of the realised course, special pre-

questionnaires, knowledge pre-test, learning

experience, knowledge post-test, and other post-

questionnaires. Figure 3 shows a simple draft of the

case study process where only phases related to the

knowledge acquisition and evaluation are depicted.

The learning process for Solar System subject

taught by the Final Frontier game was divided into

two parts (lessons): the first one devoted to rocky

planets and the second one to giant gas planets. Each

one lasted one teaching hour. All learners from both

groups (EG and CG) did two knowledge tests one

before (pre-test) and one after each lesson (post-

test). The learning process depends on a group the

learner belongs to. It means learners of the

experimental group played the Final Frontier game

(part 1 during Lesson 1 and part 2 during Lesson 2)

– NEWTON approach. Each learner played the

game individually in the computer room with a

teacher present in the room, but the teacher did not

answer any question related to the subject. The

control group was presented with a classical

approach of the same content using PowerPoint

presentations created by the NEWTON team

members and presented by a school teacher. The

information content of the game and presentations

had to be the same. NEWTON representatives (pilot

leader and local researchers) took part in both

approaches for observational purposes.

In order to evaluate learners’ level of knowledge

on the subject prior the particular pedagogical

approach both groups did the same pre-test 1 (within

Lesson 1) and the same pre-test 2 (within Lesson 2).

Similarly, the same post-tests were provided in both

groups to analyse and evaluate level of acquired

knowledge. Table 1 shows questions of pre- and

post-test 1 applied during the Lesson 1. The pre- and

post-tests creation followed requirements such as

they should last max. 10 minutes, both (pre- and

post-) tests should have very similar content and

identical concept. These tests consist of a single

choice and simple answer questions.

Based on knowledge tests results an average

score can be calculated for both groups of students,

both knowledge tests and for both lessons. By

comparing average pre-test and post-test scores a

knowledge gain can be calculated. And by

comparing knowledge gains for particular lessons

and groups it is possible to evaluate which

pedagogical approach provides better results with

respect to knowledge acquisition.

In addition to knowledge tests evaluation the

implemented research methodology is also based on

results acquired from several questionnaires learners

of the experimental group took before and after

CSEDU 2019 - 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

468

Table 1: The pre-test and post-test questions deployed in

Final Frontier Part 1 (Lesson 1).

lessons, observations carried out during lessons as

well as interviews and discussions with learners.

The research study was carried out at the school

located in Bratislava – Lamač, Slovakia with

children from two standard classes. One class (the

total of 19 children at the age of 12-13) went

through the NEWTON approach (EG) and another

class of 25 children (of the same age) was exposed

to the classic teaching approach (CG). It is necessary

to note that grades 5-8/9 are considered in Slovakia

as basic/primary second stage schools (education)

whereas in most school systems these grades are

considered to be lower secondary schools. The

learning process took place during the school study

hours in the presence of the NEWTON team from

the Slovak University of Technology and the

teachers from the school. For the experimental group

all the tests were implemented in NEWTELP

platform developed within the NEWTON project

and provided to learners online. The control group

was provided with a printed version of all tests.

4 CASE STUDY RESULTS

The research focuses on the knowledge acquisition

based on two different pedagogical approaches

(traditional learning and game based learning). The

evaluation was based on the results of knowledge

tests (i.e. pre- and post-tests) as well as

questionnaires which were taken by all learners.

4.1 Knowledge Assessment Results

Final results showing the level of learner’

knowledge in percentage for all groups of learners,

both types of tests and both lessons of the Final

Frontier subject are depicted in Figure 4. It is

noticeable that both pedagogical approaches

increased knowledge level of learners. The highest

average (pre- as well as post-test) scores were

achieved by the control group (CG) in Lesson 1.

This result was influenced by the fact that learners of

this class/group already had some initial knowledge

in the subject what is also confirmed by the highest

pre-test score (85.42%). In this case (Lesson 1),

learners of the experimental group (using FF1 game)

achieved a lower value of the average pre- and post-

test scores. However, if we concentrate on the

analysis of the gained knowledge we can notice an

increase of 13.16% in the case of EG and only

8.33% in the case of CG. Therefore, the benefit of

game based learning can be observed.

Results for the Lesson 2 (FF2) show almost the

same average pre-test score for both groups (about

70%), i.e. all children have the same level of

knowledge in the researched subject prior the

learning activity. After the learning activity, the

level of their knowledge increased by 20.83% and

17.31% in the case of EG and CG, respectively.

To summarize the above analysis, we can see

that learning using the Final Frontier game (in both

lessons) brought better values of knowledge gain.

During the learning process (hours) representatives

of the NEWTON project have been observing how

learners behave and what they ask and say.

Moreover, we conducted special individual and

group interviews with students and teachers after the

learning process. Eight learners (from EG) took part

in these interviews (four arranged in a group and

others individually). Based on these activities and

Figure 4: Average pre- and post- test scores for

experimental group (EG) and control group (CG), for Final

Frontier part 1 (FF1) and Final Frontier part 2 (FF2).

The Effect of Educational Game on Children Learning Experience in a Slovakian School

469

their results, we can summarize that the majority of

learners consider learning more entertaining and the

game helped them to learn better by direct

experience with planets environment.

4.2 Percentage of Correct Answers

Using the pre- and post-test results we also

evaluated learner tests based on the number of

correctly answered questions for Lesson 1 in both

groups (Table 2). There is nobody in the used

sample of learners who answered all questions

incorrectly for this lesson and all learners answered

correctly at least two questions in the post-tests. We

can also see an increase by ca. 20% in a number of

learner post-tests with all four correct answers.

4.3 Questionnaires Results

Children of the experimental group completed two

types of questionnaires (motivation and usability)

after each lesson. Figure 5 shows results for both

questionnaires completed after the Final Frontier

part 1 and 2 lessons. From these results we see that

 only 5% of learners would like to learn without

NEWTON technology (i.e. in a standard way

with a teacher),

 only 5% of learners think lesson was boring,

 77% of learners consider learning with the

game (Final Frontier) was really interesting

 Bu using the game 46% of learners became

more interested in this STEM topic.

Table 2: Number of questions (in percentage) correctly

answered by students in Lesson 1.

Pre-tests

Post-tests

Both

4 out of 4

42 %

63 %

54 %

63 %

79 %

72 %

3 out of 4

37 %

21 %

28 %

32 %

17 %

23 %

2 out of 4

5 %

12 %

9 %

5 %

4 %

5 %

1 out of 4

16 %

4 %

9 %

0 %

none

0 %

It can be seen that the most of learners liked the

game-based learning approach. They liked the Final

Frontier game, its environment, style, freedom, and

interactivity. If we focus on results of the usability

oriented questionnaires (other six questions in

Figure 5), we can summarise that

 73% of learners agreed that it is easy to use

(play) the game,

 77% understood all parts and 86% of learners

said it is easy to learn to play the game,

 only 5% disagreed that this game helped them

to learn better, and for example

 64% thought the game saved their learning

time (27% felt neutral).

5 DISCUSSION

As was mentioned in Section 2 there are already

some educational games oriented to the Solar system

concepts but research studies were only performed

in one of them and only mainly from usability point

of view and on very small student sample (Peña and

Tobias, 2014). Our goal was to analyse developed

game from usability, motivation and knowledge

acquisition point of view and show its benefits.

The Final Frontier game was developed to be

easily played, understood and learned to play.

Analysis of questionnaire results confirmed these

aspects of the game and showed that it is one of the

key characteristics leading to successful learning

process. Complex games with difficult control and

low quality graphics can negatively influence

learners’ motivation (to play/learn), playfulness (to

have fun) and learning experience and reception

(Ranka et al., 2018). Standard hardware and

software requirements of the game also simplify its

deployment in the educational process and students

enjoy learning in a computer room.

By comparing pedagogical approaches: standard

teacher-based and game-based (using our game) for

Solar system subject the analysis of knowledge test

results showed a statistically significant increase in

the knowledge gain in both approaches and

confirmed that learning based on our game can

provide comparable knowledge acquisition. We

assume that the game benefits from a balance

between amount of textual information and

information transformed into visual and motional

experiences. It also helps learners to understand and

imagine abstract concepts (Zhao et al., 2018).

After the learning process, we also discussed

with some learners from the experimental group to

hear and evaluate their experiences and feelings.

Some students think that they learned more using

our game, they liked the game and they would prefer

to have more subjects available in this way. On the

other hand, two students (girls) would prefer (more)

the classical approach with teachers because they

missed a direct contact with a teacher. Some

students would like to combine both approaches

together, i.e. the game with interactivity with teacher

answering questions and explaining other facts.

CSEDU 2019 - 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

470

Figure 5: Distribution of the learners answer for the questionnaires.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The research paper investigates the impact of game-

based learning on students’ knowledge acquisition

level. An educational video game about the Solar

system (Final Frontier) was developed and used

within NEWTON project. The learning process

consisted of two sessions that were assessed

separately. Two classes consisting of 44 children

(12-13 years old) from primary school took part in

this pilot testing. The sample consisted of 44

learners (12-13 years old). In order to evaluate and

compare results, one class was taught using this

game (experimental group) and other one used a

classical approach (control group), i.e. a teacher with

PowerPoint presentation. The evaluation process

was based on knowledge pre- and post-tests.

Evaluation results for the first lesson showed that

students of the control group achieved higher

average (pre- and post-test) scores than learners of

the experimental group. However, the knowledge

gain was higher for learners of the experimental

group. In the case of the second lesson (gas planets),

learners of the experimental group achieved higher

average post-test scores as well as the knowledge

gain. We can summarize that if all learners (of both

groups) start with the same level of knowledge from

the analysed subject the learning activity using the

Final Frontier game (in comparison to classical

approach) provides the higher knowledge gain

(approximately 4.2% in average) and learners feel

more entertained during learning (study).

Questionnaires showed that most of the learners

liked the Final Frontier game, they considered it

interesting and not boring and it was easy to play it.

This case study demonstrated that game-based

learning can achieve comparable results in terms of

the knowledge gain as classical learning with a

teacher. Games must be easy to control, understand

and learn to use with good picture quality. They

need a balance between amount of textual and non-

textual information. Students need freedom and

problems to solve in them. And they should be easy

to deploy in practise. These aspects greatly improve

learners’ motivation to play and learn via own

experience. It appears (in this level of Slovakia

schools) that combination of classical and game-

based learning is viable solution to improve the

knowledge acquisition but other studies are needed.

Future work will aim to expand the research

study to include a deeper statistical analysis of the

usability, the satisfaction, and the motivation of the

learners through the game. We are also working on a

personalized version of the game in order to address

the problem of learners’ diversity, their difference in

terms of prior knowledge and learning experience.

The game will also be used in schools with children

with special needs in order to evaluate the game

usability and learning outcomes for these children.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is supported by the NEWTON project

(http://www.newtonproject.eu/) funded under the

EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation

programme, Grant Agreement no. 688503.

The Effect of Educational Game on Children Learning Experience in a Slovakian School

471

REFERENCES

Bogusevschi, D., Muntean, C. H., Gorji, N.E., Muntean,

G.-M., 2018a. Earth Course: A Primary School Large-

Scale Pilot on STEM Education. In 10th Annual

International Conference on Education and New

Learning Technologies, Palma de Mallorca, Spain,

Bogusevschi, D., Tal, I., Bratu, M., Gornea, B., Caraman,

D., Ghergulescu, I., Muntean, H. C. & Muntean, G.M.,

2018b. Water Cycle in Nature: Small-Scale STEM

Education Pilot. In AACE EDMEDIA+ World

Conference on Educational Media and Technology,

Amsterdam, Netherlands, pp. 1496-1505

Bogusevschi, D., Muntean, H. C. and Muntean, G.M.,

2019. Teaching and Learning Physics using 3D

Virtual Learning Environment: A Case Study of

Combined Virtual Reality and Virtual Laboratory in

Secondary School. In AACE 30

Annual Conference

of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher

Education, Las Vegas, USA, March

Bradford, M., Muntean, H. C., and Pathak, P., 2014. An

analysis of flip-classroom pedagogy in first year

undergraduate mathematics for computing. In IEEE

Frontiers in Education Conference, Spain, pp.1-5.

Chis, A.E., Moldovan, A.N., Murphy, L., Pathak, P. and

Muntean, C.H., 2018. Investigating Flipped Classroom

and Problem-based Learning in a Programming

Module for Computing Conversion Course.

Educational Technology & Society, 21(4), pp. 232-247

El Mawas, N., Ghergulescu, I., Moldovan, A.-N.,

Muntean, C. H., 2018a. Pedagogical based Learner

Model Characteristics. In IICE'18, Ireland Int. Conf.

on Education, Dublin, Ireland.

El Mawas, N., Tal, I., Moldovan, A. N., Bogusevschi, D.,

Andrews, J., Muntean, G.-M. and Muntean, C. H.,

2018b. Final Frontier Game: A Case Study on Learner

Experience. In CSEDU'18. 10th Int. Conf. on Comp.

Supported Education. vol. 2, pp. 122–129.

El Mawas, N., Bradford, M., Andrews, J., Pathak, P. and

Muntean, C.H., 2018c. A Case Study on 21st Century

Skills Development Through a Computer Based Maths

Game. In AACE EDMEDIA+ Innovative Learning:

World Conference on Educational Media and

Technology, Amsterdam, Netherlands, pp. 1160-1169.

Ghergulescu, I., Bogusevschi, D., Moldovan, A.N.,

Muntean, C. M., Muntean, G.M., 2018a. Innovative

Pedagogies for Effective Technology-Enhanced

Learning, In IICE'18, Ireland Int. Conf. on Education -

IPETeL Workshop, Dublin, Ireland

Ghergulescu, I., Lynch, T., Bratu, M., Moldovan, A.,

Muntean, C. H., Muntean, G.-M., 2018b. STEM

Education With Atomic Structure Virtual Lab For

Learners With Special Education Needs, In

EduLearn'18, Int. Conf. on Education and New

Learning Technologies, Mallorca, Spain,

Majgaard, G., Larsen, L. J., Lyk, P., and Lyk, M., 2017.

Seeing the Unseen—Spatial Visualization of the Solar

System with Physical Prototypes and Augmented

Reality. In Int. Journal of Designs for Learning, 8(2).

Moldovan, A. N., and Muntean, C. H., 2017. QoE-aware

Video Resolution Thresholds Computation for

Adaptive Multimedia. IEEE Int. Symp. on Broadband

Multim. Syst. and Broadc., Cagliari, Italy, pp. 1-6

Moldovan, A.-N., Ghergulescu, I., and Muntean, C. H.,

2016. VQAMap: A novel mechanism for mapping

objective video quality metrics to subjective MOS

scale. In IEEE Trans. on Broadcasting, 62(3), 610-627

Muntean C.H, Andrews, J. and Muntean, G.-M, 2017.

Final Frontier: An Educational Game on Solar System

Concepts Acquisition for Primary Schools. In

ICALT'17, 17th IEEE Int. Conference on Advanced

Learning Technologies, Timisoara, Romania

Muntean, C.H., El Mawas, N., Bradford, M., and Pathak,

P., 2018. Investigating the impact of an immersive

computer-based math game on the learning process of

undergraduate students. In FIE'18, 48th IEEE Annual

Frontiers in Education Conf., San Jose, CA, pp. 1-7

Chakraborty, A., 2015. Odyssey: an interactive simulation

to learn concepts of the solar system, In 7th

International Conf. on HCI, India, 2015, pp. 133–136.

Peña, J. G. V., and Tobias, G. P. A. R., 2014. Space Rift:

An Oculus Rift Solar System Exploration Game.

Philippine Information Tech. Journal, 7(1), pp. 55–60.

Papadakis, S., 2018. The use of computer games in

classroom environment. In International Journal of

Teaching and Case Studies, 9(1), 1-25.

Papadakis, S., and Kalogiannakis, M., 2017. Using

gamification for supporting an introductory

programming course. the case of classcraft in a

secondary education classroom. In Interactivity, Game

Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation. pp. 366-

375. Springer, Cham.

Patricio, J. M., Costa, M. C., Carranca, J. A., and Farropo,

B., 2018. SolarSystemGO - An augmented reality

based game with astronomical concepts. In CISTI'18,

13th Iberian Conf. on Inform. Syst. and Tech., pp. 1-3.

Ranka, A., Joseph, C. S., Kotian, A. M., and Kiran, Y. C.,

2018. Space Invaders: An educational game in virtual

reality. In SPACE, 5(06).

Zhao, D., Chis, A. E., Muntean, G. M., Muntean, C. H.,

2018. A Large-Scale Pilot Study on Game-Based

Learning and Blended Learning Methodologies in

Undergraduate Programming Courses, In

EduLearn’18, Int. Conf. on Education and New

Learning Tech., Mallorca, Spain

Zhao, D., Muntean, C. H. and Muntean, G.-M., 2019. The

Restaurant GAME: A NEWTON Project Serious

Game for C Programming Course, AACE 30th Annual

conference of the Society for Information Technology

and Teacher Education, Las Vegas, USA.

CSEDU 2019 - 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

472