Wolmet Barendregt

The last few years, researchers and educators, as well as game designers have expressed a growing awareness of the educational potential of computer games. However, it is also generally agreed that designing successful educational computer games is a difficult task often resulting in games that either lack the educational potential or are no fun to play. People with different backgrounds, such as engineers, designers, academics, and pedagogues have to work together to develop successful educational games.

The aim of my research is to gain inside knowledge about how the educational gaming industry tries to overcome these difficulties, by observing the design process in real company settings, as well as evaluating the end results of these processes and how they are received by players and educationalists. Furthermore, I am interested in the different ways these games can be used in the classroom situation.