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Correlations Between Video Games And Academic Achievement?
mozzer asks: "I'm doing an independent study course in university, and I'm writing an article on video games and academics - basically seeing if there's a correlation between the two. My prof suggested I take a sample of upper year, business strategy students, and see how well they fair at a strategy game (like Starcraft) and then compare how well they do in the game, to how well they did in the class. The question I'd like to ask is: What game do you think would be good to use? I'm afraid people might already know how to play Starcraft, which will skew the results (considering it has a fairly steep learning curve for new players). Or if there are any other ways we could test this sort of thing?"
Might want to try something with a faster learning curve, and maybe something a little bit more general. Simcity maybe? Tetris would be a great example I think, but you might have problems finding people who've never played it before.
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-Crypthanatopsis
-Crypthanatopsis
I highly recommend freeciv for this one. It's got all the strategic elements of starcraft (and then some) and it will allow more actual planning rather than quick reflexes as starcraft requires. There are more dimensions to measure too, such as what successful academics spend their time researching, building, or planning in the game(i.e. what they value in the mock civilization could reflect what they value in the real civilizaion.) Plus, as the name says, the game's free :-)
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
I'm working on a games review site - Meltdown Gaming - (yes, that was a plug), and of the games we've been reviewing, I'd think something more along the lines of Airport Tycoon or maybe Stardock's The Corporate Machine excellent business sim would be more along the lines to judge dollars and sense.
:)
Or, just put them out on the streets, with a copy of Dope Wars. (for Win95, now! whoo!)
For even more fun, pit the CS students against the business majors - have one semester's class project be to write a business sim the next semester's class has to successfully complette in order to pass... *evil grin*
Or even better - have them attempt to start thier own successful dotcom...or is that already an accepted practice?
Yert
Truck driver, plumber, Linux systems engineer.
Also, how are you going to get serious students to waste time learning a difficult game (you can't eliminate them without skewing the data)? I'm not familiar with the game but a "fairly steep learning curve" doesn't sound promising, and if they just spend a small amount of time learning the basics, it doesn't necessarily indicate how well they would do as experienced players.
Finally, they may have little interest in the game to begin with, which can seriously impact how well they do, regardless of their inherent ability to do well at it.
Overall, you have a tough job ahead, if you want results that have any real meaning.
Forgot, The Incredible Machine might be a decent test of intellectual abilities. Plus it's not as well-known as Tetris so you might have a large pool of people who've never played it.
Of course, for pure problem-solving, there's always Infocom...
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No, no, have them play Starcraft. Have them play it every day for two straight days, with only a four-hour break for sleep. Then, on the day of their final, have them play Starcraft instead of showing up.
That's what I did, and it had a *very* definite corellative effect on my grades.
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
My best guess is that video games do not significantly improve most college students' grades. Let's take a sample question from a hypothetical test:
(20 points) Cite evidence that ancient Egyptian society was composed of Africans rather than Caucasians, and explain the impact of this anthropological theory.
Now, let's do a sample experiment. Play Starcraft for three hours. Then, write an essay on the aforementioned question. See how you do.
Perhaps, though, you want to know whether studying for school improves one's ability to play video games.
Let's do another sample experiment. Play ten games of Pac Man. Then, spend three hours studying ancient Egyptian culture. When you're finished, play another game of Pac Man and see if your score is any higher.
I haven't done these experiments, but my hypothesis is that the two are probably so closely linked that every second you spend thinking about whether the Sphinx is a black man will raise your score at least 20,000 points.
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
i se alot of psots about the corlletation of plaeing a lot of videyo gamze and doing poorly in youer studies.
as an englash major, i play alot of videyo gamze and i donot theenk they have hurt my studees one bit. as a mattar of fact, i theenk i have a signigifant advantege ovar my peers, beeng that i haev larned how to commnucitate in the infarmashun age (i no computars are the next big thing).
har har all of yuo hoo skoff at me. i will shooot yuo wiht a rale gun.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
X-Com is a good turn-based strategy game, it wasn't too popular when it came out (c. 1994?) but it was _very good_. You had to direct the actions of a team of scientists, police, firemen, and military personell to contain and cover up an alien invasion...
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Play Six Pack Man. I
If you want to run an experiment, you don't want something with *more* dimensions! You want something with one, or two, at most!
Maybe something like Tetris, which has two dimensions; critical thinking, and reflexes.
Or something like Solitaire, which involves planning and resource management.
Try simple games, like Pacman, etc.
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