Wolmet Barendregt

Institution/Department: Department of Applied information Technology
Previous studies: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Thesis: Evaluating fun and usability in computer games for children.
Research areas: Usability evaluation, computer games, serious games
Current research: The last few years, researchers, educators, and game designers have expressed a growing awareness of the educational potential of computer games. Computer games could make it possible for learners to be ­intrinsically motivated to learn. However, it is also generally agreed that ­designing educational computer games is a difficult task. Many educational games have fallen in the negatively associated category ‘edutainment’, a commercial product that is neither entertaining nor educative. 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 different working processes in real company settings. Furthermore, I critically examine different serious games to determine whether they are successful or not, and analyse why and how that has happened. A result of this research could be a first description of a common language for educational game design that helps to professionalize this discipline.

E-mail address: wolmet@ituniv.se