Integration of Educational Games in Synchronous Virtual Classroom

Abstract

Higher Education could be seen as an ideal field for the development and wide use of modern technologies and pedagogical methods of cooperative and Web-based education. Many students today are digital natives and thus game-based learning is becoming increasingly popular and highly motivating because of their ability to use computers effectively. The aim of this chapter is to describe the integration of an educational multiplayer game in the context of a synchronous virtual classroom. In particular, what follows is the proposed design and implementation of an instructive intervention whereby many different technological tools are combined simultaneously (LMS, synchronous virtual classroom, and a Web-based Educational Game) in order to support the educational process of the course “Algorithm with C” in the Department of Applied Informatics of University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece. Furthermore, there is a presentation of the pedagogical and technological framework of the educational proposal that combines methods and techniques of network supported learning and places great emphasis on learning by playing.