This study aims to design an alternative reality educational game to promote learners' understanding of the cultural and historical knowledge of a small town in Taiwan, Puzi. In this game, the learner has to take an old man who has returned home from a distant land to search for the places he remembers in this town seventy years ago, and collect clues of historical knowledge in each place to accomplish the task of the old man's search for his young girlfriend. The game uses Google Form for storytelling and allows learners to control the story by selecting different options. The game applied GPS technology, and learners need to physically walk to specific locations in the town in order to use their cell phones to solve the puzzles presented in VR. These puzzles are related to the historical and cultural knowledge of the town. Players can deepen their understanding of the cultural sites through observation in the actual site, peer discussion, and online research. The preliminary study was conducted with 23 participants from Taiwan.
A single-group posttest design was used. The results of the study showed that the participants' mean scores for flow, game elements, and game acceptance were significantly higher than the median of the scale (i.e., 3). Preliminary findings showed that the mechanism designed in this study was easy to operate and could enhance the flow of the learners, and the learners indicated that it was helpful for them to recognize the history and culture of the local town.

Authors:
Chih-Chung Chien, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Pei-Ching Ngu, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Chih-Chen Kuo, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Hau-An Yu, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Huei-Tse Hou, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Huei-Tse Hou is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taiwan

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/huei-tse-hou-0672a927/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Huei-Tse-Hou

Additional website of interest
https://sites.google.com/view/hthou-en

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