Designing and using an on-line game to teach engineering

We have developed an on-line game, built around a simple simulator, as an innovative approach to mitigate the time and budget constraints that hinder the development of engineering expertise within a typical one-semester course. Students playing the game, as an alternative to calculation-based homework sets, develop a rich empirical understanding of the engineering principles of interest. A variety of gaming features such as real-life role-playing, competition, and graphically amplified results transform a Matlab-based simulator from being merely a sophisticated calculator into a learning tool that motivates exploration and provides rapid meaningful feedback to real-life engineering design challenges. As with many engineering projects, solutions are obtained by adjusting a variety of interrelated parameters within a set of physical constraints to satisfy a threshold condition. A comparison of a player's solution to an optimal solution provides a quantitative mechanism through which feedback can be easily provided, a competitive factor for either personal accomplishment or group bragging rights, and motivation to pursue the optimal solution. Decisions required during the game engage learning at the advanced level of comparisons and analyses. A digital record of the students' interaction with the game enables an innovative mechanism for learning assessment.