Research method as learning method – students’ and teacher’s perspectives

Research full paper: The Norwegian government encourages higher education institutions to improve education when it comes to active learning, and in their programme for student-active learning, involving students in research is one of the specified areas of interest. This project is an action research approach to improve research-like learning methods in a higher education course. The paper presents experiences from using a research method as a learning method, more specifically using a systematic literature review to learn about the research method game analysis. The findings show that the students are active and engaged when using a research method as a learning method, but that the learning outcome is rather on the learning method than the primary learning objective. A systematic literature review also works as a learning method because it is well-defined with specified steps of action, which works as scaffolding in a learning process. The teachers' role is important when involving students in parts of a research process, and it is important to consider which stages of the research process the teacher should prepare and in which stages to involve the students. The study also revealed that there is a need for a better definition of game analysis as a research method, with clearly defined "how to"-guidelines for inexperienced researchers and students doing a bachelor project or master project, which can allow inexperienced game development students to also use game analysis as a research method.