Learning the cell cycle with a game: Virtual experiments in cell biology

Cell Cycle Learn (CCL) is a learning game designed for undergraduate students in Biology to learn common knowledge about the cell-division cycle along with practical skills related with setting up an experiment and the scientific method in general. In CCL, learners are guided through the process of formulating hypotheses, conducting virtual experiments and analysing the results in order to validate or invalidate the hypotheses. The game has been designed in the University of Toulouse and introduced last year as part of the curriculum of a cellular biology class. This paper presents early results of an evaluation of the game enabled by questionnaires filled by the participants and game data collected during the training sessions. The results demonstrate with examples that both types of data can be used to assess the game's utility.