The effects of participation, performance, and interest in a game-based writing environment

We have observed that many computer-supported writing environments based on pedagogical strategies have only been designed to incorporate the cognitive aspects, but motivational aspects should also be included. Hence, we theorize that integrating game-based learning into the writing environment may be a practical approach that can facilitate student participation, not only helping students learn how to write, but also sustaining their willingness to write. In this study, we investigate the effects of the game-based writing environment on improving students' participation, performance, and interest in writing. An experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of 2 approaches to writing in language arts at an elementary school. Two hundred forty-five third grade students participated in the experiment over a period of 1 year. One hundred thirty-nine students were assigned to an experimental group and learned with a game-based writing environment, and 106 students were in the contrast group and learned with an online writing environment. The empirical results show that the game-based writing environment can effectively promote students' writing participation, writing performance, interest in writing, as well as their perceptions of the use of educational self-management games. Some implications of the experimental results are also discussed.