How Digital Scaffolds in
Educational Games
Affect Learning and Motivation
Sha Yang, Brian T. Berndt, Dr. William Watson
Learning, Design & Technology
Purdue University
Purpose
This study examines whether full and
limited digital scaffolds in an educational
computer game affect players’ learning
outcome and motivation for the topic
differently.
 This study will have implications for the
design of digital scaffolds in educational
video games.
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Introduction

The literature on the use of scaffolds for
learning is significant; however, there
remains a scarcity of literature on
scaffolds in the use of digital games for
instruction, and particularly on built-in
scaffolds in educational games.
Research Question

With digital game-based learning, how do
learning outcomes and motivation
compare between learners who play an
educational computer game with limited
scaffolds and those who play the game
with full scaffolds?
Participants
Forty-seven undergraduates (46 Caucasian
and 1 Asian)
 Forty-six of them with no prior knowledge of
Japanese shown by pretest.

Materials
Game
An educational computer game was
developed to help players learn the basic
Japanese characters known as hiragana.
 Scaffolds

Version A (Full scaffolds): Romaji on Cards, Hover Hints,
Recommended Match
Version B (Limited scaffolds): Color Hints, Hiragana Table,
Recommended Match
Romaji on Cards (Full Scaffolds)
Color Hints (Limited Scaffolds)
Turn off Scaffolds
Pre- and post-motivation questionnaire
 Pre- and post knowledge test
 Game profile tracking achievements and
what scaffolding they used.
 Individual interviews

Procedure
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Participants were randomly and equally divided into two groups.
Participants filled in a pre-intervention questionnaire on their
knowledge of Japanese and their motivation for learning Japanese.
Half of the students played Version A of the game and the other half
played Version B.
After they played for twenty minutes, we suggested them to try to
turn off the English underneath each card in the game, or to switch
to intermediate mode, but they did not have to.
Participants played the game for 40 minutes in all.
Participants filled in a post-intervention questionnaire on their
knowledge of Japanese and their motivation for learning Japanese.
Five participants were selected for 15-minute individual interview
two weeks later.
Analysis
Is time
significant ?
Motivation
Attention
Relevance
Confidence
Satisfaction
Learning
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Is the type of
scaffolds
significant ?
No
No
No
No
No
No
Results
Both groups’ motivation decreased after playing the
game. Full scaffolds are not significantly different from
limited scaffolds in affecting learners’ motivation.
 The group using limited scaffolds had slightly higher
motivation than the group using full scaffolds.
 Two groups’ learning outcomes improve after playing
the game. Full scaffolds are not significantly different
from limited scaffolds in improving learners’ learning
outcome.
 Learners’ performance was not highly correlated to
their scores in the posttest.

Discussion
No prior knowledge of Japanese results in
frustration and motivational decrease.
 Whether scaffolds facilitate learning
depends on how the scaffolds are used.

- Some learners did not use scaffolds all the time
and tried to learn the language.
- Some learners used scaffolds all the time to win
the game rather than trying to LEARN something.
References
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