2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Game-based learning has been widely studied and shown to be effective at increasing student engagement and retention in K-12 and college education. However, most studies at the college level, especially in STEM fields, have involved digital games, like videogames or computer simulations, not tabletop board games. Though digital games are undoubtedly more detailed and realistic, they are also much more difficult to set up and run, take longer for the students to learn to use, and do not lead to the same quality face-to-face interactions that are a feature of board games. This study examines whether a simple board game affects engagement and retention in the same way as a more detailed digital games. A simple board game, Markopoly, was developed to demonstrate the concepts of discrete-time Markov chains (DTMCs). Students in a required junior-level course, Probabilistic Operations Research, played Markopoly in class, performed analysis using DTMCs, and completed a survey to measure their level of engagement and interest in the game. Those survey results were analyzed in conjunction with their grades on the DTMC question on the final exam, to determine if their level of engagement in the game was correlated with better grades. Finally, their responses to that final exam question was compared to those from a previous administration of the class, to determine if the game affected their retention of the material. It was found that the students’ engagement in the game had a significant positive correlation with their grades on the final exam. The average score on that question was higher than last year, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, the initial results are promising, and more administrations of the course should yield more data about the value of Markopoly, and board games in general.