Redesigning Education Using Serious Games

Technology is included in most educational environments. Gamification in education is experiencing a new era of application. We apply serious games either for learning or to redesign the teaching process. It is well documented that students attending online courses have greater engagement in the learning process when they use games during the learning process. So, in online courses, addressed to university students, many web applications use online games nowadays. Additionally, in online courses, self-regulated learning is considered an important constraint for learning by many researchers. Apart from that, another issue that is worth considering in an online learning process, is the correlation of self-regulated learning with the ability of self-assessment using gamification. Since the introduction of online learning in the universities during and soon after COVID-19 pandemic, the Lab of New Technologies, and Distance Learning of the University of Ioannina in cooperation with other higher educational Institutes, created MOOCs to support online courses concerning the Applications ICTs in education and entrepreneurship. In this audit study, a self-selected group of students participated in online learning activities for the course ‘Applications of ICT.‘ Students were highly motivated by the course, and they completed the course assignments in due time. All students reported that they had self-regulation ability, and they improved their learning experience using online serious games for self-assessment. To test their self-assessment ability, we applied the ‘Classcraft’ online game ( https://www.classcraft.com/ ). This game creates learning pathways and supports personalized learning. Additionally, it enhances online learning and offers an innovative way for the self-assessment process.