Students as developers of educational tools - What educational challenges do they address and which learning approaches do they implement?

Abstract

Although game development students typically lack a formal pedagogical education, they have clear opinions and concrete ideas on improving higher education learning practice. In Excited, the Centre for Excellent IT Education, game development students were invited to pitch ideas of educational tools to improve higher education. Then, some of the student teams were offered summer jobs to implement the ideas. The study has investigated their products, and through an explorative qualitative artifact analysis, a sample of 6 student-created educational tools have been analyzed. The thematic analysis answered the following research questions; 1) What educational challenges do the students address when creating tools to improve higher education? 2) What learning approaches do students implement when they develop educational tools? The findings show that the student-created educational tools address both soft and hard skills, and exemplifies a complex learning reality for students with a necessity of learning both industry-relevant technologies, and also addressing the necessity of learning soft skills like team management. The findings also reveal a wide variation in the complexity of the educational challenges students address, evident in the scope and depth of the learning objectives embedded within the tools, including vocabulary acquisition and understanding simple commands as well as simulating intricate processes navigating a multifaceted environment. Concerning learning approaches, the analysis shows that the students have implemented tools focusing on content creation, process management, exploration, competition, collaboration, articulation and communication. The study shows how student involvement can be implemented through a role as developers of learning tools, not only as information providers, actors, experts, and partners.