Evaluating the Impact of Serious Games on Study Skills and Habits

A study of 34 first-year computer science students examined whether study skills and habits relate to engagement with a competitive peer-quizzing serious game featuring leaderboards. Across two analyses, the investigation found a moderate-to-strong overall correlation between study skills and game activity (R = 0.739), yet the regression models did not reach statistical significance. In the first analysis the model explained only about 21 percent of variance after adjustment (p = 0.158), and no individual predictor cleared the 0.05 threshold, though academic stress came closest (p = 0.073). In the second analysis, examining time management, concentration, goal setting, comprehension, attitude, and academic stress as predictors of questions created, the overall model was again non-significant (ANOVA p = 0.279, adjusted R² = 0.121). Goal setting emerged as the sole individually significant predictor (p = 0.016, coefficient 2.15).

The authors attribute the largely inconclusive results primarily to sample size. With 34 participants, the study falls below the 40 to 60 participants generally recommended for the number of model terms included, which limits statistical power and the reliability of the estimates. The findings therefore suggest a promising but unconfirmed link between goal-setting behavior and engagement with peer-based serious games, rather than establishing a definitive effect.

The document's closing section consists of bibliographic references rather than original findings. These sources span study habits and academic achievement, gamification and psychological need satisfaction, the potential negative effects of gamification in education, game-based learning, and personalized mobile learning systems. Together they frame the broader literature in which the study is situated, while the empirical contribution rests on the two regression analyses, which point toward the need for larger samples to draw firm conclusions about serious games and study skills.