Investigating the Impact of an Immersive Computer-based Math Game on the Learning Process of Undergraduate Students

Although Mathematics is a fundamental subject for many STEM related areas, undergraduate students find Mathematics a challenging and difficult subject, and they face difficulties in developing logical thinking and problem solving skills. This research-to-practice paper introduces Count With Me, a novel immersive computer-based educational game that teaches counting principles. The paper analyses and discusses the impact of the game on the learning process and knowledge gain. Twenty-four 1^st year undergraduate students took part in the case study. Knowledge tests were employed before and after the students interacted with the educational game. Although addition, multiplication, factorial, and permutation topics were already studied by the students in the high school, the pre-test results showed that some students face difficulties with these topics. The post test results analysis showed a statistically significant knowledge improvement and a high student engagement in playing the game and learning about the Mathematics concepts.