Video Game-Based Education in Mechanical Engineering: A Look at Student Engagement*

Abstract

One of the core courses in the undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum has been completely redesigned. In the new numerical methods course, all assignments and learning experiences are built around a video/computer game. Students are given the task of writing computer programs to race a simulated car around a track. In doing so, students learn and implement numerical methods content. The paper describes a preliminary study to measure student engagement. Results show that students ‘playing ’ the video game in their homework are significantly more engaged than when working on homework in other engineering courses.