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Motivational effects during a simulated educational game should be studied because a general concern of lecturers is motivating students and increasing their knowledge. Given advances in internet technology, traditional short in-class games are being substituted with long web-based games. To maximize the benefits of web-based simulation games, a game should instill intrinsic motivation in students and encourage them to adopt deep-learning strategies. We have conducted a quasi-experimental study of 53 students, divided into game and no-game groups, as part of an operations management course. During the course, the game group played a web-based simulation game lasting 7 days; the no-game group did not play this game at all. The findings revealed that students who played the game experienced a deeper level of learning. However, students who did not play the game felt more competent and exerted greater efforts. These results are useful for challenging the assumed benefits of educational games at motivating students. Furthermore, our findings open up opportunities for finding more factors that affect the motivation and behavior of individual students.

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert