Research report

December 2004
Richard Sandford and Ben Williamson, Futurelab

The full version of this report is available to download in pdf format - see box below. On this page you'll find the report's executive summary.

Executive summary

Racing Academy is a prototype for a massively multiplayer online (MMO) engineering and racing car simulation. Based on the most realistic vehicle physics and surface simulation yet developed, it gives players the capacity to manipulate the set-up of vehicles, and then to race them against an AI driver. In the prototype, Racing Academy was played as a standalone game, with a bespoke online messageboard providing players with opportunities to discuss their performance and to share advice about playing the game.

Racing Academy arrives to coincide with a recent curricular drive to re-establish the importance of engineering in school. The new GCSE engineering award and the award of specialist Engineering College status indicates the current initiative which seeks to combine D&T, maths and science to provide a multidisciplinary syllabus focused on providing vocational qualifications as well as the foundation for post-16 study. Further, a number of initiatives based around mechanical engineering have been established across the country, including those under the recently re-launched apprenticeship scheme, community-based initiatives, and a post-16 BTEC motor vehicle engineering programme.

Growing recognition of the educational potential of computer games also suggests that we need to pay attention to the kinds of learning that may be occurring when young people play. Particularly, research has identified how young people exchange knowledge about games and share with others the techniques to play them. Some research on MMO games also suggests that these are unique learning spaces in which young people are engaged in informal, peer-to-peer learning activities. Racing Academy aims to capture these understandings of computer games and put them to more explicitly educational use.

The prototype was trialled with two Year 10 groups at two secondary schools in Bristol. In total, 40 students played the game. One group was an engineering GCSE class, the other a GCSE science class. Each group completed a questionnaire about computer use, interest in video games and interest in cars/racing; they played the game twice; completed a questionnaire about their experience of the game; and four students were interviewed on DV tape about their experience of the game. While playing the game, two students from each group were recorded on DV tape, and transcripts from the messageboard were captured.

The learning research on Racing Academy has revealed that:

Many of the sample found the game engaging, challenging, and rewarding. Many of them clearly found the game tough at first, with comments on the messageboard reflecting this: "can any1 beat dis game", and "gears are rock to sort out" were typically vernacular responses. In the post-play questionnaire and interview responses, however, many of the students felt that the level of challenge was about right; that it was hard but fun, and that to make it easier would make it less interesting. The level of challenge in this prototype, it seems, then, is pitched at the right level.

Many players were observed repeatedly trying out alternative options and re-playing races until they could beat the AI driver. This trial-and-error approach often yielded success in the game, but it was clear that some students got 'stuck'. Particularly at the Monks Park site, this led to a lot of spoken chat and demonstration between players, indicating the value of having players co-located, as well as available online, to help each other.

Most students were able to use the messageboard, and understood the reasons for its inclusion. There were a number of problems associated with this aspect of the experience, however: notably, that players needed to tab between the game and the messageboard, often meaning that they would go long periods without seeing it; and LEA firewall security at the schools prevented player profiles from updating to the boards.

Most students exchanged knowledge about the game using the messageboards, including informing others about best engine, tyre and gear ratio choices. Most of the communication on the boards took the form of direct query and response, with no more in-depth discussions about the reasons why some car set-up selections were better than others. Other forms of communication included bragging ("i won i am da best"), statements of intent ("boys its just we gunna win"), and direct instruction ("oi av the 2.6 rotary its fast n I win").

Very few students used the messageboard extensively. A common complaint from those who initially thought it a useful addition to the game was that very few others were posting any messages at all. Some students claimed that they did not use it much as they preferred just to play the game. Informal comments from some students, however, revealed that they might have preferred a facility such as Instant Messenger, which would have prevented them from having to open the messageboard browser separately to the game. Clearly any future iteration of Racing Academy intended for online use would need to integrate the chat functionality with the game as a single application.

By playing the game, many of the students were clearly beginning to grasp some of the engineering and mechanical principles upon which it is built. After playing, students talked together about aspects of the game such as wheelspin and friction, about what gear ratios are, and about how aspects of the game would translate on to the actual experience of driving a vehicle. In this respect, they were beginning to use and to consider understandings about engineering principles that had been revealed to them through the game itself.

The research identified some of the aspects present that would be expected in the early stages of the formation of a community of practice. The game appears sufficiently engaging and challenging as a game in itself, and for some of the students the messageboard functionality, and the capacity it provided to access the expertise of their peers, supported their play.

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