Pervasive Learning--Using Games to Tear down the Classroom Walls

Pervasive gaming is a new and emerging gaming genre where the physical and social aspects of the real world are integrated into the game and blends into the player's everyday life. Given the nature of pervasive games, it may be possible to use that type of game as a tool to support learning in a university course by providing a gameplay where the students, by playing the game, expands the area of learning beyond the lecture hall and lectures and into the students everyday life. If this is possible, the area for learning will also become pervasive and be everywhere and anywhere at any time. To address this research area, a prototype of a playable pervasive game to support learning in university studies has been designed. This paper presents the experimental pervasive game "Nuclear Mayhem" and how the game was designed to be pervasive and support the curriculum of the course. Analysis of log files showed that 87% of the logins in the game client was done outside of the time period that was allocated to lectures and lab exercises and that logins where registered in all the 24 hours of a day. These numbers indicate that the game became pervasive and a part of the students/players everyday life. Interviews with the players indicate that they found the game exciting and fun to play, but that the academic tasks and riddles that they had to solve during the game were too easy to solve. The paper concludes that games such as "Nuclear Mayhem" are promising tools to support learning and transform the area for learning to become pervasive relative to the players everyday life and suggest improvements in the game for the next versions.