Accident Analysis and Prevention 65 (2014) 8–10
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Accident Analysis and Prevention journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aap
Improving drivers’ knowledge of road rules using digital games Qing Li a , Richard Tay b,∗ a b
Department of Educational Technology & Literacy, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252, USA Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 17 October 2013 Received in revised form 2 December 2013 Accepted 7 December 2013 Keywords: Road safety Digital games Road rules Driver education
a b s t r a c t Although a proficient knowledge of the road rules is important to safe driving, many drivers do not retain the knowledge acquired after they have obtained their licenses. Hence, more innovative and appealing methods are needed to improve drivers’ knowledge of the road rules. This study examines the effect of game based learning on drivers’ knowledge acquisition and retention. We find that playing an entertaining game that is designed to impart knowledge of the road rules not only improves players’ knowledge but also helps them retain such knowledge. Hence, learning by gaming appears to be a promising learning approach for driver education. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Although the factors contributing to crashes would be numerous and complex, driver behavior have been widely accepted as one of the major factors in over 90% of the crashes (Treat et al., 1979; Evans, 2004). Moreover, Parker et al. (1995) posited that one of the main causes of traffic accidents was drivers’ violation of the road rules, and unsafe driving behaviors were significantly correlated with traffic collisions. Confirming the importance of driver knowledge of road rules, Wolming and Wiberg (2004) examined the tests scores of 1780 Swedish drivers and found a small but statistically significant correlation between drivers’ scores on the knowledge and on-road driving tests. Despite its importance, Tay (2010) found that only 11.4% of 2394 Albertan drivers who had taken a practice road rule test, performed well enough to pass (mean = 21.4; passing mark = 25). This finding suggested that the current pre-licensing learning tended to focus mainly on passing the written test and this type of learning implied that the knowledge would be kept mainly in the short term memory. The conventional method used, in North America for example, to acquire this knowledge would be to read the Driver’s Handbook published by the government. This approach would not be attractive to younger drivers in acquiring this essential knowledge. Also, it would not be an attractive method to most drivers as a way to refresh their knowledge after they had obtained their drivers’ license.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9479 1267; fax: +61 3 9479 3283. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Q. Li), [email protected], [email protected] (R. Tay). 0001-4575/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.12.003
Hence, more innovative and effective approaches to teaching, refreshing and retaining road safety rules are needed. One promising approach in today’s digital environment is the use of gaming. Learning by gaming has been found to be an attractive and effective learning approach (Vogel et al., 2006; Annetta et al., 2009; Li, 2010; Li et al., 2010; Sitzmann, 2011). However, this new learning method has only been applied to help children acquire basic safety knowledge (Zeedyk et al., 2001; Zeedyk and Wallace, 2003), and has yet to be applied to adult driver education. Nevertheless, it has a strong potential not only to help novice drivers learn the road rules and retain this knowledge after passing their driver tests, but also to encourage licensed drivers to update their knowledge. This exploratory study, therefore, aims to examine the effects of game based learning on drivers’ acquisition and retention of road rules knowledge. In addition to contributing to the scientific literature, this research will provide policy makers with valuable information on the need for, and the effectiveness of, game-based learning of road safety principles.
2. Methods 2.1. Research design A before-after or pre- and post-test design was used in this study to determine the effect of playing the road safety game on participants’ knowledge of the road rules. The participants took a pre-test when they signed up for the project. They were then instructed to play the game. After they had completed the game, they took the first post-test. They subsequently took a second post-test six to eight weeks later. The first post-test was given in order to evaluate the immediate effect of the game and to gauge participants’
Q. Li, R. Tay / Accident Analysis and Prevention 65 (2014) 8–10
9
Table 1 Summary statistics of test scores.
Fig. 1. Screenshot of the game used in this study.
knowledge acquisition in the short term. The second post-test was given in order to gauge the participants’ knowledge retention and knowledge acquisition in the medium term. 2.2. The game The game had a graphic novel type setting in which the player followed the story of Jessica and Detective Jones in investigating Jessica’s mother’s car crash. The learning content was packaged in an intriguing story line to induce engagement and immersion as suggested by the Enactivism Theory (Li, 2010; Li et al., 2010). The game was designed to assist players in learning the road rules in Alberta, Canada. Throughout the game, the player had to collect information on road rules and safe driving, and to use them to solve puzzles. It consisted of ten levels that utilized knowledge from the ten chapters in the Alberta Drivers’ Handbook to solve the puzzles. It was hosted on the university’s website1 and took most participants two to three hours to complete the game. In level one, the player moves around the house looking for clues and finds pieces of the mother’s journal with written notes about people (potential suspects), including their licenses and the vehicles they drive. When the player has found the first three clues, he/she will find a door with a combination lock and has to use the clues to open the lock. A screenshot is shown in Fig. 1. A detailed description of the complete game and its development are provided in Li et al. (2012). 2.3. The knowledge tests In accordance with the actual knowledge test administered by Alberta Transportation, each of the tests used in this study consisted of 30 multiple choice items. The test items were modified from the practice tests available on the provincial government’s website. Hence, the question format and level of difficulty remained consistent among the three knowledge tests. All participants took the same set of three tests (pre-test, 1st post-test and 2nd posttest). The tests covered topics on traffic signs, road marking, give way rules, traffic violations (e.g., speeding, drink-driving, etc.), and safe driving behaviors (e.g., changing lanes, entering highway, etc.). 2.4. Participants This study involved 42 participants consisting of 21 males and 21 females. Among them, 34 (16 males and 18 females)
1
http://people.ucalgary.ca/∼qinli/research/game/rs.html.
Time period
Mean
Std. dev.
Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2
21.91 24.41 24.35
5.54 4.36 4.07
participants completed all the tests. Of the 34 participants who completed the tests, 19 were 16–25 years old, 13 were 26–35 years old and two were over 35 years old. Since previous research (Blunt, 2007) indicated that game-based learning was most effective for younger learners (under 41 years old), we recruited participants who were between 16–40 years old. Participants were recruited via flyers posted on notice boards around the university campus. Hence, most of the participants were college students. Since the game was hosted on the web, participants could play it anywhere and at any time although most participants chose to complete it in one sitting in the laboratory or around the campus. Participation is strictly voluntary and participants were offered a $20 gift card upon completion of the tasks assigned. The research plan was approved by the university research ethics committee (Approval 6396). Although the sample size was relatively small, it was large enough for the statistical analyses performed. Tabachnick and Fidell (2013) recommended a minimum sample size 10 + number of dependent variables for multivariate analysis of variance. Also, preliminary analysis found that the power of the test conducted was very high. Moreover, the mean score on the pre-test (M = 21.9) in this sample was very close to the mean test score (M = 21.4) of a very large sample of Albertan drivers (Tay, 2010), suggesting that there was no biased in this important characteristic. Nevertheless, care should be exercised in interpreting the results of this exploratory study. 2.5. Data analysis Since this study utilized a repeated measures approach, a general linear model (GLM) or repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test the within-subjects differences in the test scores over the three time periods. Bonferroni pair-wise comparisons were also conducted to test the significance of the knowledge acquisition (difference in test scores between pre-test and post-test 1) and the knowledge retention (differences in test scores between post-test 1 and post-test 2, and between pre-test and post-test 2). Furthermore, Mauchly’s test was conducted to validate the sphericity assumption and partial eta-square was estimated to check the effect size. Finally, the power of the test was also computed to provide more information on the validity of the tests. These analyses were performed using SPSS version 19. 3. Results The scores on the knowledge tests were summarized and reported in Table 1. The mean test score had increased from 21.91 in the pre-test to 24.41 in post-test 1 but remained almost constant between post-test 1 and post-test 2 (M = 24.35). Estimation results from the GLM rejected the null hypothesis that the mean test scores were the same for all three periods (F = 9.230; p = 0.005), indicating that the main effect of test scores changing over time was statistically significant. Moreover, the estimated power of the test conducted for the main effect was very high (0.902) and the Mauchly’s test did not find any violation of the sphericity assumption (p = 0.563). Finally, the partial Eta-square was estimated at 0.974, indicating that the effect size was quite large.
10
Q. Li, R. Tay / Accident Analysis and Prevention 65 (2014) 8–10
The Bonferroni pairwise comparison showed that the mean test score had increased from pre-test to post-test 1 (p = 0.015), indicating that there was significant knowledge acquisition in the short term. The pair wise comparison also found that the difference in the mean test scores between post-test 1 and post-test 2 was not statistically significant (p > 0.999) but was statistically significant for the difference in the mean test scores between pre-test and post-test 2 (p = 0.014), indicating a very high degree of retention. 4. Discussion Despite the constant media attention, little research has been conducted to examine the effects of video games on drivers’ attitude, knowledge or behavior. Recently, a few studies have emerged that confirmed the detrimental effects of playing car racing games (Beullens et al., 2008; Fischer et al., 2007) on drivers’ attitudes and self-reported risk taking behaviors. On the other hand, no study has been found that examines the effects of games designed to teach safe driving knowledge or behaviors to adult drivers. The few studies conducted thus far, have attempted to teach road safety to children only (Zeedyk and Wallace, 2003; Poulter and McKenna, 2010). This study explores the effects of a digital game designed to teach players some knowledge of the road rules in Alberta, Canada. Contrary to earlier studies on children safety education, we find that gaming improves drivers’ knowledge acquisition as well as retention, with relatively high effect sizes. The results from this study suggest that the game serves an effective educational function. Unlike previous studies on the effects of car racing games on drivers’ attitudes and behaviors, this study utilizes a game designed to teach safe driving knowledge and thus, has the potential to improve road safety. Moreover, unlike conventional approaches to learning the road rules, this innovative study engages players in active problem solving to acquire the knowledge. Our finding is consistent with other game-based learning studies which demonstrate that learning by gaming has a positive effect on cognitive skills and knowledge acquisition (Sitzmann, 2011; Vogel et al., 2006). Also, our study finds a medium term educational effect of gaming as evident in the significant knowledge retained by players, and hence, addresses the problem of traditional driver knowledge education where learners acquire the knowledge only for short-term (Poulter and McKenna, 2010; Tay, 2010). Despite these significant results, this study should be considered as exploratory since it adopted a single group pre-to-post quasiexperimental design without a control group. Future research should add a control group to control for other external influences that might affect the results. Moreover, the sample size was relatively small (34 completed) and focused mainly on young (under 41 years old) participants. Hence, more studies with a larger and more inclusive sample should be conducted before the results could be generalized with a high degree of confidence. Also, it should be noted that increasing safety knowledge might not result in improved safety behavior and further research should be conducted to examine the effect of learning by gaming on drivers’ behaviors.
In conclusion, this exploratory study finds that learning by gaming is an effective method to learn, refresh and retain knowledge of the road rules. By improving drivers’ knowledge of the road rules, learning by gaming has a strong potential to reduce unintentional driver errors and violations. Hence, it represents a promising new approach to improve road safety. Acknowledgment Financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. However, the views and opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the council. The authors thank Chris Appleton for designing the game, and Robert Louis, Yang Liu and Shai Nathoo for their research assistance. References Annetta, L.A., Minogue, J., Holmes, S.Y., Cheng, M.T., 2009. Investigating the impact of video games on high school students’ engagement and learning about genetics. Computers & Education 53 (1), 74–85. Beullens, K., Roe, K., Van den Bulck, J., 2008. Video games and adolescents’ intentions to take risks in traffic. Journal of Adolescent Health 43 (1), 87–90. Blunt, R., 2007. Does Game-Based Learning Work? Results from Three Recent Studies, The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference. Orlando, Florida. Evans, L., 2004. Traffic Safety. Science Serving Society, Bloomfield Hills. Fischer, P., Kubitzki, J., Guter, S., Frey, D., 2007. Virtual driving and risk taking: do racing games increase risk-taking cognitions affect, and behaviors? Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied 13 (1), 22–31. Li, Q., 2010. Digital game building: learning in a participatory culture. Educational Research 52 (4), 427–443. Li, Q., Clark, B., Winchester, I., 2010. Instructional design and technology grounded in enactivism: a paradigm shift? British Journal of Educational Technology 41 (3), 403–419. Li, Q., Tay, R., Louis, R., 2012. Designing digital games to teach road safety: a study of graduate students’ experiences. Loading 6 (9), 17–35. Parker, D., West, R., Stradling, S., Manstead, A.S., 1995. Behavioural characteristics and involvement in different types of traffic accident. Accident Analysis & Prevention 27 (4), 571–581. Poulter, D., McKenna, F., 2010. Evaluating the effectiveness of a road safety education intervention for pre-drivers: an application of the theory of planned behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology 80, 163–181. Sitzmann, T., 2011. A meta-analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness of computer-based simulation games. Personnel Psychology 64 (2), 489–528. Tabachnick, B., Fidell, L., 2013. Using Multivariate Statistics. Pearson Education, Boston. Tay, R., 2010. Alberta Drivers’ Knowledge of the Road Rules. Alberta Motor Association Traffic Safety Foundation, Edmonton, AB. Treat, J., Tumbas, N., McDonald, S., Shinar, D., Hume, R., Mayer, R., Stansifer, R., Catellan, N., 1979. Tri-Level Study of the Causes of Traffic Accidents; Institute for Research in Public Safety. Indiana University. Vogel, J.J., Vogel, D.S., Cannon-Bowers, J., Bowers, C.A., Muse, K., Wright, M., 2006. Computer gaming and interactive simulations for learning: a meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research 34 (3), 229–243. Wolming, S., Wiberg, M., 2004. The Swedish driver licensure examination: an examination of a two stage model. Journal of Safety Research 35, 491–495. Zeedyk, M.S., Wallace, L., 2003. Tackling children’s road safety through edutainment: an evaluation of effectiveness. Health Education Research: Theory & Practice 18 (4), 493–505. Zeedyk, M., Wallace, L., Carcary, B., Jones, K., Larter, K., 2001. Children and road safety: increasing knowledge does not improve behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology 71 (4), 573–594.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Accident Analysis and Prevention journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aap
Improving drivers’ knowledge of road rules using digital games Qing Li a , Richard Tay b,∗ a b
Department of Educational Technology & Literacy, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252, USA Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 17 October 2013 Received in revised form 2 December 2013 Accepted 7 December 2013 Keywords: Road safety Digital games Road rules Driver education
a b s t r a c t Although a proficient knowledge of the road rules is important to safe driving, many drivers do not retain the knowledge acquired after they have obtained their licenses. Hence, more innovative and appealing methods are needed to improve drivers’ knowledge of the road rules. This study examines the effect of game based learning on drivers’ knowledge acquisition and retention. We find that playing an entertaining game that is designed to impart knowledge of the road rules not only improves players’ knowledge but also helps them retain such knowledge. Hence, learning by gaming appears to be a promising learning approach for driver education. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Although the factors contributing to crashes would be numerous and complex, driver behavior have been widely accepted as one of the major factors in over 90% of the crashes (Treat et al., 1979; Evans, 2004). Moreover, Parker et al. (1995) posited that one of the main causes of traffic accidents was drivers’ violation of the road rules, and unsafe driving behaviors were significantly correlated with traffic collisions. Confirming the importance of driver knowledge of road rules, Wolming and Wiberg (2004) examined the tests scores of 1780 Swedish drivers and found a small but statistically significant correlation between drivers’ scores on the knowledge and on-road driving tests. Despite its importance, Tay (2010) found that only 11.4% of 2394 Albertan drivers who had taken a practice road rule test, performed well enough to pass (mean = 21.4; passing mark = 25). This finding suggested that the current pre-licensing learning tended to focus mainly on passing the written test and this type of learning implied that the knowledge would be kept mainly in the short term memory. The conventional method used, in North America for example, to acquire this knowledge would be to read the Driver’s Handbook published by the government. This approach would not be attractive to younger drivers in acquiring this essential knowledge. Also, it would not be an attractive method to most drivers as a way to refresh their knowledge after they had obtained their drivers’ license.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9479 1267; fax: +61 3 9479 3283. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Q. Li), [email protected], [email protected] (R. Tay). 0001-4575/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.12.003
Hence, more innovative and effective approaches to teaching, refreshing and retaining road safety rules are needed. One promising approach in today’s digital environment is the use of gaming. Learning by gaming has been found to be an attractive and effective learning approach (Vogel et al., 2006; Annetta et al., 2009; Li, 2010; Li et al., 2010; Sitzmann, 2011). However, this new learning method has only been applied to help children acquire basic safety knowledge (Zeedyk et al., 2001; Zeedyk and Wallace, 2003), and has yet to be applied to adult driver education. Nevertheless, it has a strong potential not only to help novice drivers learn the road rules and retain this knowledge after passing their driver tests, but also to encourage licensed drivers to update their knowledge. This exploratory study, therefore, aims to examine the effects of game based learning on drivers’ acquisition and retention of road rules knowledge. In addition to contributing to the scientific literature, this research will provide policy makers with valuable information on the need for, and the effectiveness of, game-based learning of road safety principles.
2. Methods 2.1. Research design A before-after or pre- and post-test design was used in this study to determine the effect of playing the road safety game on participants’ knowledge of the road rules. The participants took a pre-test when they signed up for the project. They were then instructed to play the game. After they had completed the game, they took the first post-test. They subsequently took a second post-test six to eight weeks later. The first post-test was given in order to evaluate the immediate effect of the game and to gauge participants’
Q. Li, R. Tay / Accident Analysis and Prevention 65 (2014) 8–10
9
Table 1 Summary statistics of test scores.
Fig. 1. Screenshot of the game used in this study.
knowledge acquisition in the short term. The second post-test was given in order to gauge the participants’ knowledge retention and knowledge acquisition in the medium term. 2.2. The game The game had a graphic novel type setting in which the player followed the story of Jessica and Detective Jones in investigating Jessica’s mother’s car crash. The learning content was packaged in an intriguing story line to induce engagement and immersion as suggested by the Enactivism Theory (Li, 2010; Li et al., 2010). The game was designed to assist players in learning the road rules in Alberta, Canada. Throughout the game, the player had to collect information on road rules and safe driving, and to use them to solve puzzles. It consisted of ten levels that utilized knowledge from the ten chapters in the Alberta Drivers’ Handbook to solve the puzzles. It was hosted on the university’s website1 and took most participants two to three hours to complete the game. In level one, the player moves around the house looking for clues and finds pieces of the mother’s journal with written notes about people (potential suspects), including their licenses and the vehicles they drive. When the player has found the first three clues, he/she will find a door with a combination lock and has to use the clues to open the lock. A screenshot is shown in Fig. 1. A detailed description of the complete game and its development are provided in Li et al. (2012). 2.3. The knowledge tests In accordance with the actual knowledge test administered by Alberta Transportation, each of the tests used in this study consisted of 30 multiple choice items. The test items were modified from the practice tests available on the provincial government’s website. Hence, the question format and level of difficulty remained consistent among the three knowledge tests. All participants took the same set of three tests (pre-test, 1st post-test and 2nd posttest). The tests covered topics on traffic signs, road marking, give way rules, traffic violations (e.g., speeding, drink-driving, etc.), and safe driving behaviors (e.g., changing lanes, entering highway, etc.). 2.4. Participants This study involved 42 participants consisting of 21 males and 21 females. Among them, 34 (16 males and 18 females)
1
http://people.ucalgary.ca/∼qinli/research/game/rs.html.
Time period
Mean
Std. dev.
Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2
21.91 24.41 24.35
5.54 4.36 4.07
participants completed all the tests. Of the 34 participants who completed the tests, 19 were 16–25 years old, 13 were 26–35 years old and two were over 35 years old. Since previous research (Blunt, 2007) indicated that game-based learning was most effective for younger learners (under 41 years old), we recruited participants who were between 16–40 years old. Participants were recruited via flyers posted on notice boards around the university campus. Hence, most of the participants were college students. Since the game was hosted on the web, participants could play it anywhere and at any time although most participants chose to complete it in one sitting in the laboratory or around the campus. Participation is strictly voluntary and participants were offered a $20 gift card upon completion of the tasks assigned. The research plan was approved by the university research ethics committee (Approval 6396). Although the sample size was relatively small, it was large enough for the statistical analyses performed. Tabachnick and Fidell (2013) recommended a minimum sample size 10 + number of dependent variables for multivariate analysis of variance. Also, preliminary analysis found that the power of the test conducted was very high. Moreover, the mean score on the pre-test (M = 21.9) in this sample was very close to the mean test score (M = 21.4) of a very large sample of Albertan drivers (Tay, 2010), suggesting that there was no biased in this important characteristic. Nevertheless, care should be exercised in interpreting the results of this exploratory study. 2.5. Data analysis Since this study utilized a repeated measures approach, a general linear model (GLM) or repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test the within-subjects differences in the test scores over the three time periods. Bonferroni pair-wise comparisons were also conducted to test the significance of the knowledge acquisition (difference in test scores between pre-test and post-test 1) and the knowledge retention (differences in test scores between post-test 1 and post-test 2, and between pre-test and post-test 2). Furthermore, Mauchly’s test was conducted to validate the sphericity assumption and partial eta-square was estimated to check the effect size. Finally, the power of the test was also computed to provide more information on the validity of the tests. These analyses were performed using SPSS version 19. 3. Results The scores on the knowledge tests were summarized and reported in Table 1. The mean test score had increased from 21.91 in the pre-test to 24.41 in post-test 1 but remained almost constant between post-test 1 and post-test 2 (M = 24.35). Estimation results from the GLM rejected the null hypothesis that the mean test scores were the same for all three periods (F = 9.230; p = 0.005), indicating that the main effect of test scores changing over time was statistically significant. Moreover, the estimated power of the test conducted for the main effect was very high (0.902) and the Mauchly’s test did not find any violation of the sphericity assumption (p = 0.563). Finally, the partial Eta-square was estimated at 0.974, indicating that the effect size was quite large.
10
Q. Li, R. Tay / Accident Analysis and Prevention 65 (2014) 8–10
The Bonferroni pairwise comparison showed that the mean test score had increased from pre-test to post-test 1 (p = 0.015), indicating that there was significant knowledge acquisition in the short term. The pair wise comparison also found that the difference in the mean test scores between post-test 1 and post-test 2 was not statistically significant (p > 0.999) but was statistically significant for the difference in the mean test scores between pre-test and post-test 2 (p = 0.014), indicating a very high degree of retention. 4. Discussion Despite the constant media attention, little research has been conducted to examine the effects of video games on drivers’ attitude, knowledge or behavior. Recently, a few studies have emerged that confirmed the detrimental effects of playing car racing games (Beullens et al., 2008; Fischer et al., 2007) on drivers’ attitudes and self-reported risk taking behaviors. On the other hand, no study has been found that examines the effects of games designed to teach safe driving knowledge or behaviors to adult drivers. The few studies conducted thus far, have attempted to teach road safety to children only (Zeedyk and Wallace, 2003; Poulter and McKenna, 2010). This study explores the effects of a digital game designed to teach players some knowledge of the road rules in Alberta, Canada. Contrary to earlier studies on children safety education, we find that gaming improves drivers’ knowledge acquisition as well as retention, with relatively high effect sizes. The results from this study suggest that the game serves an effective educational function. Unlike previous studies on the effects of car racing games on drivers’ attitudes and behaviors, this study utilizes a game designed to teach safe driving knowledge and thus, has the potential to improve road safety. Moreover, unlike conventional approaches to learning the road rules, this innovative study engages players in active problem solving to acquire the knowledge. Our finding is consistent with other game-based learning studies which demonstrate that learning by gaming has a positive effect on cognitive skills and knowledge acquisition (Sitzmann, 2011; Vogel et al., 2006). Also, our study finds a medium term educational effect of gaming as evident in the significant knowledge retained by players, and hence, addresses the problem of traditional driver knowledge education where learners acquire the knowledge only for short-term (Poulter and McKenna, 2010; Tay, 2010). Despite these significant results, this study should be considered as exploratory since it adopted a single group pre-to-post quasiexperimental design without a control group. Future research should add a control group to control for other external influences that might affect the results. Moreover, the sample size was relatively small (34 completed) and focused mainly on young (under 41 years old) participants. Hence, more studies with a larger and more inclusive sample should be conducted before the results could be generalized with a high degree of confidence. Also, it should be noted that increasing safety knowledge might not result in improved safety behavior and further research should be conducted to examine the effect of learning by gaming on drivers’ behaviors.
In conclusion, this exploratory study finds that learning by gaming is an effective method to learn, refresh and retain knowledge of the road rules. By improving drivers’ knowledge of the road rules, learning by gaming has a strong potential to reduce unintentional driver errors and violations. Hence, it represents a promising new approach to improve road safety. Acknowledgment Financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. However, the views and opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the council. The authors thank Chris Appleton for designing the game, and Robert Louis, Yang Liu and Shai Nathoo for their research assistance. References Annetta, L.A., Minogue, J., Holmes, S.Y., Cheng, M.T., 2009. Investigating the impact of video games on high school students’ engagement and learning about genetics. Computers & Education 53 (1), 74–85. Beullens, K., Roe, K., Van den Bulck, J., 2008. Video games and adolescents’ intentions to take risks in traffic. Journal of Adolescent Health 43 (1), 87–90. Blunt, R., 2007. Does Game-Based Learning Work? Results from Three Recent Studies, The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference. Orlando, Florida. Evans, L., 2004. Traffic Safety. Science Serving Society, Bloomfield Hills. Fischer, P., Kubitzki, J., Guter, S., Frey, D., 2007. Virtual driving and risk taking: do racing games increase risk-taking cognitions affect, and behaviors? Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied 13 (1), 22–31. Li, Q., 2010. Digital game building: learning in a participatory culture. Educational Research 52 (4), 427–443. Li, Q., Clark, B., Winchester, I., 2010. Instructional design and technology grounded in enactivism: a paradigm shift? British Journal of Educational Technology 41 (3), 403–419. Li, Q., Tay, R., Louis, R., 2012. Designing digital games to teach road safety: a study of graduate students’ experiences. Loading 6 (9), 17–35. Parker, D., West, R., Stradling, S., Manstead, A.S., 1995. Behavioural characteristics and involvement in different types of traffic accident. Accident Analysis & Prevention 27 (4), 571–581. Poulter, D., McKenna, F., 2010. Evaluating the effectiveness of a road safety education intervention for pre-drivers: an application of the theory of planned behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology 80, 163–181. Sitzmann, T., 2011. A meta-analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness of computer-based simulation games. Personnel Psychology 64 (2), 489–528. Tabachnick, B., Fidell, L., 2013. Using Multivariate Statistics. Pearson Education, Boston. Tay, R., 2010. Alberta Drivers’ Knowledge of the Road Rules. Alberta Motor Association Traffic Safety Foundation, Edmonton, AB. Treat, J., Tumbas, N., McDonald, S., Shinar, D., Hume, R., Mayer, R., Stansifer, R., Catellan, N., 1979. Tri-Level Study of the Causes of Traffic Accidents; Institute for Research in Public Safety. Indiana University. Vogel, J.J., Vogel, D.S., Cannon-Bowers, J., Bowers, C.A., Muse, K., Wright, M., 2006. Computer gaming and interactive simulations for learning: a meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research 34 (3), 229–243. Wolming, S., Wiberg, M., 2004. The Swedish driver licensure examination: an examination of a two stage model. Journal of Safety Research 35, 491–495. Zeedyk, M.S., Wallace, L., 2003. Tackling children’s road safety through edutainment: an evaluation of effectiveness. Health Education Research: Theory & Practice 18 (4), 493–505. Zeedyk, M., Wallace, L., Carcary, B., Jones, K., Larter, K., 2001. Children and road safety: increasing knowledge does not improve behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology 71 (4), 573–594.
