The effect of games used in web based education on success and permanency

Studies show that while games have enternaining aspects, they also increase motivation of the learners. Therefore one can conclude that learning supported by games may increase the efficiency of learning process. At the present day, computer and internet technologies are benefited for increasing the efficiency of learning process. Thus, educational environment supporting materials which are developed by utilizing both internet and computer technologies can alter learning process into a more active and enternaining environment. This research determines whether the success and permanency of students is effected by their studying with or without web materials which includes games developed for units having different difficulty levels. The research is carried on the first year students attending ?Computer Skills? class in Faculty of Applied Sciences, at Baskent University. The test and the control groups consisting of 25 people each are gathered by objective appointment method, from four groups of students of 12 sections. In order to test the hypothesizes; four web based instructural materials, consisting of two different units but same visual drafts are planned and used. In addition, a game fitting instructural game characteristics, is improved for both units which was used in the exercise parts of the units. The test group of the research studied with the materials on the exercise parts consisting games and the control vi group on the exercise parts without games. In the research, the students studied the units during the lessons as scheduled before. The results are analyzed by SPSS program and the mean and the standard deviation are established. In this research, Kolmogov-Smirnov Test is applied to see if test and control groups had a regular correlation or not and t-test is used in the comparison of success tests. As the mean of success test of these two groups were significantly different; while comparing two gruoups? permanency test, covariance analysis is carried out to remove the effect of success test. And also, t- test is applied to test the effects of different units with different dificulty degrees on the success of the students. In addition, the students? opinions about materials are categorized and interpreted. As a result, it is found that in both units; the success of the learning of students studying on web materials consisting games is significantly different than students studying on web materials without games. After 15 days from the application, a permanency test is applied which resulted that the permanency of learning of the students studying with the games used web materials, is significantly different than students studying without games. It is tested if the differences of the units, effect the success of the students, and seen that the difficulity of the units effects the students? success studying with gamed materials positively and no effect on students studying without games. In addition, as students? opinions of the materials are evaluated, it is seen that materials with games or without games effect students mostly positively. The results of the research show that the games directing to the units or games in the exercises have effects on success and permanency of learning of the students. According to the results, it is suggested that the exercises should consist games when designing educational software on web based education.