3D educational earthquake game design and examination of university student's experiences

The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between university students' disaster risk perceptions, sustainable earthquake awareness, and motivation to play digital games using an educational earthquake game designed in a 3D virtual environment. For this purpose, the study was developed based on educational game studies in the literature, using the virtual environment of Roblox. The study was conducted with 50 students selected through convenient sampling from the students taking the Web Design course in the Department of Management Information Systems at Afyon Kocatepe University during the fall semester of 2023-2024. A one-group pretest weak experimental pattern was used. The application was conducted with 50 students in the second week of the fall semester. The scales determined for the application were first applied as a pre-test, and an informative presentation was given about how to play the educational earthquake game developed for this study. The 50 participating students played the developed game for three weeks and completed the scales applied as a post-test at the end of the three weeks. The application process lasted for four weeks. According to the research results, there was a significant increase in the pre-test and post-test results based on the findings obtained from the applied scales of the developed educational earthquake game. There was no significant difference in the findings obtained from the sustainable earthquake awareness scale in the pre-test and post-test. There was a statistically significant difference in the findings obtained from the disaster risk perception scale and the digital game playing motivation scale and its sub-dimensions in the pre-test and post-test. Overall, it was revealed that students who played the 3D educational earthquake game provided better responses to the survey questions after playing the game. It was concluded that the developed educational earthquake game led to an increase in motivation to play digital games and levels of disaster risk perception. Based on these results, disaster education for university students can be made more enjoyable by using educational games and different 3D virtual environments.