A digital game for international students' adjustment

Abstract

Although digital games have been developed for various subject areas, little attention has been focused on using digital games to address international students' adjustment issues. For this reason, this paper endeavors to explore the use of a digital game in facilitating international students acquire adjustment-related information. Specifically, the objectives of this paper are twofold. One, it seeks to introduce a digital game called Digital Game for International Student Training (DGIST) which is intended to satisfy important aspects of international students' information needs through fun. Two, it seeks to perform a preliminary evaluation of DGIST in terms of its efficacy in helping international students acquire adjustment-related information through a before-and-after with control experimental design. A total of 80 participants were involved in the study. Despite a few shortcomings, the results for DGIST appeared to be promising. Statistical analyses confirmed that DGIST was more effective in helping students acquire adjustment-related information than the paper-based document. This paper concludes with some limitations and suggests a few areas for further research.