GTCards: A Video Game for Learning Geometric Transformations: A Cards-based Video Game for Learning Geometric Transformations in Higher Education

Abstract

Geometric transformations are a relevant subject taught at different educational levels, from elementary to higher education. This work focuses on designing an educational tool suitable to help students learn and practice transformations in the specific context of an undergraduate computer graphics course. Even when the subject of study is the same, the learning objectives are different in other educational contexts, such as elementary or middle education. We propose in this work a cards-based video game founded in a model that constrains the input variables of learning exercises without sacrificing the diversity of scenarios and difficulty levels. Incorporating this model into a video game is congruent because it privileges the visual over the numerical information that defines a specific "before and after" style of learning exercise. The game mechanics were designed around a set of requirements thought to meet the student's needs, such as learning by experimenting, instant feedback, and matrix representation, among other criteria. The video game was developed in the Unity engine, and it is ready to be tested in the classroom during the next phase of our research. We expect to gather qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate its potential as a learning tool for undergraduate students coursing computer graphics.