Lessons learned from teaching dynamic systems & control with a video game

Abstract

Playing digital games on personal computers and game consoles is a massively popular form of mediated entertainment, which is particularly effective at commanding the fascination and attention of adolescents, young adults, and some not-so-young adults. There is a growing number of education scholars who argue that video games (or at least the aspects that make them so engaging) should migrate into the classroom as well. Since 2005, we have used a customized race car simulation game to teach a computational methods course to mechanical engineering undergraduates. The introduction of the game has been a demonstrable success. However, when we adapted the game-based instructional model to a different course, a dynamic systems and control course, the improvements, so far, have been less dramatic. In this paper, we re-think how a video game can be used to teach Dynamic Systems & Control. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.