The signal game: Missions and playground to motivate vocational education students toward periodic signals

Vocational Education is a modality of regulated learning that emphasizes practical and applied skills over theoretical approaches. Nevertheless, some theoretical subjects are contained in the program. These subjects are not well perceived by the students, even when the concepts taught in them represent physically perceptible phenomena. The Signal Game represents periodical signals as audible sounds to help students learning concepts such as frequency, amplitude and summation, or multiplexing of signals. To play the game, the students can drag and wire blocks visually and thus it does not require a strong theoretical background. The game allows the users to play through sequential missions. Thereby, the student can learn and assimilate the concepts gradually. The other game mode is the playground, in it the students have all the possibilities enabled. A user study revealed that the game increased intrinsic motivation and that the students acquired applicable concepts about signal theory. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. 9999:1–7, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21649