Edu-simulation: A serious games platform designed to engage and motivate students

This paper introduces a serious games web platform designed to simulate a teaching environment where lecturers are able to replicate their teaching environment by creating courses, modules, adding content and managing students effectively. Using a variety of tools available, lecturers are able to create a range of game simulations for students and observe student behavior in a controlled environment. The paper provides a description of the platform architecture and the main features, it presents a user testing session that aimed to review the usability, the cognitive accessibility (CoA) of the educational tasks completed and the quality of the user experience with the platform and it discusses the users testing results. The paper put emphasis on the gamified elements of the platform and their role in enhancing the pedagogic experience and concludes with directions of future work and development.