Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Natural mortality in the form of self-thinning and wind damages can cause substantial harm to forest stands. The thinning operations can reduce or increase the possibility of their occurrence. It could therefore be beneficial to produce an effective method of presenting this knowledge to not only forestry students and professionals, but also to a broader audience. In this paper, the author explores the possibility to use educational video games as such medium.
A PC video game about the topic called “To cut or not to cut” was created. In this game, the players are supposed to choose the trees for thinning in four different forest stands. According to the percentage of trees chosen and the specific condition of the stand, the forest will avoid the natural mortality or not. The players were, throughout the game, instructed and helped in the form of game dialogues.
Upon finishing the game, the players were asked to complete the survey, which checks the effectiveness of the game in the form of a knowledge quiz and opinion questions about the quality and educational value of the game.
The quiz answers showed that with higher completion rate of the game, a higher proportion of knowledge questions were answered correctly. The results of the opinion survey showed that the game was highly regarded as an educational tool by most players. Some of the players not connected to forestry expressed less engagement and understanding of the dialogues than other groups.
These findings show that educational video games about forestry topics could be beneficial and engaging. However, they should be correctly targeted and modified towards specific audiences, e.g. forestry professionals, people from related fields etc. The author explores the possibility of such modifications.