Developing a digital game for excel skills learning in higher education - a comparative study analyzing differences in learning between digital games and textbook learning

In higher education, many universities in Taiwan let college students learn excel in a self-directed way. The current axle of the Excel curriculum mainly relies on self-directed learning. In the study, we designed the digital game “Legendary Wizard Excel” and took a certified Excel textbook as the research tool. The game we designed integrated the role-play with cognitive scaffolding to help learners learn Excel skills, whereas the textbook we used was “Excel Expert” in the Microsoft Office Specialist. We compared the Learning Effectiveness, Flow Status, and Technology Acceptance Model with 187 college students between two tools, and found that: (1) The game reached a high Technology Acceptance Model; (2) Both groups of learners had significant improvements in learning effectiveness and were engaged in the activity; (3) On learning effectiveness, learners in game-based learning groups achieved higher than learners in textbook groups; (4) Learners in game-based learning groups engaged better in the activity than learners in textbook groups. Therefore, in the future, we looked forward to bringing our results to higher education levels and workplace training to enhance the Excel skills.