Analysis on educating mechanical engineers through serious games using pervasive technologies

In the education of mechanical engineers alternative learning methods like serious games, simulations etc. have been used in past decades to better the learning outcomes. However, as digital technologies advance, so too does the quality of commercial game-based learning. This brings the expectation that while serious games are still considered as an experimental pedagogic vehicle, the learning experience among students and their experience of using serious games become heightened. This is a challenge for several educational games that though fully able to progress a learning goal, is deemed detached due to its dated user interface and inability to host the latest ICTs. This creates an unappealing aspect to the student and can also affect their motivation. This paper reports on the early efforts to analyze serious games from the perspective of learning and gaming mechanics and the virtual environment and systems that can be made pervasive. The intention is to re-furbish dated serious games that are highly relevant to educating mechanical engineers. The proposed concepts lie in the adoption of new pervasive technologies enabled by cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet of things (IoT) to modernize dated engineering serious games.