The Study of the Effects of Computer Games in the Study Habits of the Information Technology Students

CHAPTER 3

Methodology

This chapter presents the research design, the procedure in gathering the data, the setting of the study, the respondents, the instrument that have been used and the statistical treatment that may help in analyzing the data.

Research Design

This study uses a descriptive method which focus to investigate on how computer games affect the mind of the students.

Research Setting

The study was conducted at St.Rita’s College Of Balingasag, Misamis Oriental.

Respondent’s of the Study

The respondent of the study was the 1st year and 2nd year students of the Information Technology department school year 2012-2013.
Research Instruments

The 20-item evaluation questionnaire is the instruments used in collecting the data or gathering the data. Each statement has a corresponding number of choices where the respondents rate it but putting a check in a blank provided.

Data Gathering Procedure

In gathering the data, the first thing that we’re going to do is to submit a permission letter to the Program Head of Information Technology Department to allow us in conducting the survey by giving the questioner to the respective or chosen Information Technology students.

Statistical Treatment

The statistical technique used in analyzing and tabulating the data was the simple percentage and the mean to get the rate of the effect of computer games in the study habits of the Information Technology students.

CHAPTER 1
The Problem and its Background

Modernization of living has a great impact to one of us, specifically in the field of technology that introduces us to this, computer age because of its many benefits that makes our lives better and helps us do work a lot better. One evidence is the excessive of use of computers of some students, it gives us a faster access to the world and is very beneficial to our studies like doing paper works and at the same time, entertainment. But as computers became more popular, some students overused it and become a bad leisure for them causing them to skip their classes, they could not concentrate, and they become irresponsible, they didn’t do their school stuffs and obliviously overspending their allowance in paying a gaming computer unit and a bet.
The popularity of computer games has attracted the attention of researchers who are interested in finding out whether the features that make them so engaging could be captured and used to help people learn more effectively. In this paper we examine the relevance of computer games to Higher Education, reporting on a survey of students' computer games behaviors, their reasons for playing computer games, and their views of the features of computer games that might be useful in learning in Higher Education. The survey found that computer games play an important role in students' lives with students playing on an average and having played computer games for almost half their lives. Pleasure/relaxation, challenge/achievement, and control came out as distinct reasons for playing with challenge rated as the feature of games that might be most useful in Higher Education. The majority of students believed that computer games could be useful in learning. The challenge for games developers is to work out how the enjoyment associated with playing games can be successfully incorporated into activities to produce effective learning experiences.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This research aims to determine the effects of computer games to the 1st year and 2nd year Information Technology students of St. Rita’s College of Balingasag. The strategy that the researchers prefer to used is by distributing the survey questioners and have some sort of interview to the chosen respondents. By that, we can enable distinguish the effect of playing computer games in their study habits.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study aims to determine the influence of computer games in the study habits of the 1st year and 2nd year students of St.Rita’s College of Balingasag,Misamis Oriental, school year 2012-2013. Specifically, it is designed to seek answer to the following questions: 1. What are the possible effects of playing computer games? 2. What are the reason why students make fun of playing computer games? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing computer games? 4. How does computer games affect the study habits of the students? 5. Does computer games affect the academic performance of the students? 6. Does playing computer games really help the learning of the students in their field of course?

Hypothesis of the Study On the basis of the questions stated above,the possible findings are the following: 1. There are two possible effect of playing computer games namely:The Positive and Negative Effects 2. Reasons why students make fun of playing computer games because

CHAPTER 2
Review of Related Literature This chapter deals with a number of studies conducted by previous researchers which are related to the present study.
Excessive online computer gaming: implications for education: Previous overviews of computer game playing have demonstrated that they have the capacity to be both educationally useful and educationally detrimental depending on the frequency and context of play (e.g. Griffiths, 1996). Almost all of this research to date has tended to concentrate on adolescent players (e.g. Griffiths & Hunt, 1995).Furthermore, most of the research has tended to concentrate on the more negative aspects such as excessive play and addiction (e.g. Griffiths & Hunt, 1998), the effects of playing aggressive games (e.g. Griffiths, 1998) and the medical and psychosocial consequences (e.g. Griffiths, 1997). Thus, the image of a typical gamer (and the pastime of computer gaming) is seen as socially negative, educationally detrimental, and remains firmly within a youth subculture.
Why We Play Video Games: How Our Desire For Games Shapes Our World: Psychologists and sociologists are only now beginning to understand why the human ability to play is so powerful. But unlocking the mystery behind this desire may do more than help us understand our obsession – it could reshape and improve society in powerful ways. Gamers often throw around the term “escapism” when talking about their hobby, but this is a hollow explanation for what actually motivates us to play games. In fact, the word “escape” contains some negative implications – suggesting that those who play games feel a need to break free from the mundane slavery of their reality. We enjoy retreats to other realities – ones more fantastical than our own – but we aren’t always driven to play games because we are trying to escape our lives. The real motivations for play are far more complex, and games fulfill several real-world human needs in a number of positive ways. (Ben 2012)
According to Rigby, Immersyve’s complex needs-satisfaction metrics narrow down to three basic categories. The first of these needs is a need for competence – that is a desire to seek out control or to feel mastery over a situation. People like to feel successful, and we like to feel like we’re growing and progressing in our knowledge and accomplishments. This need plays out in real life when people decide to switch careers or go back to school because their current job isn’t rewarding or challenging enough. It’s also easy to see how video games make us feel more accomplished. Every time we level up in Final Fantasy or defeat a challenging boss in God of War, games are fulfilling our desire to feel competent. Our second psychological need is autonomy: the desire to feel independent or have a certain amount of control over our actions. The final psychological human need is relatedness. We like to feel like we matter to others, and we like to feel like we are making a significant contribution to society.