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INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

One common problem encountered by the students in the

biomolecules topic is difficulty in understanding biological concepts.

Many students become discouraged by the course because of the

complex vocabulary they need (or they believe they need) to memorize

in order to understand the subject. In effect, efforts should be made to

reduce the total amount of factual information students are expected to

memorize; reduce the use of the passive lecture format; and devote

more effort to helping students become active, independent learners

and problem solvers (Vander et al,. 2020). Ismalina et al. (2018) noted

that educational games have favorable characteristics for use in

science education.

Gutierrez (2018) evaluation of the educational card games. After

the testing stage, students from the experimental group evaluated the

card game. Evaluation of the educational game was based on five

criteria: 1) goals and objectives; 2) design; 3) components and

organization; 4) playability and playfulness; and 5) usefulness.

However, Despeisse (2018) follow up that educational card games

provide opportunities particularly well adapted to sustainability

education. Students are immersed in complex situations providing

active roles in decision-making and collaboration in uncertain conditions

(Despeisse, 2018). Redpath et al. (2018) powerfully outline the benefits

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of games when they write that games provide the framework necessary

to analyze conflicts and can clarify the key elements of a conflict. They

also state that games illuminate the beliefs and behaviors of the

participants and result in productive discussion between the various

stakeholders.

Many difficulties associated with teaching and understanding

biomolecules are connected to the abstract nature of concepts, which in

turn, are part of complex systems at several levels of organization. The

main reasons for learning difficulties were the nature of the topic,

teachers' style of teaching, students' learning and studying habits,

students' negative feelings and attitudes towards the topic and a lack of

resources. To overcome these difficulties and make their biology

learning more effective (Howitt, 2018).

Hence, the researchers conducted a study about the development

and evaluation of an educational card game as a supplementary

materials in teaching biomolecules to the science teachers in Bunawan

National Highschool and Agusan del Sur State College of Agriculture and

Technology.
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Objectives of the Study

This study aimed to developed and evaluate the educational card

game about biomolecules. Specially, it aimed to:

1. determine the profile of the respondent-validators in terms of the

following:

1.1 age

1.2 sex

1.3 number of years in teaching Organic Chemistry; and

1.4 educational attainment

2. develop a card game in biomolecules;

3. evaluate the developed card game in terms of;

3.1 goals and objectives

3.2 card design

3.3 components and organization

3.4 playability and playfulness

3.5 usefulness

4. determine the significant difference of the validators responses

on the evaluation of the card game according to their profile.

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Significance of the Study

The results of this study will greatly benefit the following

stakeholders:

Second Year Students. The developed card game in this study will

not only enable them to increase their perceptions about

biomolecules but will also make them realize the importance of

educational games in their learning.

Teachers. The results of this study will help Science teachers to

address the difficulties encountered by their students in Second

year BSED-Science, specifically, the topic in biomolecules.

Parents. This study will provide them information about the

importance of educational card games in the cognitive

development of their children.

Future Researchers. The results of this study will serve as a baseline

information for future researchers who would like to address the

problems related to that of this study.

Operational Definition of Terms

Biomolecules is an educational content that will be the basis for the

development of a card game.

Card Design is refers to the appropriate printed material used to

present the topic.

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Components and Organization refers to clear direction, appropriate

number of cards, emphasizing key points and the length of time

to play the game is reasonable.

Content refers to the lesson on biomolecules through card game.

Development and Evaluation is refers to the ratings of validators of

the card games on biomolecules.

Educational Card Game is a supplementary tools to which reinforce

the learning process among biochemistry students on

biomolecules.

Goals and Objectives is refers to the end goal that needs to be

achieved by the learner in the topic Biomolecules.

Playability and Playfulness refers to the healthy competition,

cooperation, equal condition for a fair play and flexibility in

playing the game to be fun.

Supplementary Material refers to the card game intended to

reinforce a certain topic on biomolecules developed in the study.

Usefulness refers to the use of the game on biomolecules.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study focused on the development and evaluation of a card

game as a supplementary material in teaching Biomolecules. However,

the card game that was developed was delimited on the topics of

biomolecules of the 1st year students of A.Y 2022-2023. Moreover, the

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card game that was developed do not serve as a standalone knowledge

acquisition mechanism.

Time and Place of the Study

This study was conducted during the 2nd semester of the

Academic year 2022-2023 in Agusan del Sur State College of

Agriculture and Technology (ASSCAT) and Bunawan National High

School, San Teodoro, Bunawan, Agusan del Sur.

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Conceptual Framework

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Validators’ Profile Development and Evaluation

of a Card Game:
1. age
2. sex 1. Goal and objectives
3. number of years in 2. Card design
teaching organic 3. Components and
chemistry; and organization
4. educational attainment 4. Playability and
playfulness
5. Usefulness

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the study. It consists

of two variables, the independent and dependent variables. The

independent variables of the study are validators’ profile in terms of

age, sex number of years in teaching Organic chemistry; and

educational attainment. On the other hand, the dependent variables of

the study are the development and evaluation card game in terms of its
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goals and objectives, card design, components and organization,

playability and playfulness, usefulness.

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REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

Educational Games

The application of games in education is a trend on the rise.

Educational games have attracted some attention from the academic

community within the last years. A lot of enrichment of the learning

experience are often attributed to educational games, even though the

most cited is their potential in enhancing students’ motivation (Torrente

et al., 2019). It was mentioned by Kickmeier-Rust et al. (2018) that the

ability to maintain and individual learner’s motivation and interest by

adapting the individual learning and gaming experience to each

learner’s needs, preferences, goals, and abilities is one of the most

crucial factors for successful educational games.

Moreover, Tamayo (2018) mentioned that educational games are

efficient tools that are used as a source of motivation in learning.

Tamayo further stated that games incorporated on subjects have

positive impact on learning. The achievement of an adequate balance

between entertainment and educational value is one of the main

challenges of developing an educational game (Papadakis, 2020).

Entertainment and educational value are factors that are extremely

important for the success of the game. If students get bored and do not

have fun in playing the game, they will eventually quit and all the

efforts that have been invested would be in vain. However, if the fun-

factor has been given much effort and the educational value is left
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aside, little impact on the learning outcomes of the students from the

game is expected. Therefore, the development of educational games

includes the arduous task of designing game elements that are

entertaining and engaging, and the challenge of achieving educational

value. To guarantee that an educational game has educational value,

there is a need to effectively involve educators in the development of

the game. The educators are the subject experts, who can verify if the

veracity of information stored and put in the game is appropriate. Also,

educators have a significant responsibility of applying the games in the

real learning scenario.

However, because of the technical background required, today’s

game development methodologies limit the involvement of educators.

As an outgrowth, there is a need for the making of particular

development methodologies that addresses all these issues and

propose effective mechanisms to put educators involved in the

development process of an educational game (Torrente et al., 2019).

Educational Card Games

Educational card games are educational supplementary tools

which reinforce the learning process and problem-solving skills

(Rajashekar & Bellad, 2018). A card game is the most advantageous,

out of the may various game types, for enriching student learning.

Because of its physical feature, card games can be played anywhere

using actual cards and with face-to-face interaction between players.

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The cards are easily produced and are very convenient and easily

structured, so game rules can be easily integrated with instructional

content to make complicated and abstract concept very clear and easy

to understand. Card games promote competitiveness, players have to

conquer their opponents using different strategies and sometimes in

collaboration with a partner player. Lastly, card games work along the

dual lines of not only creating a simulated situation that allows learners

to be absorbed in actively manipulating various strategies to construct

knowledge and solve problems but also presenting the instructional

content in texts (der Linden et al., 2020; Baker et al., 2020). There is

have been a number of researches conducted that support the

effectiveness of using educational card games as a supplementary

material.

In the study of Selvi & Cosan (2018), students who played the

card game in Gastrointestinal Physiology appeared to value the most

the attribute of the game to reinforce the information that they had

previously learned and required them to review and apply those

concepts to another context. The same positive result was found in the

study of Su et al. (2018), where students who learned from playing the

card game of Human Immunology significantly outperformed their

counterparts in terms of their understanding of the processes and

connections among different lines of immunological defense.

Another positive result of using educational card games was

found in the study of Gutierrez (2018), he found out that there was a

significant difference between the mean pretest and posttest scores of

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the experimental group who played the card game in Nutrition and

Digestion; and Respiration and Circulation. Gutierrez further concluded

that the use of a student-centered approach like educational card

games can improve student performance to a greater extent than

traditional methods.

Goals and Objectives

In this (Jun 26, 2022) Although the great majority of traditional

card games have objectives that involve the capture of cards,

accumulating or shedding cards, collecting card combinations or

comparing cards or hands, many other types of objectives are possible:

below are some examples. This study aims to conduct a systematic

literature review of empirical research on the use of science education

from when the Serious Games Initiative commenced games include a

system of rewards and goals which motivate players, a narrative

context which situates activity and establishes rules of engagement,

learning content that is relevant to. In some games the aim is to create

certain patterns of cards or tiles in a layout. This kind of objective is

often found in domino games, but there are also card games such as

Table Top Cribbage and Poker Squares in which players try to make

scoring combinations, for example in the rows or columns of a grid.

Many card games have a scoring system in which the winner is

the first player to reach some target score. One could say that the

objective is to be first past the post, and if a pegboard is use for

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scoring, as for example in Cribbage, the race to the end of the track

becomes more visible. There are some games in which the board

assumes a greater importance, and moving pieces around the board

becomes the main focus of the game. The cards provide the means of

movement, taking the place of the dice used in some other types of

board game. These are listed on pagat.com as Race Games. There are

also race games in which the cards are used as the pieces to be moved

and in some cases to delineate the board.

Hanghøj and Brund (2019) argue that research on games in

education has mostly sought to either measure the learning outcomes

of game-based learning or to ‘identify the inherent learning potential of

particular game designs’. Game-based learning research has mainly

focused on single teaching experiments in which a game has been

tested on students, and the game-related pedagogical approaches and

solutions have not necessarily been elaborated. When pedagogical

activities have been studied, the research has predominantly Centre for

Media Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of Lapland,

Rovaniemi, Finland, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis

Group2 M. Kangas et al. focused on teacher–student interaction (Tzuo

et al., 2018), or the teacher’s facilitation during the gameplay (Hanghøj

& Brund, 2019). Thus, wider pedagogical considerations of the teacher’s

activities as well as actual practices and processes of teaching – before,

during, and after the gameplay – are somewhat missing.

Card Game Design

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Robin and Warren (2019) stated that many card-based design

tools have been produced, initially to aid creativity and user

participation in design, with an upsurge post-2000 when numerous card

decks were developed. Reviewers have classified the tools using

samples ranging from five to thirty-eight. Our comprehensive inventory

and analysis of 155 card-based tools offers a more robust classification,

with three-quarters aiming to facilitate creative thinking, human-

centred design, or domain-specific methods. The few scientific trials of

these tools indicate they enable designers to

Wölfel & Merritt (2019) stated that the card-based tools are

explained in terms of five design dimensions including the intended

purpose and scope of use, duration of use, methodology, customization,

and formal/material qualities. Our analysis suggests three design

patterns or archetypes for existing card-based design method tools and

highlights unexplored areas in the design space. The paper concludes

with recommendations for the future development of card-based

methods for the field of interaction design.

However, human-centered software design gives all stakeholders

an active voice in the design of the systems that they are expected to

use. However, this is not yet commonplace in Learning Analytics by

(Alvarez, 2020).

Components and Organization

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Based on (Epstein et al., 2021) Components need to consider all

aspects of the context and the mechanisms to achieve the desired

behavior change outcomes. Careful design thinking should include

consideration of the game mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics, emotions,

and contexts of the game and the players. People who know the players

and the contexts well should design the games or have significant

input. Testing in real-world settings is likely to lead to better outcomes.

Careful selection and purposeful design of the behavior change

mechanisms at play is essential. Fun and enjoyment of the player

should be considered, as without engagement, there will be no desired

intervention effect.

Playability and Playfulness

According to Gutiérrez and González (2020), playability is a term

used in the design and analysis of applications and video games that

describe the quality of a game in terms of its classic components:

objectives, rules, mechanics, and dynamics. Moreover, Holm et al,.

(2020) stated that specifically, it refers to all the emotional experiences

that a person can feel and develop when interacting with a digital video

game application or system. The term playability is used in the analysis

and design of games, which allows you to describe the quality of the

game, considering its rules of operation and its design as a game. It can

be said that it is “what the player does in the game” and refers to the

experiences of a player during the entire interaction with a game

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system. A complete definition is “the set of properties that describe the

experience of the player before a specific game system, whose main

objective is to entertain and entertain satisfactorily and credibly when

playing alone or accompanied”.

For the UX, usability objectives include, for example, performing a

task efficiently and effectively; eliminating possible errors; the one that

is easy to learn, is intuitive; and that it be designed under standards.

The external reward is to perform the work that was pursued. However,

for a player’s experience, the objectives of the gameplay include

entertaining as long as possible, learning and discovering new things;

having fun overcoming goals and obstacles; the inner reward is fun. The

concept of playability does not apply to all kinds of software, only to a

product, system, or service related to games (of any type). Playability

has recently been studied from several points of view. There is not

much consensus on its definition, or the elements that characterize it.

Usefulness

Recently, game-based approaches are suggested helpful in

improving students’ cognitive engagement and satisfaction, solving

issues of demotivated and uninvolved in learning activities (Surendeleg

et al., 2018). As a matter of fact, a related term “gamification”

appeared in digital media industry starting from early 2000 which

advertisers in marketing used it to attract consumers (Jett, 2020). The

success of gamification in the marketplace has drawn educators’

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attention to transfer this strategy into learning and classroom context

(Surendeleg et al., 2018). In Hong Kong, frontline teach ers make use of

game-based learning to enhance students’ learning engagement and

effectiveness. In 2018, two awardees were awarded the Chief

Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence. They transformed daily

lesson tasks in Life and Society and Chinese History to board and card

games, and it successfully grasped students’ attention and fostered

student-students interaction and self-directed learning when compared

to traditional lessons (Education Bureau, 2018).

However, there is little local empirical research on whether game-

based learning could improve students’ learning effectiveness, such as

any gains in academic assessment tasks which aligned with the

learning contents in textbook. This action research would fill in this

research gap by implementing a timeline card game in the seventh

grade of a school in Hong Kong.

According to Wasson and Kirschner (2020), “the advent of

information and communication technologies for learning has moved

the focus of learning design from just the learning materials and their

sequences or a learning artifact (e.g., a content management system),

to the learning environment as a whole”. LD has been defined as “a

descriptive framework for teaching and learning activities” (Dalziel,

2018). Learning Design (LD) is a strand in educational research and

practice that has emerged from the rationale of helping educators to

demonstrate and to share their ideas about teaching and learning

(Nguyen et al., 2020). However, to date much of the work on LD has

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been either focusing on prescriptive approaches of how LD should be,

or on representations of LDs in formats that are interpretable by

computers (Muñoz-Cristóbal et al., 2018). Recently, the emphasis has

shifted away from the representation of LDs per se to the process of

eliciting such representations from tutors; a shift that signifies teaching

as a design practice (Muñoz-Cristóbal et al., 2018) that could be studied

through participatory design approaches which actively involve the

main stakeholders of higher education (Flynn et al., 2018).

ADDIE Model

The ADDIE model is a teaching model widely used by any

educational designers and training programmers to develop education

and training programs. Its name is an acronym, which depicts the five

basic steps of this model for the design and development of the

learning experience, which is as follows: Analysis, Design,

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (Spatioti et al., 2022).

The ADDIE model has been extensively used as a development

framework in numerous contexts involving digital learning. For instance,

ADDIE has been utilized to create digital learning resources for adult

learners, secondary school students, elementary school students, and

adult learners (Karademir et al., 2019).

A variety of digital software or applications, including digital

games (Tanjung & Sitompul, 2020), e-learning tools (Stapa &

Mohammad, 2019), and massive open online courses (MOOCs), have

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also been created using the ADDIE framework (Fondo & Konstantinidis,

2018; Usta & Güntepe, 2022), among other resources. Thus, ADDIE

model applies to meet different teaching requirements in all online

educational environments. The good practices of teaching are the

multimedia presentation, feedback, variety of interactive activities,

combined learning strategy (individualized and collaborative), and role

of educators. The ADDIE model is considered as a valuable source of

additional information by providing good teaching practices (Spatioti et

al., 2022).
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METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This study used a developmental type of research since the

researchers are developed and evaluated an educational output which

is the card game so that it could be utilized and extends over a vast

area (Denuyo, 2001). The ADDIE (analysis, design, development,

implementation, and evaluation) is the method to be used in developing

and evaluating the educational card game. There are three (3) phases

involved in developing the card game namely, the planning phase, the

development phase, and then the validation phase.

Figure 2 on the following page shows the diagram of the

procedure adapted in developing and evaluating of the education card

game.
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Planning Development
Validation phase
phase phase
Thismeansthat heitemisbelowexcedsexpectaionswithmaximusrevison
nede .

Collection and Formulating and

Initial evaluation of
Review of Sequencing of
the created
Related Objectives
Educational Card
Resources
Game by the
adviser and
Designing the internal validators
Selection of
Card Game
the
Respondent
Formulating the Modification
Card Game

Validation of the
created
Educational card
game by the
experts

Finalization

Figure 2. The Research Design Showing the Three (3) Phases

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Material Development Procedure

I. Planning Phase

1. Collection and Review of Related Resources. In this stage,

the researchers collected and reviewed the resource materials

related to the development and evaluation of an educational card

game as a supplementary material in teaching biomolecules.

2. Selection of the Respondents. The Secondary Junior and

Senior High School Science teachers teaching Biology and

Chemistry in Bunawan National High School and Instructors

teaching Biology and Chemistry in Agusan del Sur State College of

Agriculture and Technology served as the study’s respondents to

evaluate the created card game as a supplementary material

using a purposive sampling technique.

II. Development Phase

1. Formulating and Sequencing of Objectives. The specific

objectives are derived from the Organic chemistry syllabus, which

includes a list of all the topics to be covered over the semester as

well as goals to be met and activities to completed.

2. Designing and Formulating the Card Game. The educational

card game that was developed in this study have some elements

of some popular card games such as Mahjong and Uno. The card

game consists of different cards namely: Amino Acid, Nucleotides,

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Fatty Acid, Lipids, Glycerol, Condensation Reaction, Hydrolysis,

Reverse and Steal. The Amino Acid consists of 21 cards, while

Nucleotides consists of 25 cards, Fatty acids consist of 25 cards,

Lipids consists of 30 cards, Glycerol consists of 9 cards,

Condensation Reaction consists of 20 cards, Hydrolysis consists

12 cards, Reverse consists 11 cards and Steal consists of 21

cards. The total number of cards were all 174.

III. Validation Phase

1. Validation Modification of the created Educational Card

Game (Initial Validation). In this phase, the adviser of the

study and internal validators were asked to give comments,

suggestions, and recommendations for the improvement of the

developed educational card game, to ensure that the developed

card game does not have any problems in terms of technicalities

and contents.

2. Modification of the Developed educational card game.

Based on the opinions and advices of the adviser, internal

validators of the study, the researchers modified the developed

card game in teaching biomolecules.

3. Final Validation of the Development and evaluation of an

educational card game. After modifying the educational card

game, the researchers requested the Teacher experts to evaluate

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and validate the developed card game using the Evaluation

survey form adopted from the study of Gutierrez (2013).

Research Respondents

The respondents of this study were the Secondary Junior and

Senior High School Science teachers teaching Biology and Chemistry in

Bunawan National High School and Instructors teaching Biology and

Chemistry in Agusan del Sur State College of Agriculture and

Technology. They served as the study’s respondents to evaluate the

created card game as a supplementary material using a purposive

sampling technique.

Research Instrument

The research instrument that was used in the study is adopted

from the study of Gutierrez (2018). A four-point Likert scale was used to

interpret the overall results of the ratings on the card game in terms of

its goals and objectives, card design, components and organization,

playability and playfulness, and usefulness.

Table 1. Scale for the Evaluation for the Science Teacher-

Expert

Numerical Mean Respons Descriptive Verbal

Rate Rating e Interpretatio Meaning
n

4 3.26 – 4.00 Strongly Very This means that all

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Agree Satisfactory areas of the

developed card
game exceeded the
expectations of the
validator’s.

3 2.51– 3.25 Agree Satisfactory This means that all

areas of the
developed card
game met the
expectations of the
validator’s.
2 1.76– 2.50 Disagree Poor
This means that
some areas of the
card game did not
meet the
expectations of the
1 1.00–1.75 Strongly Very Poor validator’s
Disagree
This means that all
areas of the card
game did not meet
the expectations of
the validator’s.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers sent a letter of request to ask permission and

approval from the College Dean of the College of Teacher Education for

conducting the study. Upon obtaining the approval from the College

Dean, another letter was sent to the School Head/Principal of Bunawan

National High School for the approval of the conduct of the study. Upon

the approval of the School Head/Principal and obtaining the total

number of the population of the respondents, the researchers proceed

with the distribution of questionnaires to the respondents and provided

them with clear instructions on how to answer the questionnaire. After

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the retrieval of the survey questionnaires, it was tallied and analyzed

for interpretations.

Statistical Treatment

This study utilized statistical tools to attain the following, for

objectives no. 1 which is to determine the profile of the expert

validators of the study used frequency and percentage. To attain

objectives no. 2 weighted mean was used in each item to evaluate the

developed card game. For objective no. 3, which is to determine the

significant difference of the validators’ responses on the evaluation of

the card game. The non-parametric test was used because the data is

not normal.
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