FunQ: Measuring the fun experience of a learning activity with adolescents

Abstract

Abstract Researchers and practitioners in learning sciences, educational technology and child-computer interaction often argue that fun is an essential element of learning. Therefore, researchers in the above fields aim to explore how learning activities could be made more enjoyable in order to facilitate engagement in the learning process and to improve the learning outcomes. Despite such wide interest, there has been little systematic effort to define and measure fun. The herein introduced research aims to (a) define the term “fun” and (b) to create a tool for the reliable measurement of it. In the first study testing the initial item pool 75 students (μage = 11.78); in the think-aloud study testing the comprehensibility of the items six 11-year-old children and in the final validation study, 128 students (μage = 12.15) participated. We applied a deductive scale development approach. For the model testing, CFA was used and second-order latent variable models were fitted. In this paper, we conceptualize the term of fun and introduce the final 18-item version of the FunQ that consists of six dimensions (Autonomy, Challenge, Delight, Immersion, Loss of Social Barriers and Stress) and bears with the appropriate validity and reliability measures (ωoverall = 0.875 and ωpartial = 0.864; RMSEA = 0.052 and SRMR = 0.072). We contribute with (a) a review of the literature regarding the concept of fun, (b) a conception of fun as a multidimensional theoretically motivated concept, (c) a multidimensional instrument for assessing experienced fun—the FunQ—and (d) a psychometric evaluation of the proposed instrument. FunQ is put forward as a reliable and much-needed addition to the current palette of instruments.

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