A Moral Education Learning System based on the Snakes and Ladders Game

Abstract

Moral decadence in our society rises more and more and complaints about this issue are oftentimes about children and their future. Children are likely to disobey due to their inability to understand the effects of their decisions. Games liked by children can help in child education, especially when the moral aspects of such games are well highlighted. This paper reports the development of a Snakes and Ladders game that emphasizes the moral aspect of the game approach in order to promote moral education among children. The game was tested on twenty (20) children between the ages of 6 and 7. Their knowledge and willingness to follow moral and societal rules was tested before playing the game multiple times and also tested thereafter. It was observed that their knowledge and willingness to follow the rules improved. The game works subconsciously in helping children understand the consequences of certain moral actions in a virtual way. The Design of the system consists of the system architecture, the Use Case diagram, and a flow chart which explains all procedures in a logical sequence. A mathematical model and an algorithm are used to describe the gaming process. The system is implemented using Java programming language.