Empirical Research on the Impact of Morgan’s Raid

We present an empirical evaluation of Morgan’s Raid, an educational video game about Civil War history in Indiana. The game was designed for integration with Indiana fourth grade curriculum on state history. We conducted a qualitative study with six elementary school students, and the body of data included field notes and pre- and post-intervention interviews. Three major findings emerged regarding these students: after playing the game, they exhibited increased knowledge and understanding of the historical context and geography; playing the game increased the students’ empathy for both soldiers and civilians in the 1860s; and the constructive nature of learning led to unexpected interpretations of the game. These findings have implications for the design of serious games as well as future research.