Digital Educational Games

Abstract

Our main research question is how the choice of game type influences the success of digital educational games (DEGs), where success is defined as significant domain-specific knowledge gain (learning outcome) with positive player experience. We propose a methodological framework to address this question. The comparison of different game types is based on the previously developed Game Elements-Attributes Model (GEAM) and the Game Genre Map, which summarise game features and their relations. In addition, we present a research model considering the impact of player characteristics on learning outcome and player experience as well as their interrelation. Two empirical studies were conducted with 280 students. The application domain was computer programming. Study 1 compared three DEGs of the Mini-Game genre, differing in a single GEAM attribute—time pressure vs. puzzle solving and abstract vs. realistic settings. Study 2 compared DEGs of different genres, which vary in the implementation of several GEAM attributes. None of the player characteristics were found to be statistically significant factors. For both studies, significant differences were found in learning outcomes, for Study 2 also in some of the player experience dimensions. GEAM was demonstrated as a promising framework for games user research.

Outstanding Videogames on Water: A Quality Assessment Review Based on Evidence of Narrative, Gameplay and Educational Criteria

“…The need to promote more attention to sustainability issues, games and youth people learning and demands to develop more empirical research in the field of social sciences and especially focusing on the education for sustainability has become an explicit agenda of the academic literature [24,25]. In this agenda, the field of videogames in their different genres [26,27], is an explicitly recognized hot topic of research [28][29][30]. In this sense, the IPCC Working Group III has more recently tried to deal with socio-environmental research demands and to move beyond the topics of hard sciences; to this end, it proposes focusing social research on reducing epistemic uncertainty surrounding the perceptions and social responses to environmental topics such as water and climate change.…”

“…These games, also called "games of change" [32,33] or "social impact games" [17], have experienced a rapid rise in the last decade, due to the popularity of videogames as audiovisual technology for the media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), politicians, activists, teachers, professionals and the art sector, because they can encompass multiple learning objectives, encompass diverse areas and target different age groups [34]. Attending to their gameplay characteristics, serious games exist in a variety of genders and formats such as simulations, simulating aspects of a real or fictional reality; quizzes, answering questions with the goal of obtaining points-platforms-navigating one's environment while avoiding obstacles; or adventures, solving puzzles by interacting with people or the environment in a non-confrontational way [23,[27][28][29][30]. The choice of the type of game influences the success of digital educational games, where success is defined as a significant gain of knowledge in combination with the positive experience of the player.…”

Using Game Design to Teach Informatics and Society Topics in Secondary Schools

“…The simple reason for this was that the open-world and shooter genres demand much more resources and time in development. Heinz and Law's [12] good learning results with action games might also relate to the genre preference towards shooter and open world games we saw. The most used mechanic in student-designed digital games was fighting.…”

“…In the created games, the central themes were security, privacy, technological literacy, social media and also hacking. These areas correspond to the foci picked up by previous learning games in that space [2,4,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][14][15][16]. Both in the examples discussed in the related work and in the students' games, security is the most prominent area.…”

“…All of these references are examples of successfully translating topics from informatics and society into a game-based form, but there are few insights into how they can be integrated into school teaching and how to design game-based content in a way that appeals to school students. With regard to genre, Heinz and Law [12] looked at learning effects by game types. They saw an increase in learning effects with action games compared to other genres such as puzzle games.…”