Gamification, characterized by the integration of game design elements into non-game environments, has gained popularity in classrooms due to its potential for increased engagement and enjoyment compared to traditional lecture-based teaching methods. While students generally exhibit positive attitudes towards gamification, its impact on academic…

The number of scientific publications about serious games has exponentially increased, often surpassing human limitations in processing such a large volume of information. Consequently, the importance of frameworks for summarising such fast-expanding literature has also grown. This paper draws a panorama of serious game research streams, focusing…

This study examines the embodied ways in which learners monitor their cognition while learning about exponential functions in an immersive virtual reality (VR) based game, "Pandemic" by Prisms of Reality. Traditionally, metacognitive monitoring has been assessed through behavioural traces and verbalised instances. When learning in VR,…

Augmented reality (AR) games offer significant potential to enhance learning experiences, yet the impact of when these games are introduced during the educational process remains underexplored. This study explored how the timing of providing the AR game influenced learners' achievement, satisfaction and acceptance. Using a quasi-experimental…

With increasing interest in computer-assisted education, AI-integrated systems become highly applicable with their ability to adapt based on user interactions. In this context, this paper focuses on understanding and analysing first-year undergraduate student responses to an intelligent educational system that applies multi-agent reinforcement…

This article reports on a trace-based assessment of approaches to learning used by middle school aged children who interacted with NASA Mars Mission science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) games in "Whyville," an online game environment with 8 million registered young learners. The learning objectives of two games…

Digital games are widely used in education to motivate students for science. Additionally, augmented reality (AR) is increasingly used in education. However, recent research indicates that these technologies might not be equally beneficial for students with different background characteristics. Moreover, students with different backgrounds may…

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders often have social-emotional difficulties. Serious games can be used to support their social-emotional learning. This study investigated if 6-10-year-old children with autism spectrum condition, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and developmental language disorder would improve their emotion…

Using gamification to support learning in K-12 education has received much attention from scholars in recent years. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding of how gamification should be used to effectively enhance the learning experiences of K-12 students. The purpose of this review was to synthesize research findings on the…

Simulation games are widely used to teach negotiation skills in political science education. However, existing studies focus on the impact of simulation games on students' knowledge gains and affective changes and largely ignore skill assessment and development in the gaming environment. This study aimed to understand the process of student groups…

Research on serious games shows that complementary design measures are often needed to increase effectiveness. The present study investigated the role of scripted collaboration. In such a collaboration, players are assigned roles or given specific tasks to stimulate them to communicate more about essential game aspects (eg, arguing why a move…

Little is known about the instructional effects of narrative framing elements in child learning games. In this study, second and third graders (M[subscript age] = 8.24) played one of two versions of a successful, commercial mathematical learning game at home for 2 weeks (N = 95; between-subject design). The versions differed in the…

Well-designed online educational games can improve students' math knowledge, skills and engagement; however, more research is needed to understand how to formatively assess components of students' mathematical understanding and learning as students solve problems in online educational games. In this study, we examined how 7th-grade students' (N =…

During the last decade, many governments and ed-tech companies have demonstrated an increased interest in digital personalised learning, which resulted in a variety of often game-like adaptive learning environments. However, there has been limited attention for the impact of these personalised learning technologies on children's learning…

Game-based assessment (GBA), a specific application of games for learning, has been recognized as an alternative form of assessment. While there is a substantive body of literature that supports the educational benefits of GBA, limited work investigates the validity and generalizability of such systems. In this paper, we describe applications of…