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…

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…

It is difficult to motivate learners to seek out and persist at challenging learning tasks where failure is likely. However, in game environments, people seem highly motivated to engage with challenges and respond productively to failure. Many typical game features purportedly enhance intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, which should improve…

This study investigates the influence of the educational game design elements "immersion," "collaboration" and "debriefing," on fostering learning with educational escape rooms. We based the design of the escape room on an educational game design framework that aligns the learning goal and the game goal, that is,…

This paper examines how primary aged children with reading difficulties attend to, understand and act upon different types of feedback within a digital literacy game. A systematic and structured video analysis of twenty-six children's game play was carried out focussing on moments where children made an error and were followed by in-game feedback.…

Games have been regarded as a potential vehicle for enhancing student learning. Previous studies mainly focused on learning outcomes; however, the learning processes and dynamic in-game behaviours of students who are immersed in a game context are relatively undiscovered. The purposes of this study were to develop an educational game, "Bio…

Prior research has shown that game-based learning tools, such as DragonBox 12+, support algebraic understanding and that students' in-game progress positively predicts their later performance. Using data from 253 seventh-graders (12-13 years old) who played DragonBox as a part of technology intervention, we examined (a) the relations between…

Game-based learning environments typically elicit a variety of emotions; however, the influence of emotions on game-based learning is basically underemphasized. This study sought to investigate how emotions are related to science learning in a gaming context. "Humunology," an educational game for learning about the human immune system,…

Serious games are designed to improve learning instead of providing only entertainment. Serious games analytics can be used for understanding and enhancing the quality of learning with serious games. One challenge in developing the computerized support for learning is that learning of skills varies between players. Appropriate algorithms are…

Gamification has become a popular approach to blending learning with fun and enjoyable experiences. However, gamification research has been criticized for mostly focusing on game mechanics and related outcomes while paying little attention to the psychological processes that mediate the relationship between these mechanics and outcomes.…

For higher education, the question of how in-class activities can be supported in large lectures is of great relevance. This paper suggests a gamified flipped classroom approach to address this challenge. In an experimental study, N = 205 educational science students performed either gamified in-class activities using a gamified quiz with points…

Active inquiry plays a key role in science education. To facilitate children's motivation, alternate reality games are applied to engage children actively in inquiry in authentic learning contexts. However, the complexity of real-world contexts and the ambiguity of game puzzles increase the difficulty for children to conduct effective inquiries.…

Introductory Psychology courses in Higher Education lack application of knowledge in solving work-based problems. We develop and study mini-games that support a more active and experiential way of learning to increase professional awareness. This paper describes the instructional design and the factors under study: learner control and…

A major goal of contemporary education is to teach students how to learn on their own. Assessments have largely lagged behind this goal, because they measure what students have learned and not necessarily their learning processes. This research presents Posterlet, an assessment that collects evidence regarding the strategies that students choose…

Recent years have seen a surge of calls for personalization of education. Automatised adaptivity in serious games has been advocated as a potential instantiation of such calls. Yet little is known about the extent to which personalised learning through automatised adaptivity poses an advantage for language learning over generalised teacher-led…