Escape room games have emerged in the educational landscape over the last decade and are growing in popularity. Studies show that participants enjoy educational escape room games, however the data to demonstrate learning acquisition and behavior change is limited. This study addressed the research question: How effective are escape room games as a…

Background/Context: Poor social emotional learning (SEL) development places students at heightened risk for bullying, teasing, and social isolation (Asher, et al., 1996; Solberg, et al., 2007). As students experience social failure, school becomes an aversive place which they may actively try to avoid (Gazelle & Druhen, 2009; Ladd, 2006).…

Students often see mathematics as a hard subject because they have to rely on logic, mathematical theories of equations, proofs, and some of math concepts that are difficult to understand, which contributes to students' poor performance and low motivation to learn math. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the…

Research on instructional design provides inconsistent results on the use of game elements in cognitive tasks or learning. Cognitive load theory suggests that game elements increase extraneous cognitive load and, thus, may distract the users. In contrast, from an emotional design perspective, the use of game elements is argued to increase…

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…

Design thinking is an important concept presented in entrepreneurship education. However, the cognitive aspect of design thinking has been neglected by business teaching and learning practices. The aim of this paper is to present a game-based pedagogy to support the cognitive aspect of design thinking and to promote this approach as an alternative…

Serious games for learning have received increased attention in recent years. However, empirical studies on students' gaming experiences throughout the developmental process of serious games and discussions regarding game design are missing. The aims of the present study were to analyze students' gaming experiences while playing four consecutive…

This study is a review of video games studies completed in South Africa. This paper looked at existing research on video games in South Africa in order to understand the research approaches used, and the learning outcomes found in respect to findings from studies in the western world. Interestingly, the study shows similarities in the learning…

Despite the prevalence of case-based reasoning in systems design, many of the established design principles are based on theory rather than empirical studies. This study describes the evolution of a case library learning environment and its transition to a game-based learning approach using educational design research (EDR). We discuss our…

The present article attempts to reinterpret the findings of most recent studies investigating effect of using games for teaching purposes. A methodological approach combining a meta-analysis of quantitative data with qualitative ones was adopted in order to present the broadest picture of the current research on educational use of games. To this…

Regular contributors James and Toby Russo return with a sixth principle for educationally-rich mathematical games--almost all mathematical games have the potential to be transformed into an investigation. This article builds on their earlier piece with Leicha A Bragg (APMC 23(3), 30-34). [For "Five Principles of Educationally Rich…

This study examines the impact of a mobile game app on science museum visitors' level of engagement with exhibit content, compared to a non game-based version of the same app. Ask Dr. Discovery (Dr. D) is a question-asking app containing two versions: a Game Mode employing casual game mechanics and an Ask Mode providing a baseline version. We…

The current study investigated predictors of shallow versus deep learning within a serious game known as Operation ARA. This game uses a myriad of pedagogical features including multiple-choice tests, adaptive natural language tutorial conversations, case-based reasoning, and an E-text to engage students. The game teaches 11 topics in research…

Learners in the higher education context who engage with computer-based gamified learning systems often experience the novelty effect: a pattern of high activity during the gamified system's introduction followed by a drop in activity a few weeks later, once its novelty has worn off. We applied a two-tiered motivational, online gamified learning…