Engagement influences participation, progression and retention in game-based e-learning (GBeL). Therefore, GBeL systems should engage the players in order to support them to maximize their learning outcomes, and provide the players with adequate feedback to maintain their motivation. Innovative engagement monitoring solutions based on players'…

This paper aims to show best practices of GBL design for engagement. It intends to show how teachers can implement GBL in a collaborative, comprehensive and systematic way, in the classrooms, and probably outside the classrooms, based on empirical evidence and theoretical framework designed accordingly. This paper presents the components needed to…

Persistent inequalities in the academic learning trajectories of underserved students have led to a growing interest in interventions for young children who are at higher risk for academic difficulties later on. This study's primary goal was to understand how the integration of video, computer games and associated hands-on activities impacts…

Scientific literacy is more than the simple reproduction of traditional school science knowledge and requires a set of skills, among them identifying scientific issues, explaining phenomena scientifically and using scientific evidence. Several studies have indicated that playing computer games in the classroom can support the development of…

A group of first-semester engineering students participated in a game design course. The aim of the course was to learn how to design computer games and programming skills by creating their own games, thereby applying their game-playing experiences to gain knowledge about game design. The aim was for students to develop a more critically…

This executive summary highlights findings from a larger study that is part of an interrelated series of studies included in the Ready To Learn summative evaluation being conducted by the Education Development Center, Inc.'s (EDC's) Center for Children and Technology and SRI Education's Center for Technology in Learning (EDC/SRI). The purpose of…

In a previous work the author created the Education and Entertainment Grid by combining various taxonomies from the fields of play and learning. In this paper, a section of this grid known as the Entertainment Grid will be extended by including previously unused elements of Richard Bartle's online player types and Robert Caillois' play complexity.…

Learner engagement has been considered one of the keys that can lead learners to successful learning in a multimedia learning environment such as digital game-based learning. Regarding this point, game-based learning advocates (e.g., Gee, 2003; Prensky, 2001) have asserted that digital games have great potential to engage learners. Nonetheless,…

The social learning strategies tournament was an open computer-based tournament investigating the best way to learn in a changing environment. Here we present an analysis of the impact of memory on the ability of strategies entered into the social learning strategies tournament (Rendell, Boyd, et al., 2010) to modify their own behavior to suit a…

This article explores the intersections between drama and digital gaming and the educational possibilities for literacy of both. The article draws on a model for the educational uses of digital gaming and three case studies from the Australian Research Council funded three and a half year project, "Literacy in the digital world of the twenty…

In the last few years, digital games have become increasingly popular with both "hardcore" and "casual" audiences. At the same time, it has been argued that games can be powerful learning environments, since they are seen to encourage active and critical learning through participation in affinity groups and semiotic domains but…

This study used a cross-case analysis methodology to compare four line-of-inquiry studies of desktop virtual environments (DVEs) to examine the relationships of gender and computer gaming experience to learning performance and perceptions. Comparison was made of learning patterns in a general non-technical DVE with patterns in technically complex,…

The training of motor skills is a crucial aspect of medical education today. Serious games and haptic virtual simulations have been used in the training of surgical procedures. Otherwise, however, a combination of serious games and motor skills training is rarely used in medical education. This article presents Skills-O-Mat, an interactive serious…

Building pedagogical applications in virtual worlds is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that involves learning theories, application development framework, and mediated communication theories. This paper presents a project that integrates game-based learning, multi-agent system architecture (MAS), and the theory of Transformed Social Interaction…

Drawing on case illustrations of a six-year-old child as he "assembles" a digital world using Webkinz[TM], this paper proposes an approach that researchers and educators might use to understand, analyse and critique multimodality. This multidisciplinary theoretical framework integrates new literacies, social semiotics and critical…