Motivation in game-based learning: It’s more than ‘flow’

Abstract

Abstract: Educational computer games are sometimes considered to be motivating per se – because of the playing activity- and do not require further motivational strategies. Therefore the concept of ‘flow experience ’ is commonly used to describe how smooth gaming naturally results in deep engagement and, consequently, enhanced learning. Learning with an instructional game without discovering the instructional parts, seems to be a crucial goal considering the presumed needs of today’s digital natives. However, teaching factual knowledge and the need for educational guidance, assessment and other intrusive components impede the creation of a free flowing educational game in contrast to non-educational games. The present paper claims, that an exclusively activity-focused view on game-based learning lacks important aspects of motivation on the basis of a broad motivational theory and a game model of motivation. Those aspects include personal and game characteristics, usability issues as well as anticipated outcomes. An integrative model of game-based learning is introduced and the theoretical considerations are transferred to the realization of a demonstrator game in the context of the European research project 80Days. 1