Serious Games for education and training

TLDR

Serious Games are increasingly popular for education, leveraging advanced simulation and visualization to create realistic, situated learning environments, yet effective methods to embed pedagogy remain lacking. The paper seeks to introduce pedagogical theories and models relevant to Serious Games and to propose a schema for integrating games into formal education at various stages. By analyzing established Serious Games and formats, the authors outline key mechanics, models, assessment, feedback, learning analytics, and design tools used in SG development. The study concludes with recommendations for future research based on the analysis.

Abstract

Serious Games (SGs) are gaining an ever increasing interest for education and traning. Exploiting the latest simulation and visualization technologies, SGs are able to contextualize the player’s experience in challenging, realistic environments, supporting situated cognition. However, we still miss methods and tools for effectively and deeply infusing pedagogy and instruction inside digital games. After presenting an overview of the state of the art of the SG taxonomies, the paper introduces the pedagogical theories and models most relevant to SGs and their implications on SG design. We also present a schema for a proper integration of games in education, supporting different goals in different steps of a formal education process. By analyzing a set of well-established SGs and formats, the paper presents the main mechanics and models that are being used in SG designs, with a particular focus on assessment, feedback and learning analytics. An overview of tools and models for SG design is also presented. Finally, based on the performed analysis, indications for future research in the field are provided.