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Studies have shown various benefits of using technology especially digital games in making classroom learning more engaging and motivating. In Scotland, a new approach to education called the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was implemented in 2010. This approach moves away from traditional ways of teaching to more active learning. One of the popular approaches among teachers is the use of digital games-based learning (DGBL). This chapter presents the findings from some interviews with lecturers of education, in charge of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) courses at Scottish Universities on how pre-service teachers are being prepared to embrace CfE in general and DGBL in particular, and also what are their views on DGBL and its role within the CfE. Although it was found that the characteristics of CfE, such as being less prescriptive, based on teacher's interpretation and context-based, allowed DGBL to fit well into the new curriculum, the lecturers in general do not see the need for emphasis on DGBL at university level. There is a lack of courses on DGBL and the pre-service teachers who are keen to take forward this approach are expected to do so in their own time. Based on the findings from the interviews, some recommendations are made for the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in promoting DGBL among the pre-service teachers.

Game-based learning or simulation-based learning – especially Serious Games – are notions of the contemporary discourse on digitalisation in the higher education sector in Germany. These methods offer a more vivid and motivating learning context and they help to improve important competencies for reaching work-related higher education goals. This explorative study focuses on experts’ experiences with digital and non-digital serious games and their contribution towards developing self, social and management competencies, in the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in Hamburg (Germany). Whilst there are numerous opportunities for using serious games in higher education, their use creates barriers for addressing social, as well as leadership/management competencies. In the future, game-based learning – and more specifically, digital game-based learning – could challenge the relation between learning as hard work and learn for fun, and between explicit and goal-oriented learning and implicit, incidental and explorative learning.

This paper (published in two consecutive issues of On the Horizon) aims to contextualize research on games for learning by describing the current drivers of innovation in learning technologies situated within broader trends in open educational publishing.

The paper begins with an overview of changes, driven largely by technology in educational technology and publishing. Using massively open online courseware as an example, it describes how these factors are aligning to challenge the status quo. Next, it provides a brief discussion of changes in higher education more generally, including changes in education as a marketplace, reductions to state funding for education and changes in the research enterprise, particularly the rapid growth of the scientific enterprise and leveling off of federal support.

The paper pivots to describe the most recent chapter of over 15 years of work within the Games + Learning + Society (GLS) Center, which has sought to create innovative models of learning, innovative models for funding and conducting research in light of these challenges, and innovative ways of engaging the public.

The assumption driving GLS (and this paper) is that rather than wait for these changes to happen to us, educational technologists can help drive the future by creating it. A good way to get the kinds of learning systems we want is to go about creating them and seeing what works. During this time, GLS developed and released over a dozen game-based learning titles, raised US$10,000,000s in grants and contracts, graduated over 30 doctoral students and post docs, spun out multiple companies, created materials in use by 10,000s (or more) students across the world, and helped build a nascent field of games and learning.

The paper pivots to describe the most recent chapter of over 15 years of work within the GLS Center, which has sought to create innovative models of learning, innovative models for funding and conducting research in light of these challenges and innovative ways of engaging the public.

The purpose of this paper is to present principles for personalization of both learning content and gameplay in serious games for learning, which are based on a combined model of the student that comprises user, learner and player-related aspects of the student’s profile. Each of the considered user, learner and player sub-models has a static and dynamic group of characteristics. These characteristics assist general approaches for learning mazes game personalization applied to embedded mini-games (designed as information units, learning objects and educational tasks) so that to be adjustable and to enable learners to acquire knowledge more effectively.

A student modelling approach was applied to design the personalization of learning content in the educational maze game and each of them contained mini-games. To evaluate the student’s preferences about the types of mini-games and ways of their personalization depending on individual and group student characteristics, the authors conducted an online survey.

This study presents examples of personalization of four types of mini-games available in maze halls, namely, question, searching, arranging and action games. Next, the research discusses findings from an online survey aiming at the evaluation of the preferred types of mini-games and the way of their personalization. There are analysed results concerning the impact of the student model characteristics on the preferred ways of personalization in educational maze games, together with criteria for personalization of educational resources according to student’s level of knowledge, age, goals and learning style.

A significant limitation of the research is the relatively small number of survey participants and the lack of studying the impact of learning and playing styles over game personalization. Another limitation of the study is the inclusion of only some of the mini-games within the demonstration maze, which respondents play before answering the survey questions.

This paper presents original research on the personalization of educational maze game based on a model of the student profile that comprises both static and dynamic properties reflecting user, learner and player-related aspects of the student character, together with results obtained from an online survey.

This paper aims to explore the value students place on the sustainable strategies game (SSG) which seeks to improve student engagement in business sustainability through enhanced game-based learning. This game provides an alternative collaborative learning environment to the traditional instructivist approach to enrich Education for Sustainability (EfS) learning experiences and enhance student engagement.

Students’ reflections on their game-based learning experiences and suggestions for game development were collected through a short qualitative survey. Results are explored through three frameworks, namely, the multifaceted student value model, the dimensions of engagement framework and the UK higher education authority (HEA) framework for engagement through partnership.

Research findings suggest the SSG provides game-based learning within EfS that delivers “edutainment” within an active, collaborative and experiential learning environment that the students value. It is also able to challenge thinking and emotionally engage students with the fundamentals of business sustainability. Reflection-on-action and the students’ role as co-researchers in game development allow students to become active participants in their learning as well as knowledge producers and evaluators. These outcomes deliver the UK HEA’s core facets of student engagement through partnership.

This practice-focused study presents the self-reported results of a one-time, small study which does not offer generalised, independently validated responses. However, the findings may be of interest to educators considering the adoption of game-based learning and those seeking new learning cultures for EfS.

Game-based learning and teaching approaches can achieve a learner-centred active, collaborative learning environment that enhances student engagement with business sustainability.

Experiences gained from this study should assist others in the implementation of game-based learning to engage students in business sustainability.

The purposes of this paper are to implement a spaced repetition algorithm into a learning game, analyze the pros and cons of this implementation and make different considerations about designing the game to make the algorithm work in an optimal way. While games offer a promising way of engaging and motivating learners to deal with a certain topic, repetitions foster immersing this topic sustainably. Those repetitions should be done at sophistically determined intervals to maximize learning outcomes.

The work is implemented as two prototype learning games which use the SM2 algorithm for content selection and repetition scheduling. Based on our findings about user behavior, this study developed an auxiliary algorithm to aid SM2 in the special setting of a learning game. To design the game in a way which supports the spaced repetition approach, this study have analyzed best-practices in this domain and made some considerations for adapting them accordingly.

An auxiliary algorithm is needed to support the usage of common spaced repetition algorithms in mobile learning games. Best-practices in designing those games need to be to suit the spaced repetitions approach.

This paper shows the benefits of combining learning games with the spaced repetition approach and points out specifics in designing spaced repetition based mobile learning games.

While spaced repetitions are already commonly used with other types of learning, it has yet to be implemented in learning games. This study’s approach shows ways to do this and which considerations have to be made.

This paper aims to provide a framework for understanding and differentiating among different forms of game-based teaching and learning (GBTL).

The framework is based on an analysis of existing literature and descriptions of GBTL in varied higher education settings, combined with case examples of the author’s personal experience as instructors of GBTL courses.

Four frames or categories of GBTL approaches were identified: the action frame, the structuring frame, the bridging frame and the design frame. Each frame represents a spectrum of related yet varied strategies and assumptions.

This framework is a first attempt at providing an analytic tool for making sense of the varied instantiations of GBTL in higher education. It can be useful as a heuristic tool for researchers as well as a generative model for designing future GBTL practices.

An original concept for a Web‐based role play “SurfingGlobalChange” is proposed on the basis of multi‐year interdisciplinary teaching experience and constructivist pedagogy. Underlying didactic orientation is towards self‐guided learning, acquiring socially compatible “competence to act” in a globalised world, self‐optimising social procedures inside teams, process‐orientation and peer‐review instead of teacher’s review. Participating students find themselves in an argumentative battle where they put their marks at stake. A comparison with similar games highlights the increased level of responsibility attributed to and expected from learners using this kind of “digital game‐based learning”.

Digital technology has great potential for educating today’s digitally oriented adolescents on health. In particular, digital health gamified learning can make the promotion of the sexual well-being of adolescents more effective. Although venereal diseases such as HIV/AIDS have become a greater problem in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries than in any country outside of Africa, little is publicly known about the development of gamified learning for use in counter-measures. This paper aims to address that deficit by presenting the process of developing one such game. The paper highlights how the “My Future Begins Today” game for sexual health education was developed, evaluated and refined in the real-world of low-tech settings and made improvements based on the response of users.

Design-based research (DBR) was used to guide the design, develop, test and refine the digital game in iterative cycles. The evaluation of the effectiveness of iterations of the game was done using adolescent sexual health literacy tests and the validated Motivation, Attitude, Knowledge and Engagement framework, the authors developed based on existing approaches. That framework combines the elements of motivation, attitude, knowledge and engagement, effectiveness was evaluated based on the game’s ability to motivate students, improve their attitudes, increase their acquisition of knowledge and engage them in learning self-rating surveys and interviews. The whole process of game design, testing, evaluation and refinement were underpinned by the activity theory, DBR and participatory design (PD) research.

Participants in the gamified learning platforms demonstrated higher average scores on their post-tests than their counterparts subjected to the traditional teaching classroom. Also, gamified learning groups commented positively on the effectiveness of their instructional approach than their counterparts in the traditional learning group. The stakeholders’ involvement in developing gamified learning provided a good understanding of the importance of the game to the adolescent students and how it was going to be used to address the problem identified. The application of PD contributed to the effectiveness of the game. It involved various actors from various fields who were relevant to the game. Also, engaging targeted users from the beginning resulted in the creation of a better correspondence with the preferences of end-users.

This study has contributed to a better understanding of sex education and knowledge in the area of adolescent reproductive health issues, using developed innovative game mechanics features and its applicability in low-tech settings.

The study will be a recommendation for future researchers in applying this gamified learning concept and its suitability in their teaching practice, particularly regarding sexual health education and adolescent reproductive health issues in low-tech settings of SSA.

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of game-based learning for approximations of practice within a critical, project-based (CPB) clinical experience for preservice teachers (PSTs). Within the clinical experience, secondary English Language Arts PSTs practiced modeling argumentative thinking through playing a board game, Race to the White House, with ninth-grade students.

Data collection took place at a public high school in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA. A variety of data was collected including written reflections by PSTs about their experiences leading the game play, audio recordings of the small group game play and a transcript of a whole-class 30-min post-game discussion with the PSTs and classroom teacher. To analyze the data, patterns of discourse were identified.

The game-based learning activity provided an accessible structure for PSTs to model their own argumentative thinking, presented opportunities for PSTs to elicit and interpret students’ thinking to support students’ practice in constructing an argument and created a playful context for PSTs to encourage students to produce arguments and critique the argumentation work of others.

Game-based learning within CPB clinical experiences has the potential to bring students, PSTs, inservice teachers and teacher educators together to experiment with how to help PSTs practice engaging with students in different ways than a traditional teacher-to-student dynamic.

Game design and game play within CPB clinical experiences has the potential to bring students, PSTs, inservice teachers and teacher educators together to experiment with how to make teaching and learning a more social and collaborative process.