Games: Impact on Learning

The potential benefits of learning digital games have captured the imaginations of numerous educators, instructional designers, and researchers for decades. There is some evidence that games can positively impact student time-on-task and attitude toward learning subject matter, which, in theory, should improve learner achievement. The results of these studies remain thoroughly mixed and this entry provides an overview of research outcomes from studies related to learning games in terms of their effectiveness to engender learning.

Both pure games and those with distinctive simulation elements have been employed in classrooms and laboratories extensively to determine their effectiveness to support different aspects of learning ranging from acquisition of reified, factual content to the construction of knowledge in complex problem-based settings. In terms of having a direct impact on ...