Digital educational games in science learning: A review of empirical research

Abstract

This study is an initial attempt to review digital educational games in science learning. A total of 8 studies were selected from ISI database for review. A series of content analyses demonstrated that role-playing games are relatively more popular in science educational setting, and most of the games involved a "multiplayer" design. Beside, most of these games were used to be "a learning context or environment" for students' science learning and most of them are designed for high school students. This study further found that most of the digital educational games in these studies were expected to improve student content knowledge, inquiry ability, or motivation. It suggests that inquiry ability should be considered as an important learning objective in future game-based science learning. This study also revealed that the quasi-experimental research method was not commonly used in these studies, and the digital educational games in science learning are not always effective learning tools. Suggestions for further research are discussed in this study. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.