Computer games are very popular among children and adolescents. In this respect, they could be exploited by educational software designers to render educational software more attractive and motivating. However, it remains to be explored what the educational scope of educational software games is. In this paper, we explore several issues concerning the educational effectiveness, appeal and scope...

Technological support for personalized learning has the potential to transform the educational system in the United States. There is a growing interest in educational games and their potential for motivating learners. Techniques from the educational data mining and intelligent tutoring systems communities can be leveraged to better understand, design, and evaluate educational games for both lea...

The intrinsic motivation to play, and therefore to learn, that might be provided by digital educational games teases researchers and developers. However, existing educational games often fail in their attempt to compete with commercial games and to provide successful learning. Often some learning is added to digital games or some gameplay is added to educational applications. Successful educati...

Play has been an informal approach to teach young ones the skills of survival for centuries. With advancements in computing technology, many researchers believe that computer games1 can be used as a viable teaching and learning tool to enhance a student’s learning. It is important that the educational content of these games is well designed with meaningful game-play based on pedagogically sound...

Educational games link the motivational nature of games with learning of knowledge and skills. Here, we go beyond effects on these learning outcomes. We review two lines of evidence which indicate the currently unexplored potential of educational games to promote brain health: First, gaming with specific neurocognitive demands (e.g., executive control), and second, educational learning experien...

In “Computer Games for Learning,” Richard E. Mayer presents a strong platform for understanding the current state of research in educational games and gamification. Unlike many books focusing on games or gamification, Mayer rejects any statements on educational games which are not supported by well-constructed research. The focus of this book is on that research and not the topic of games or ga...

We describe preliminary research on devising intelligent agents that can improve the educational effectiveness of collaborative, educational computer games. We illustrate how these agents can overcome some of the shortcomings of educational games by explicitly monitoring how students interact with the games, by modeling both the students’ cognitive and emotional states, and by generating calibr...

We describe preliminary research on devising intelligent agents that can improve the educational effectiveness of collaborative, educational computer games. We illustrate how these agents can overcome some of the shortcomings of educational games by explicitly monitoring how students interact with the games, by modeling both the students’ cognitive and emotional states, and by generating calibr...