Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework
Introduction: Serious educational games are digital games designed to support teaching or learning objectives that have become popular among children. However, a set of principles is needed to develop a successful educational game. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive and valid fra...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2024-03-01
|
| Series: | Heliyon |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024041392 |
| _version_ | 1797224156727607296 |
|---|---|
| author | Afsoon Asadzadeh Hassan Shahrokhi Behzad Shalchi Zhila Khamnian Peyman Rezaei-Hachesu |
| author_facet | Afsoon Asadzadeh Hassan Shahrokhi Behzad Shalchi Zhila Khamnian Peyman Rezaei-Hachesu |
| author_sort | Afsoon Asadzadeh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: Serious educational games are digital games designed to support teaching or learning objectives that have become popular among children. However, a set of principles is needed to develop a successful educational game. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive and valid framework for designing children's serious educational games. Methods: The conceptual framework is developed in two phases. First, a scoping review was conducted in PubMed, Ovid (APA PsycInfo), EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and gray literature on August 1, 2022. Papers in English that reported the serious educational games’ principles for children were included. Second, the extracted data from the previous step was reviewed and discussed by the research team to develop the initial framework. Then, it was distributed to 20 experts with relevant knowledge and experience in two rounds to validate and apply their comments within the framework. Results: Of the 12916 papers identified, 15 were included in this study. In the proposed framework named CoDHP, the results were classified into four topics, including (a) content aspects, (b) design requirements, (c) highlighted attributes, and (d) children's preferences. Content aspects comprise four classes (goals and limits, child learning content, learning context, and a long-term program) with 16 principles. Design requirements contain 11 classes (stories and storylines, player characters, game mechanics, interactivity, game challenge, game rules, game help, entertaining games, user interface, accessibility, and setting) with 47 principles, of which 15 are highlighted. Regarding children's preferences for the game elements, various similarities and differences were extracted. For instance, both girls and boys prefer fun and popular games. Based on experts' comments, 21 supplementary principles were recommended to complete the content and design requirements. Conclusion: Game designers or researchers can use the proposed framework as a formative guide to design successful serious games or evaluate children's digital games. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T13:48:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ca2497beee1f4e58af2cefb870a30972 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2405-8440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T13:48:39Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Heliyon |
| spelling | doaj.art-ca2497beee1f4e58af2cefb870a309722024-04-04T05:06:51ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402024-03-01106e28108Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive frameworkAfsoon Asadzadeh0Hassan Shahrokhi1Behzad Shalchi2Zhila Khamnian3Peyman Rezaei-Hachesu4Department of Health Information Technology, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; Working Group of Psychiatry and Psychology Culture-based Knowledge Development, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranRoad Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; Department of Psychiatry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranDepartment of Psychiatry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranDepartment of Community Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranDepartment of Health Information Technology, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; Emergency and Trauma Care Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; Corresponding author. Department of Health Information Technology, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Daneshgah St, Tabriz, 5165665811, Iran.Introduction: Serious educational games are digital games designed to support teaching or learning objectives that have become popular among children. However, a set of principles is needed to develop a successful educational game. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive and valid framework for designing children's serious educational games. Methods: The conceptual framework is developed in two phases. First, a scoping review was conducted in PubMed, Ovid (APA PsycInfo), EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, and gray literature on August 1, 2022. Papers in English that reported the serious educational games’ principles for children were included. Second, the extracted data from the previous step was reviewed and discussed by the research team to develop the initial framework. Then, it was distributed to 20 experts with relevant knowledge and experience in two rounds to validate and apply their comments within the framework. Results: Of the 12916 papers identified, 15 were included in this study. In the proposed framework named CoDHP, the results were classified into four topics, including (a) content aspects, (b) design requirements, (c) highlighted attributes, and (d) children's preferences. Content aspects comprise four classes (goals and limits, child learning content, learning context, and a long-term program) with 16 principles. Design requirements contain 11 classes (stories and storylines, player characters, game mechanics, interactivity, game challenge, game rules, game help, entertaining games, user interface, accessibility, and setting) with 47 principles, of which 15 are highlighted. Regarding children's preferences for the game elements, various similarities and differences were extracted. For instance, both girls and boys prefer fun and popular games. Based on experts' comments, 21 supplementary principles were recommended to complete the content and design requirements. Conclusion: Game designers or researchers can use the proposed framework as a formative guide to design successful serious games or evaluate children's digital games.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024041392Video gamesSerious gamesChildrenEducationLearningFramework |
| spellingShingle | Afsoon Asadzadeh Hassan Shahrokhi Behzad Shalchi Zhila Khamnian Peyman Rezaei-Hachesu Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework Heliyon Video games Serious games Children Education Learning Framework |
| title | Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework |
| title_full | Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework |
| title_fullStr | Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework |
| title_full_unstemmed | Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework |
| title_short | Serious educational games for children: A comprehensive framework |
| title_sort | serious educational games for children a comprehensive framework |
| topic | Video games Serious games Children Education Learning Framework |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024041392 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT afsoonasadzadeh seriouseducationalgamesforchildrenacomprehensiveframework AT hassanshahrokhi seriouseducationalgamesforchildrenacomprehensiveframework AT behzadshalchi seriouseducationalgamesforchildrenacomprehensiveframework AT zhilakhamnian seriouseducationalgamesforchildrenacomprehensiveframework AT peymanrezaeihachesu seriouseducationalgamesforchildrenacomprehensiveframework |