Articles
Writing on how educational games are designed, what the research establishes, and how we work. Sourced, and honest about what the evidence does and does not support.
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Evidence of Educative Game Design
The hub of this series: games teach modestly on average and strongly when well designed, in seven pillars, with the full evidence linked below.
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How large is the effect, really?
What an effect size means, why simulation training measures three times larger than educational games on average, and how to tell whether a big number rests on a big study.
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Four principles that make a game teach
The design core: why the learning has to be the progression mechanic, what makes feedback work, how to set difficulty, and why spaced practice suits games natively.
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Choosing a format
Neither hardware nor game elements predict whether a learning game works. Task-technology fit does. What that means for extended reality, mobile, and tabletop.
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What happens after the game
Structured debriefing improves outcomes by roughly 20 to 25 per cent over unstructured debriefing. What that evidence supports, and what it does not.
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How to tell whether a game teaches
Playtesting is formative evaluation. What that means for testing a learning game during development, and why the test group has to include the target learners.