Blog
These articles examine how games that teach are designed, what the research establishes and how we work. Each one cites its sources and states the limits of the evidence.
Evidence of Educational Game Design
Games teach modestly on average and strongly when well designed. This overview sets out seven design decisions and links the full evidence for each.
Start with the overview
The five parts.
How large is a learning game’s 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.
Four design decisions that make a game teach
The design core: why the learning has to be the progression mechanism, what makes feedback work, how to set difficulty, and why spaced practice suits games natively.
Choosing the right format for a learning game
Task-technology fit is what predicts whether an educational game works. What that means for extended reality, mobile, and tabletop, and what each does best.
What happens after a learning game ends
A debrief improves outcomes by roughly 20 to 25 per cent, and a structured one widens the gap further. What the evidence supports and how to design for it.
How to tell whether a game teaches
Playtesting is formative evaluation. What that means for testing an educational game during development, and why the test group has to include the target learners.
Have a project in mind?
Or write to us directly.
- hello@cognitika.com