Serious games in future skills development: A systematic review of the design approaches

Suleyman C. Gurbuz*, Metin Celik

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Serious games offer a magnificent potential for developing future skills along with the 21st-century learning ecosystem. A close nexus between the design and effectiveness of serious games is still argued. In this regard, the current study provides a systematic literature review on serious game design approaches with a special focus on future skill development. A systematic review protocol, including planning, conducting, and reporting stages, is followed to comprehensively interpret the existing studies. Applying quality controls, 32 serious game studies which include a practical serious game design approach are selected. For providing a more systematic analysis, these approaches are then categorized based on the intended outcome of the serious game that the approach aims to facilitate. It is found that 8 (25%) of these design approaches support at least one future skills, among which problem-solving as well as collaboration and teamwork are the most commonly supported ones. It is also discovered that clear goals and interactivity, used in 6 (75%) and 5 (63%) of the 8 design approaches respectively, are the most commonly implemented game design elements. Considering the significant literature gap on the implementation of serious games for future skills development, this study consequently provides valuable insights for the game designers, software developers, educational technology researchers, and engineering educators in various domains.

Original languageEnglish
JournalComputer Applications in Engineering Education
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Funding

This article is produced from the initial stages of Ph.D. dissertation research entitled “A Conceptual Approach to Promote Learning Analytics of Serious Game in Maritime Domain,” which is being executed in a Ph.D. Program in Maritime Transportation Engineering of Istanbul Technical University Graduate School.

FundersFunder number
Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesi

    Keywords

    • 21th century learning ecosystem
    • educational game design
    • future skills
    • literature review
    • serious game design

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