Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 94, March 2016, Pages 178-192
Computers & Education

An update to the systematic literature review of empirical evidence of the impacts and outcomes of computer games and serious games

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.11.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The current systematic literature review updates Author (date).

  • The review looks at impacts and outcomes of playing digital games from 2009 to 2014.

  • Multi-component coding of papers, games and learning outcomes was used.

  • Many papers were found with 143 papers providing high quality evidence.

  • Games for entertainment and learning addressed different outcomes.

Abstract

Continuing interest in digital games indicated that it would be useful to update Connolly et al.'s (2012) systematic literature review of empirical evidence about the positive impacts and outcomes of games. Since a large number of papers was identified in the period from 2009 to 2014, the current review focused on 143 papers that provided higher quality evidence about the positive outcomes of games. Connolly et al.'s multidimensional analysis of games and their outcomes provided a useful framework for organising the varied research in this area. The most frequently occurring outcome reported for games for learning was knowledge acquisition, while entertainment games addressed a broader range of affective, behaviour change, perceptual and cognitive and physiological outcomes. Games for learning were found across varied topics with STEM subjects and health the most popular. Future research on digital games would benefit from a systematic programme of experimental work, examining in detail which game features are most effective in promoting engagement and supporting learning.

Introduction

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in the use of digital games for learning and behaviour change with an increasing number of conferences, journals, projects and societies devoted to the topic. Much of this interest has been speculative, discussing the potential of games to provide new methods for supporting learning. To address concerns about the lack of empirical evidence about the effectiveness of games, Connolly, Boyle, Hainey, McArthur and Boyle (2012) carried out a literature review that aimed to identify research evidence about the positive impacts of games. The review confirmed that research on games was very diverse with respect to the focus of the studies, the outcomes reported, underlying theoretical models and methodological approaches. Connolly et al. advocated a narrative review to capture the diversity of the selected studies and they developed a multi-component analysis of games and their outcomes which provided a useful framework for organising the research along key variables, making links between the different ways of categorizing games and outcomes, and identifying emerging trends, hot topics and gaps in the literature.

The effort and timescale involved in carrying out and publishing literature reviews means that they are out of date fairly quickly. Connolly et al.'s review was published in 2012, but examined papers published between January 2004 and February 2009. Reflecting continuing interest in digital games, the aim of the current study was to update the original review, looking at empirical papers published in the five year period since the end of that review, i. e. between March 2009 and February 2014. Like the previous review, the current review recognises the heterogeneity of the research in this relatively new field and aims to provide some organisation and structure to this area.

Section snippets

Databases searched

Since initial searches had suggested that a very large number of papers would be found, the electronic databases searched in this review were a subset of those used in the previous review by Connolly et al.: Science Direct, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), BioMed Central, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Ingentaconnect and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Limiting the number of databases selected provided a manageable number of papers

Papers identified by search terms

Table 1, column 2, shows that a very large number of papers (54,580) published in the time period March 2009–February 2014 was identified either manually or using the automated search. As discussed in Section 2.3, this set of papers was further screened to focus on a still large, but more manageable, set of 7117 relevant papers (see Table 1, column 3).

Papers selected using our inclusion criteria

Applying the four inclusion criteria to these papers, 512 papers were identified (see Table 1, column 4) and, to provide a more manageable task,

Discussion

Using the same search terms on a smaller number of databases, the current update to the systematic review of Connolly et al. found many more papers reporting empirical evidence of the positive outcomes of playing games (512) than the previous review (129). This illustrates the increased interest in the positive impacts of digital games during the five year period from 2009 to 2014 compared to the previous five year period. Given the very large number of relevant papers identified, the current

Acknowledgements

This work has been co-funded by the EU under the FP7, in the Games and Learning Alliance (GaLA) Network of Excellence, Grant Agreement nr. 258169.

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