Anna Kienitz

Background: Digital games are promising tools for supporting knowledge acquisition, situational interest, and academic emotions in digital learning environments. However, evidence remains mixed regarding whether video games lead to stronger learning outcomes than text-based formats, and little is known about how instructional framing shapes learners’ engagement with such environments.Objectives: This study investigated the effects of content format and instructional framing on factual knowledge, situational interest, and academic emotions. It compared a historically accurate video game (Limes) with a structurally aligned interactive text application; each paired with instructions to focus on either learning or fun.Methods: In a 2 (format: game versus text) × 2 (instruction: learning versus fun) between-subjects design, 143 university students engaged with either the video game or the interactive text application. Both formats presented the same content through main narratives, optional missions, and supplemental information in the form of Codex entries. Outcomes included knowledge acquisition, situational interest, enjoyment, and boredom. Additional analyses examined behavioural data on Codex engagement.Results and Conclusions: Participants in the game condition reported higher enjoyment and greater triggered situational interest, whereas knowledge scores were higher in the text condition. No statistically significant effects emerged for instructional framing or for the interaction between format and framing; however, text participants engaged more extensively with Codex entries, and Codex engagement strongly predicted knowledge outcomes across both formats. These findings suggest that games can enhance positive affective experiences, but learning outcomes may depend less on the format itself than on how supplemental learning materials are integrated.

Background: Sound is a core component of digital games, and its integration is assumed to support learning, motivation, and positive emotions. However, empirical evidence on the role of sound in educational video games remains limited, particularly in narrative-driven educational adventure games such as digital history games.Methods: In a laboratory experiment, university students (N = 111) either played an educational history video game with sound (ambient audio, character voices, and narrated codex entries providing additional historical information) or without sound. Post-test measures assessed factual knowledge, triggered and maintained situational interest, and academic emotions (enjoyment and boredom). Engagement with optional supplemental historical information provided through in-game codex entries was measured using behavioural log data. Group differences were analysed using one-way analyses of covariance, controlling for relevant pre-test variables.Results: Participants in the sound condition did not score significantly higher on the knowledge test than those in the no-sound condition. Likewise, no statistically significant differences emerged in situational interest, enjoyment, boredom, or codex engagement between conditions. Additional analyses indicated that participants’ interactions with codex entries positively predicted knowledge test performance, indicating that voluntary engagement with supplemental content contributed to learning.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the presence of sound alone may not enhance academic outcomes in a narrative-driven educational video game. Additionally, our findings indicate that learning outcomes depended strongly on learners’ engagement with in-game codex entries. Overall, our results on the inclusion of sound highlight the importance of examining specific design features within educational history video games.

Background: Digital games are promising tools to support intercultural learning and prejudice reduction. Yet insights into their effects remain fragmented due to variations in theoretical frameworks, outcome measures, and game designs.Objectives: This systematic review synthesizes experimental and intervention studies examining the effects of video games on prejudice and intercultural competence, aiming to identify patterns across game types and outcomes.Methods: Studies were identified through database searches using predefined inclusion criteria. Eligible studies employed an experimental design with a control group and outcome measures targeting prejudice (e.g., attitudes, stereotypes, intergroup bias) or intercultural competence (e.g., empathy, knowledge, culturally appropriate behaviour). Twenty-four studies met these criteria and were organized into four analytical groups: (1) collaborative gameplay, (2) player–character interaction and embodiment, (3) comparisons of different games with bias-related content, and (4) comparisons of game- versus text-based formats.Results and Conclusions: Across studies, video games showed potential to improve intercultural competence and prejudice-related outcomes. Effects were most consistent for collaborative and player–character interaction and embodiment game designs; by contrast, the impact of games with bias-related content depended on their moral framing, and comparisons of games with text suggested that interactive formats can have positive effects but demand careful experimental control. We identify strengths and limitations of the current body of research and discuss future research directions and practical implications.

Background: Student teachers commonly struggle to apply theoretical knowledge to their teaching. This theory-practice gap is a serious problem in teacher education. Over the past decade, simulations and serious games have been shown as an effective way to practice the transfer of theoretical knowledge in authentic settings of skill-use. Approximating theory-based teaching practice via repeated use of simulation games, thus, may be able to close the theory-practice gap in teacher education. Aim: We aimed to assess whether repeatedly engaging with simulated teaching and theory-based feedback would improve student teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, transfer of theories into teaching situations and their perceived usefulness of theories. Method: N = 86 student teachers learned twice with either a digital simulation game depicting decision-making in the classroom (simulation condition) or with screenshots of the game (control condition). After each phase, student teachers received theory-based feedback about (their) teaching. Results: Against our hypothesis, there were no changes in both conditions regarding student teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, perceived usefulness of theories for practice, or integration of theory-based arguments into practical reasoning. Nonetheless, we found positive effects for learning time and motivation favoring the simulation condition. Conclusion: Our results point towards the motivating potential of simulation games that was, however, not sufficient to close the theory-practice gap. It seems that the theory-practice integration within the simulation game needs to be even stronger to reveal the desired effects, which needs to be subject to further research.

Previous research often revealed detrimental effects of seductive details on learning with multimedia instruction, but there are mixed findings regarding how to best explain these detrimental effects. We investigated whether the detrimental effects of seductive details are mainly mediated by the cognitive processes of diversion (deeper processing of seductive details rather than pertinent content) or disruption (unsuccessful attempts to integrate seductive details with pertinent content) by assessing the effects of instructional prompts. In an online learning experiment, participants (N = 247) learned either without seductive details (control condition) or with seductive details in one of three conditions: Participants received either a prompt informing them about the irrelevance of seductive details (irrelevance-prompt), a prompt to process seductive details and pertinent content separately (separation-prompt), or no prompt within their task instruction. We assessed recall and transfer of knowledge as dependent variables. Supporting the diversion hypothesis, participants in the no-prompt condition regarded seductive details as more relevant and consequently spent more time processing them compared to participants in the irrelevance-prompt condition, which negatively influenced their recall performance. Against the disruption hypothesis, participants in the no-prompt condition reported lower integration avoidance between seductive details and pertinent content compared to participants in the separation-prompt condition, but this led to better rather than worse transfer performance. Our results thus suggest diversion, and not disruption, to be the main process driving the seductive details effect. Reducing the details’ diverting potential seems a good way to deal with seductive details in instruction.