What is an educational game?

In addition to educational games, serious games are also part of game-based learning. Serious games are games that often deal with a serious and problematic topic. They serve to impart knowledge and place the entertainment aspect in the foreground. In contrast, educational games are only designed to convey a learning purpose. Further information can be found in the article “What is a serious game”.

Even at an early age, learning through play helps to memorize various facts more quickly and store them for the long term. Through “learning by doing”, complex relationships can be more easily anchored in the memory. This is why games are an effective tool for imparting knowledge. Educational games should have an entertainment-oriented or educational purpose. A combination of both is also possible. They are mainly used in education to simplify the learning process.

To make learning games effective, four basic principles of learning through play are required. These principles are challenges, the exploration and testing of one's own skills, the exploration of roles and identities as well as application and immediate feedback. The challenge should help the player to progress by learning from their mistakes. The player should be able to prove their skills. As the virtual world contains no “real” consequences, the player can interact more experimentally and test their skills in virtual space.

In addition, the player can view a problem from different perspectives as they can slip into different roles. This also creates new challenges that encourage the player to tackle them creatively. Immediate feedback also plays an important role in increasing learning success. Furthermore, by directly applying what they have learned, players can achieve success, which motivates them to constantly improve.

Educational games help to convey knowledge more quickly and retain it in the long term. Complex relationships can be presented in a more comprehensible way. In order to develop an educational game effectively, the four basic principles of learning through play must be taken into account. These include challenge, exploration and testing of one's own skills, exploration of roles and identities as well as application and immediate feedback.