A meta-analysis with examination of moderators of student cognition, affect, and learning outcomes while using serious educational games, serious games, and simulations

Educational games and simulations provide teachers with powerful tools for teaching students in the sciences. Within the broad category of educational gaming, there are several types of games to include Serious Educational Games (SEG), Educational Simulations (ES), and Serious Games (SG). The purpose of this meta-analysis is to characterize and compare outcomes related to serious educational games, serious games, and educational simulations as they are presented in the educational literature. Specifically the authors intend to fill gaps left by previous studies, include major finding, and assess the current state of the field related to the use of these innovative technologies. The results of this study are in line with previous studies suggesting higher cognitive gains and increases in positive affective toward learning from subjects using SEGs, SGs, and ES. Effects were calculated from 46 empirical experimental studies. The examined studies suggest that ES, SGs, and SEGs do not differ in a statistically significant way when compared to traditional instruction but do differ from each other. More to this point, effect size outcomes are suggestive of a cumulative medium effect for cognition (d=.67) and affect (d=.51) with a small effect for behavior (d=.04).