Playing educational micro-games at high schools: Individually or collectively?

The effectivity of learning by playing serious games is increasingly subject to research, but information about how these games should actually be used in classes is limited. In this explorative study with between-subject design (N = 166; high school students), we investigated the effectivity of playing two different micro-games in two different ways. After an expository lecture, either students played a game individually at computers (“individual play”), or the teacher played it, while showing it to the class on a projector and prompting the students on how to proceed with the game (“collective play”). Results indicated that the two modes of play were nearly comparable as concerns immediate and one month delayed learning gains, as well as subjective evaluation of educational experience. There were only two notable differences. First, immediate test scores for factual questions, but not transfer questions, for one of the games were higher for the individual play (medium effect size). Second, this difference was accompanied by a higher enjoyment in the better performing group (small to medium effect size). The results support the idea that collective play, which is easier to implement in schools, is a method that should be considered in educational design and future research.