Research Guides: Video Game Studies: Game-Based Learning

About Game-Based Learning

As the concept of game-based learning is evolving, it's been called by many different names, including gameful learning and gamification.

Although definitions are also evolving, here are a few differences in broad terms. Game-based learning is "simply learning through games," while gamification is "the application of game-like mechanics to non-game entities to encourage a certain type of behavior."

Here are some resources to get you started.

News & Initiatives

Centervention
Our mission is to help children succeed in the classroom and in life by using online games to improve social and emotional learning.
EdTechUpdate.com
Game-Based Learning in Action.
Edutopia's Game-Based Learning
Get tips, techniques, and tools that apply the principles of game design to the learning process -- a dynamic way to engage learners and help educators assess learning.
University of Michigan's Gameful Pedagogy Site
A U-M site that offers recommendations for applying gameful pedagogy to your course.

Game-Based Learning Centers

American University Game Lab (Washington, DC)
The American University Game Lab serves as a hub for experiential education, persuasive play research, and innovative production in the fields of games for change and rhetorical play.
Central Michigan University's Center for Learning through Games and Simulations
The Center for Learning through Games and Simulations promotes the use of games, simulations, and play in learning. The use of games facilitates an active-learning agenda with a high level of student engagement. The goal is to have the students learn course material while simultaneously building skills in leadership, public speaking, critical thinking, problem solving and analysis.
CUNY Games Network (NYC)
The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning.
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We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning.
Digital Technologies Hub (Australia)
The Digital Technologies Hub provides learning resources and services for teachers, students, school leaders and parents. It aims to support the implementation of quality Digital Technologies programs and curriculum in schools and to support after school activities.
Game-based Education and Advanced Research Studies (GEARS) Lab
Part of the Human Factors and Systems Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL, this lab focuses on exploring how games and simulation can enhance education and training.
University of Lüneburg's Gamification Lab (Germany)
The Gamification Lab investigates the aesthetic, ethical and political implications of gamification and works on innovative formats of ‘gamified’ apps, civic technology, and socially aware intervention with ludic methods.
University of Michigan's Gameful Learning Summer Institute and Community of Practice (Ann Arbor, MI)
The Gameful Learning Summer Institute (GLSI) leverages inspiration from good games to explore how learning environments can be designed (and re-designed) to promote learners’ senses of autonomy, belonging and competence to motivate engagement and effort in learning. The GLL collaborates with instructors to create engaging courses, conducts research on learner motivation and develops tools to facilitate gameful learning at a range of scales.
University of Rome's GamificationLab Sapienza (Italy)
GamificationLab is a university laboratory dedicated to research and teaching in the field of gamification, the gaming and digital simulations.

U-M Research Examples

A-Games Project
The A-GAMES Project (Analyzing Games for Assessment in Math, ELA/ Social Studies, and Science) studied how teachers actually use digital games in their teaching to support formative assessment

Resources on the Web

GradeCraft
The learning management system that helps instructors build gameful courses & encourages students to focus on the craft of learning.
MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning
The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning explains key ideas in game-based learning, pedagogy, implementation, and assessment. This guide makes sense of the available research and provides suggestions for practical use.
Mr. Nussbaum's 167 Educational Games for Kids
Features 167 original, challenging, and exciting educational games for kids ages 4 – 14 that allow students to learn and practice topics through role-play, problem solving, critical thinking, calculation, and trial and error.

Recommended Search Terms

"Game-based learning"

Gamification

"Gameful learning"

"Gameful pedagogy"

Resources in Library Catalog Search

U-M Library Catalog Search Resources