STEM education, which includes science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has been expanding for the past two decades. This study aimed to map new trends and the possibility of implementing digital game-based learning (DGBL) in STEM education. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted. The resulting sample was further…

Knowing the factors affecting students' learning achievement in digital learning is a crucial educational issue nowadays. However, recent research has paid less attention to how an individual's internal factors (prior knowledge) influence their learning achievement through cognitive engagement, and previous studies generally employed students'…

Detection and responding to a player's affect are important for serious games. A method for this purpose was tested within Chem-o-crypt, a game that teaches chemical equation balancing. The game automatically detects boredom, flow, and frustration using the Affdex SDK from Affectiva. The sensed affective state is then used to adapt the game play…

Computational thinking is acknowledged as an essential competency for everyone to learn. However, teachers find it challenging to implement the existing learning approaches in K-12 settings because the existing approaches often focus on teaching computing concepts and skills (i.e., programming skills) rather than on helping students develop their…

The use of educational digital games as supplemental tools to course instruction materials has increased over the last several decades and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Though these types of instructional games have been employed in the majority of STEM disciplines, less is known about how diverse populations of students interpret and…

This study examines whether "My Math Academy," a digital game-based learning environment that provides personalized content and adaptive embedded assessments, can improve math knowledge of Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten students. A cluster randomized study was conducted with 20 classrooms, 10 of which were randomly assigned…

A scaffolding-based mind tool was designed to allow teachers to easily create lesson plans for in-class gamified activities and to embed various scaffoldings in the lesson plan design. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning outcomes of a scaffolding-based mind tool integrated with gamified learning activities applied to a…

Drill and practice is a well-received approach to repeatedly train learners' skills through a series of exercises and to reward them with corrective feedback. However, drill-based training may not improve learners' performance if its exercises are badly designed (e.g., not fun, not relevant to the learning goal, and becoming too difficult or too…