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To learn complex skills, like collaboration, learners need to acquire a concrete and consistent mental model of what it means to master this skill. If learners know their current mastery level and know their targeted mastery level, they can better determine their subsequent learning activities. Rubrics support learners in judging their skill performance as they provide textual descriptions of skills’ mastery levels with performance indicators for all constituent subskills. However, text-based rubrics have a limited capacity to support the formation of mental models with contextualized, time-related and observable behavioral aspects of a complex skill. This paper outlines the design of a study that intends to investigate the effect of rubrics with video modelling examples compared to text-based rubrics on skills acquisition and feedback provisioning. The hypothesis is that video-enhanced rubrics, compared to text based rubrics, will improve mental model formation of a complex skill and improve the feedback quality a learner receives (from e.g. teachers, peers) while practicing a skill, hence positively effecting final mastery of a skill.

Despite the growth of interest in serious games, there is little systematic guidance on how to assure a game fits the instruction required. Game design frameworks are still under development and do not help to articulate the educational merits of a game to a teacher nor fit with their background. In this paper we discuss the results of a GaLA workshop which examined how a widely applied instructional design model, 4C-ID, can ease the uptake of serious games by offering teachers a model fitting their background to assess games on the applicability for their learning contexts. The paper will introduce the 4C-ID model and its use in the CHERMUG project with the design of mini-games for research methods and statistics. Next, we will discuss how workshop participants used the 4C-ID model to evaluate two games on their applicability for a given learning context. The participants indicated that the approach can support teachers in deciding if and how to use a given serious game.

This special issue focuses on analysing how digital SGs can contribute to the knowledge society's higher demand towards acquiring transferable, transversal skills, that can be applied in different contexts, dealing with various scientific disciplines and subjects. Examples of such skills, often referred to as 21st century transferable skills, include, for example, collaboration, critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, reasoning abilities, learning to learn, decision taking, digital literacy

An important question in web-based education is how to deal with the design of the interface. What will the actual screen look like? Two main issues that are especially relevant for educational purposes are discussed, both from a Human-Computer Interaction and an Educational Psychology perspective. The first issue is the design of navigation and interaction in web-based environments. Students have to focus on the content, and do not want to be bothered with the way it works. Some of the most important guidelines for navigation in web-based environments are presented: consistency, global versus local guidance and expectation patterns. To illustrate the implications for screen design, we discuss the development of a graphical user interface for the EML-player. The second issue the chapter deals with is the cognitive architecture of the learner, which gives certain constraints on the way the educational content can be presented. The central ideas of Cognitive Load Theory are discussed, and the issues of multimedia and redundancy are further elaborated upon, resulting in guidelines for presenting educational content in web-based education. In the final discussion, an integrated set of design guidelines is given and some future developments are discussed. Furthermore, some critical remarks and reflections are given on the issue of redundancy in screen design and the plea for minimal screen design.

Digital game technologies are a promising way to enable training providers to reach other target groups, namely those who are not interested in traditional learning technologies. Theoretically, through using digital game technologies we are able to foster the acquisition of any competence by specifying competency structures, offering adequate problem solving support while maintaining motivation and taking personality into consideration as part of the tailored game experience. In this paper, we illustrate how this is done within the RAGE project, which aims to develop, transform, and enrich advanced technologies into self-contained gaming assets for the leisure games industry to support game studios in developing applied games easier, faster, and more cost effectively. The software assets discussed here represent a modular approach for fostering learning in applied games. These assets address four main pedagogical functions: competency structures (i.e., logical order for learning), motivation, performance support (i.e., guidance to maintain learning), and adaption to the player’s personality.