Educational Computer Card Games: Results From Empirical Studies During the Last Decade.

This study is a ten-year critical review of empirical research on educational computer card games. Search terms identified 33 articles within ten large scientific electronic databases. These articles were analyzed across the following points: learning discipline of the empirical study, its context (sample, size of the sample, location of the survey, research method has been used, tools for data collection, learners' characteristics), and its outcomes. The analysis of the data shows that: (a) most of the reviewed studies evaluated the usability and the acceptance of the game as well as the players' enjoyment, (b) students from various educational grades, teachers, parents, public and combinations of the aforementioned groups participated in the surveys reported in the papers reviewed, while schools, universities or some educational events (e.g. workshops, summer camps) were the locations of the conducted studies, (c) the research methods that were used were descriptive - in the majority of the studies - and experimental, the data collected were qualitative, quantitative or combination of them, while questionnaires, interviews and observations sheets were the most common tools for the data collection, (d) only a few studies relate participants' characteristics with their involvement in the computer card game experience, and (e) the outcomes of the empirical studies can be grouped in learning outcomes, attitude towards the games and behavioral issues. Positive learning outcomes were emerged when such studies were realized. In these studies modern constructivist and social pedagogical approaches and new modalities of interaction of the ECCDs at hand were also reported. However, the learning effectiveness of the computer card games at hand has been under-researched. Thus, further research is needed to provide more evidence about the learning effectiveness of computer card games. In addition, students' and teachers' attitudes were favorable towards computer card games. Concerning the behavioral issues, student attention, social-interaction and collaboration were supported during game-play. Moreover, longitudinal studies conducted at educational settings with large samples and in various disciplines could be organized in order to investigate the retention of knowledge acquired by playing computer card games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]