Game Based and Adaptive Learning Strategies

Reviewed by Luis Perez Cortes, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington on 12/15/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The book is a useful introduction to the subjects and topics of interest for those looking to learn more about key terms of gamification, games-based learning, and simulations. For example, it provides useful definitions and examples to help readers better understand important differences between some of the technologies used in these fields (e.g., "what is a game?"; augmented vs virtual reality; high- vs low-fidelity simulations). There are also many resources (printed text as well as audiovisual) with links to follow and some are accompanied with suggestions for how you might use them in a course.

If your goal is to get a quick overview of these terms, or if it is to help you build a portfolio of activities and lessons for a class, then this book will help you meet either of those goals. However, be mindful that there seem to be entire parts/chapters that are missing or were left blank (see part VI--Faculty Showcase) and while there is no index or glossary, there is a table of contents that will aid with navigating the book. If it were not for these missing chapters and the lack of a glossary/index, my rating here would easily be a 4 or maybe a 5.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The book's content is largely accurate and error-free. However, an important point that readers should be mindful of when engaging with this book is that terms such as "gamification" and "games-based learning" are largely used to discuss digital contexts/spaces by default. It's important to be aware that although conversations around these key terms often default to the digital realm in this book and in many other resources and academic articles, there are important distinctions that should be kept in mind when talking about these terms. Namely, that gamification and games-based learning can and do often take place outside of digital games by using, for example, tabletop games.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book is relevant, and while many examples of specific tools that are linked to--especially actual digital games themselves--will inevitably become out of date or irrelevant soon, this is not an issue that is exclusive to this particular book. Any book that references specific games will quickly appear to be referencing old software and visuals due to the fast-paced improvement that is made across the digital games spaces and technologies. However, the principles behind each example will continue holding relevance well into the future, and that is the important part. Updates to the named examples of games software or hardware should be straightforward to provide in the future for those using this book.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is written in accessible prose and direct simple language. This is actually one of the book's biggest strengths: the way in which it takes these topics and simplifies much of the research work into short clear sentences. Again, if your goal is to get a quick overview of gamification, games-based learning, and simulations, or if it is to help you build a portfolio of activities and lessons for a class around these things, then this book will help you meet either of those goals.

Consistency rating: 5

The book's layout is consistent. However, again, be aware that there seem to be entire parts/chapters that are missing or were left blank (see part VI--Faculty Showcase) and while there is no index or glossary, there is a table of contents that will aid with navigating the book.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters in the book are brief, modular, and can easily be reorganized by an instructor to fit with different learning structures or pacing of activities. For example, if they are interested in the concept and practice of "badging" as it is often seen in the larger practices of gamification, there is a chapter on this topic along with useful supplementary materials and links.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book is organized well and presents the topics in a clear and logical order.

Interface rating: 3

Some tables (e.g., Figure 1) have text that is shifted, and in the worst cases, some words are cropped or cut. However, from the surrounding language and context, these issues fall short of posing significant barriers to comprehension. Other issues with the interface include some figures containing text that is too blurry to be read even when zoomed out (e.g., Figure 3, and to a lesser extent Figure 4).

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The book contains very few to no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This book does not appear to have any cultural insensitivity or similar offensive issues/topics.

Comments

The editor and authors of this book have done a noble job of putting together an introductory text that will surely be useful for those who are seeking help with building/designing a course on the topics of gamification, games-based learning, and simulations. The collection of resources and suggestions for implementation that they have put together for others to adopt and adapt is a noteworthy example of how to build and sustain communities of those who are interested in these topics but may have neither access to nor interest in the wide scholarly literature that has been building on these topics over the past two decades and a half.

Reviewed by Miguel Ramlatchan, Adjunct Professor, Instructional Design & Technology, Old Dominion University on 11/23/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Great initial summary of the state of learning and educational gaming, game design, and simulation applications. t is a quick read with good inclusion of additional digital and multimedia resources. Another great inclusion is the links to game and simulation design tools as well as links to examples of serious, educational, and instructional games and simulations. This text would serve as a great starting point for instructors or instructional designers creating an online course on game-based learning or game-based learning design (with learning objectives summaries, discussion question examples for each major section, and class activity/project ideas). The game, simulation, and virtual examples are especially helpful when the authors tie instructional design theory to applied best practices.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content of this textbook is accurate and well-researched and successfully covers a large field of study.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is very relevant, giving examples of many milestones in educational and learning games and simulations.

Clarity rating: 4

The authors are clear, organized, and consistent, and I appreciate the Learning Objectives given at the beginning of each chapter. A new revision of the book could look at revising the visual clarity of the figures and the inclusion of examples in Part VI.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is consistent, which helps the reader jump between sections; terminology and definitions are the same throughout the text.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters in the book are modular and can easily be reorganized by an instructor. For instance, the sections on Virtual Worlds, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality can easily be re-arranged and taught/assigned first before the Simulation sections and before the Gaming sections based on learner needs and learning objectives.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text is logically organized, while successfully modular, if I were using this text in my class I would keep the textbook organized the way it is in terms of the presentation of content.

Interface rating: 3

Some figures and pictures are fuzzy and hard to see and read, possibly some resolution issues while being inserted into the text, or in the conversion upload process. Looks like some examples are missing from Section VI? (there are blank pages in the PDF version of the text?). Full 5 stars once these interface issues are corrected.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text appears to have been well proofread and looks to be free from any major grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text does not appear to have any cultural insensitivity issues and is bias-free.

Comments

I look forward to the next edition of this book!