Educational Games and Gamification: From Foundations to Applications of Data Analytics

A large number of educational games and gamification systems have been developed over three decades. Research has shown game-based learning (GBL) to be effective in enhancing motivation and improving learner performance. However, we have faced challenges of understanding an individual’s learning experience within GBL, since learners bring a unique combination of background, context, and skills with them to the game environments, which yields various responses to the game mechanics. Researchers and practitioners therefore have underscored the need for understanding individual differences within the GBL environments. The growing area of data analytics has created possibilities of identifying individual learners’ personalities and their play styles within the system. This chapter first describes how educational games and gamification system have evolved in previous GBL research. We further explore the emergent role of data analytics in advancing current research of educational games and gamification, particularly the recent research efforts of understanding individual differences in GBL.