Digital card games in education: A ten year systematic review. (June 2017) - Kordaki, Maria
Abstract: This paper presents a 10-year review study that focuses on the investigation of the use of Digital Card Games (DCGs) as learning tools in education. Specific search terms keyed into 10 large scientific electronic databases identified 50 papers referring to the use of non-commercial DCGs in education during the last decade (2003–2013). The findings revealed that the DCGs reported in the reviewed papers: (a) were used for the learning of diverse subject disciplines across all educational levels and leaning towards the school curriculum, in two ways: game-construction and game-play, (b) were mainly proposed by their designers as meaningful, familiar and appealing learning contexts, in order to motivate and engage players/students and also to promote social, rich and constructivist educational experiences while at the same time integrating modern technologies and innovative gamed-based approaches, (c) were implemented using a plethora of digital tools, (d) mainly adopted social and constructivist views of learning during their design and use, although the views were explicitly reported in only a few of these, (e) were evaluated – in more than half of the studies – with positive results in terms of: student learning, attitudes towards DCGs and enrichment of social interaction and collaboration, (f) appeared to support students to acquire essential thinking skills through DCG-play. However, despite the rich DCG-game experiences reported in the reviewed papers, some essential but under-researched topics were also specified. Graphical abstract: Highlights: Digital Card Games (DCGs) in Education: a ten year systematic review. DCGs were used in diverse: disciplines, educational levels, school curricula. DCG design/use mainly adopted social and constructivist views of learning. DCGs were proposed as meaningful familiar innovative & appealing learning contexts. DCGs were evaluated with positive results: learning, attitudes, thinking skills.