From game elements to whole games
Adding points to a quiz is one thing. Asking learners to play a game or run a simulation in order to learn is another. The first borrows features of games; the second uses a game, or something close to one, as the learning activity itself. This second approach is usually called game-based learning, and it raises different questions about design, time and evidence.
A quick note on terms: the design features such as points and leaderboards are covered in a separate article. This one is about complete activities: puzzles, role plays, strategy games, board games and simulations, and what suits which subject.
What makes a game useful for learning
Not every enjoyable game teaches something worth knowing, and not every educational game is enjoyable. A game helps learning when the thing a player must do to succeed is the same as the thing the lesson wants them to practice or understand. If the game is a wrapper around unrelated questions, such as answering a quiz to earn a bonus round, the learning and the play pull in different directions.
Useful qualities often include:
- Clear goals and rules that the learner can grasp quickly.
- Immediate feedback on the consequences of choices.
- Meaningful decisions, where the player must reason, not just react.
- Room to fail safely, which suits topics where mistakes are costly in real life.
- A debrief. After play, discussion of what happened and why is often where much of the learning occurs. A game without reflection can leave learners with an experience but little understanding.
Types of games and simulations
Simulations. A simulation models part of the world: a small ecosystem, a market, a circuit, a medical scenario. The learner changes inputs and sees outputs. These are useful when real experiments are dangerous, expensive, slow or impossible.
Puzzles and logic games. These train reasoning, pattern-spotting and persistence. They suit mathematics, computing and structured problem-solving.
Role plays. Learners take roles in a scenario, such as a council debate or a negotiation. These need no technology and work well in history, civics, languages and professional skills, though they depend on good facilitation.
Strategy and resource games. Players manage limited resources over time, making trade-offs. They can illustrate ideas in economics, planning and systems thinking.
Word and vocabulary games. Quick, repeatable and low-pressure, they suit language learning and spelling.
Building and coding games. Games that ask the player to write simple instructions to achieve a goal can introduce algorithmic thinking and programming ideas at an early stage.
Board and card games. Physical or printable games can be shared openly as files, making them useful where devices or connections are limited.
Which games suit which subjects
The following are general matches, not rules.
| Subject | Often suitable | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Science | Simulations, virtual experiments | Safe exploration of variables |
| Mathematics | Puzzles, number and logic games | Practice with immediate feedback |
| Languages | Word games, role plays | Repetition and conversation |
| History and civics | Role plays, scenario games | Seeing events from several viewpoints |
| Economics and business | Resource and market simulations | Trade-offs and cause and effect |
| Computing | Coding games, logic puzzles | Step-by-step reasoning |
| Health and safety training | Scenario simulations | Practice without real risk |
Simulations carry a caution: they simplify, and a simplified model can mislead if learners treat it as reality. Say what the model leaves out.
Open education angle
Open licensing can reduce cost and effort. Openly licensed games and simulations can often be adapted, translated or reworked to fit a local context. Printable board games and role-play scenarios shared as documents can be reused anywhere, including where devices are scarce. When an open game is built on open-source software, teachers sometimes modify it to match their curriculum, though that requires technical help.
Some practical points before adopting a ready-made game:
- Check the license and what adaptation is allowed.
- Test it yourself, from start to finish, before using it with others.
- Check that it runs on the devices your learners have, and whether it needs a connection.
- Look at accessibility: color-only cues, time pressure and small controls can exclude learners.
- Read what data the game collects, especially for children.
Limits and honest caveats
Games take time. A forty-minute game that teaches what a five-minute explanation could teach may not be a good use of a class period, unless it also builds skills such as teamwork or decision-making that an explanation cannot.
Games can favor learners who are already familiar with gaming, and some learners do not enjoy competitive formats at all. Group games can also let a few players do most of the thinking. Facilitators should watch for this.
The evidence is mixed. Some studies report modest gains in engagement or understanding; others find little difference compared with other well-designed methods. Many studies are small or short, and the benefit often depends more on the quality of the design and discussion than on the game format itself. Be skeptical of claims that games are inherently better.
Choosing sensibly
Ask whether the game’s central activity is the skill you want to teach. Pilot it with a few learners, observe where they get confused, plan a debrief, and offer a non-game alternative for those who prefer one. Used with care, games and simulations can add variety and practice that other formats cannot; used carelessly, they can consume time without improving understanding.