Revisiting the Historical Roots of Game-Based Learning

Excerpt

Game-based learning is a learner-centered instructional design approach used to improve student motivation, engagement, and learning (von Gillern and Alaswad 2016). Research has reported that even in history, games were an effective instructional method to improve learner engagement (Annetta et al. 2009; Fowler and Cusack 2011; Marklund 2015). The history of analogous games for teaching and learning are dated back to the seventh century, chess is one of the well-known board games that was used to teach strategic decision making and logical thinking to military forces (Kende and Seres 2006; Marklund 2015; Shenk 2007). This paper revisits the historical roots of Game-Based Learning (GBL) and its implications for the future. …