Can game-based therapies be trusted? Is game-based education effective? A systematic review of the Serious Games for health and education

Author(s):  
Nuria Aresti Bartolome ◽  
Amaia Mendez Zorrilla ◽  
Begona Garcia Zapirain
2013 ◽  
Vol 221 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Sherry

Millions in taxpayer and foundation euros and dollars have been spent building and testing educational video games, games for health, and serious games. What have been the fruits of this frenzy of activity? What educational video game has had the reach and impact of Sesame Street or Blues Clues television shows? By comparison, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) managed to get Sesame Street off the ground within a couple of years, writing the basic scientific literature on educational media design in the process. Not only is Sesame Street well known and proven, it laid the basis for every effective educational show to follow. This article explores the differences between the CTW scientific approach to educational media production and the mostly nonscientific approach consuming so many resources in the educational games, games for health, and serious games movements. Fundamental scientific questions that remain unanswered are outlined.


Author(s):  
Luciene C. de Oliveira ◽  
Luanne Cardoso Mendes ◽  
Renato A. de Lopes ◽  
José A. S. Carneiro ◽  
Alexandre Cardoso ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 104687812110312
Author(s):  
Lucy R. Zheng ◽  
Catherine M. Oberle ◽  
W. A. Hawkes-Robinson ◽  
Stéphane Daniau

Background The use of games for social skill development in the classroom is accelerating at a tremendous rate. At the same time, the research surrounding games designed for teaching social skills remains fragmented. This systematic review summarizes the current existing literature on social skill serious games for young people ages 5 to 19 and is the first review of serious games to note the demographic and geographic component of these studies. Method This review included papers that: evaluated a game designed to teach social skills; included measurable, quantitative outcomes; have a translation or be published in English; were peer-reviewed; date from January 2010 to May 2020; and have a nonclinical study population between ages of 5 to 19. Keywords were obtained from the CASEL 5 framework. Results Our findings are mixed but suggest that serious games may improve social skills when used alongside in-person discussion. We also found potential effects of the length of time of gameplay, intervention, and follow-up on social skill serious game effectiveness. Although this review found promising research conducted in East Asian countries and with minority samples in the United States, the majority of social skill serious game research takes place in the United States and Australia, with unreported demographic information and white-majority samples. Conclusions Due to the limited number of published studies in this area and studies lacking methodological rigor, the effectiveness of using games to teach social skills and the impact of background on social skill learning require further discussion.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Eichenberg ◽  
Markus Schott

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa Abd-alrazaq ◽  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Eiman Al-Jafar ◽  
Arfan Ahmed ◽  
Shuja Mohd Reagu ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Memory, one of the main cognitive functions, is known to decline by age. Serious games have been used for improving memory among the elderly. The effectiveness of serious games in improving memory has been investigated by several systematic reviews; however, they are limited by design and methodological weaknesses. OBJECTIVE This study aims to assess the effectiveness of serious games in improving memory among the elderly with cognitive impairment. METHODS A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was carried out. The search sources included searching 8 databases, screening reference lists of the included studies and relevant reviews, and checking studies that cited the included studies. Two reviewers independently carried out the study selection, data extraction, risk of bias assessment, and quality of evidence appraisal. Extracted data were synthesized using a narrative approach and a statistical approach (i.e., meta-analysis), as appropriate. RESULTS Out of 466 citations retrieved, 18 studies met the eligibility criteria of this review. Of those, 15 RCTs were eventually included in 10 meta-analyses. We found that serious games are more effective than no or passive interventions in improving non-verbal memory (P=0.002) and working memory (P=0.02), but not verbal memory (P=0.13). The review also showed that serious games are more effective than conventional exercises in improving verbal memory (P=0.004), but not for non-verbal memory (P=0.12) and working memory (P=0.49). Serious games were as effective as conventional cognitive activities in improving verbal memory (P=0.07), non-verbal memory (P=0.94), and working memory (P=0.08) among the elderly with cognitive impairment. Lastly, the effect of adaptive serious games on working memory was comparable to non-adaptive serious games (P=0.08). CONCLUSIONS Serious games have the potential to improve verbal, non-verbal, and working memory among elderly people with cognitive impairment. However, our findings should be interpreted cautiously given that most meta-analyses were based on a few studies (≤3) and judged to have a low quality of evidence. Therefore, serious games should be offered as supplemental to existing proven and safe interventions, rather than a complete substitute until further, more robust evidence is available. Future studies should investigate the short and long-term effects of serious games on memory and other cognitive abilities among people from different age groups with or without cognitive impairment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 272-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Tolks ◽  
Kevin Dadaczynski ◽  
David Horstmann

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliane S. Machado ◽  
Thaise Kelly de Lima Costa ◽  
Ronei Marcos de Moraes

O desenvolvimento de aplicações computacionais deve ser guiado pelas necessidades do cliente, considerando todas as etapas do projeto de um software. Quando estas aplicações são voltadas para educação em saúde, observa-se a necessidade de abordar aspectos relacionados a pelo menos quatro áreas: educação, saúde, estatística e computação, evidenciando a necessidade de uma abordagem multidisciplinar para a produção de ferramentas efetivas e eficientes para os problemas a que se destinam. Este artigo apresenta e discute etapas consideradas fundamentais no processo de desenvolvimento de serious games e simuladores de treinamento para a saúde baseados em realidade virtual.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: realidade virtual; jogos em saúde; serious games.     ABSTRACT The development of computer applications must be guided by clients’ needs and must consider all step of software project. It is necessary to integrate knowledge of four areas: education, health, statistics and computer science when those applications are for education in health what makes evident the need of a multidisciplinar approach for the production of effective and efficient tools for the purpose expected. This paper presents and discusses fundamental steps for the development of serious games and training simulators for health based on virtual reality   KEYWORDS: virtual reality; games for health; serious games.     RESUMEN El desarrollo de las aplicaciones informáticas debe guiarse por las necesidades de los clientes y debe considerar todos los pasos del proyecto de software. Es necesario integrar el conocimiento de cuatro áreas: educación, salud, estadística e informática cuando esas aplicaciones son para la educación en salud, lo que hace evidente la necesidad de un enfoque multidisciplinario para la producción de herramientas eficaces y efectivas para el propósito esperado. Este artículo presenta y discute los pasos fundamentales para el desarrollo de juegos serios y simuladores de entrenamiento para la salud basados en la realidad virtual.   PALABRAS CLAVE: realidad virtual, juegos para salud, serious games.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. e480101624208
Author(s):  
Francisco Anderson Mariano da Silva ◽  
Tiago Silva da Silva ◽  
Ezequiel Roberto Zorzal

It is noticeable that more and more medical professionals have been searching for strategies to keep people engaged both in the recovery processes (cognitive or physical) and in the teaching part. It is possible to observe that the insertion of Serious Games has been offering this innovative possibility, which allows the development of new possibilities for several areas of knowledge. This study aims to carry out a review on the use of Serious Games in Medicine, exploring how the method has been used. The methodology used was a systematic review. Articles published from 2015 to 2020 in indexed in three databases such as IEEE, Scopus, Scielo, among others, were searched. If used correctly, the Serious Games can help in the rehabilitation process of patients affected by some sequelae caused by stroke (CVA - Cerebral Vascular Accident), and also in the rehabilitation process of people with degenerative problems. It was also possible to observe that SG can be used as motivating and engaging tools for medical students.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Fernando Ambros-Antemate ◽  
María Del Pilar Beristain-Colorado ◽  
Marciano Vargas-Treviño ◽  
Jaime Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez ◽  
Pedro Antonio Hernández-Cruz ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Serious games are a support in the rehabilitation process for treating people with physical disabilities. However, many of these serious games are not adapted to the patient’s needs because they are not developed with a software engineering framework with a set of activities, actions, and tasks that must be executed when creating a software product. Better serious games for rehabilitation will be developed if the patient and therapist requirements are identified, the development is planned, and system improvements and feedback are involved. The goal is that the serious game must offer a more attractive environment, while maintaining patient interest in the rehabilitation process. OBJECTIVE This paper submits the results of a systematic review of serious games in physical rehabilitation identifying the benefits of using a software engineering framework. METHODS A systematic research was conducted using PubMed, PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database), IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, ACM Digital Library, Mary Ann Liebert, Taylor & Francis Online, Wiley Online Library, and Springer databases. The initial search resulted in 701 papers. After assessing the results according to the inclusion criteria, 83 papers were selected for this study. RESULTS From the 83 papers reviewed, 8 used a software engineering framework for its development. Most of them focused their efforts on 1 or more aspects, such as data acquisition and processing, game levels, motivation, therapist supervision. CONCLUSIONS This systematic review proves that most of the serious games do not use a software engineering framework for their development. As a result, development systems overlook several aspects and do not have a standardized process, eventually omitting important implementation aspects, which impact the patient’s recovery time.


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