Mini Tracks – Calls for Papers

Merging Digital and Urban Play Spaces
Adaptive Educational Video Games
Multiplayer Serious Games
Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Games-based Learning

Games on a budget

The Adoption of Commercial ‘Serious’ Games in the Educational Arena

Games Research as a Means for Developing New Theories of Knowledge, Practice & Learning

Organised with the co-operation of the




Read the author guidelines

Call for Papers: Mini Track on Merging Digital and Urban Play Spaces
Track Chair: Dr Wilfried Admiraal, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Generally, situated learning is considered important to let students learn meaningfully and authentically. The convergence of smartphones, GPS, the Internet and social networks has given rise to a playful, educational and social media known as location-based and hybrid reality games. In education, these mobile games –also called pervasive games, mixed reality games, augmented reality game or big games- are excellent ways to combine situated, active, and constructive learning with fun. Walking through urban spaces while playing games on a location-aware, Internet-enabled, mobile device encourages unique ways of exploring and navigating urban and digital spaces. In these games, communication and collaboration, and social interaction occur in a combination of the physical and the digital. Though both the design and the effects of game-based learning have been studied before, mobile game-based learning is still under-researched. In this mini track, researchers are invited to present their work on merging the physical and the digital in a powerful learning context.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  Location-based technology

§  Urban play spaces

§  Mixed reality games

§  Augmented reality games

§  Pervasive games

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Wilfried Admiraal

Call for Papers: Mini Track on Adaptive Educational Video Games
Track Chair: Dr Patrick Felicia, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

This track will present the latest research relevant to the design and deployment of adaptive educational video games. It will seek to include both theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence on adaptive GBL systems and techniques that increase motivation and learning outcomes. The track will be multidisciplinary and welcome participants with an expertise in Human Computer Interaction, Psychology, eLearning, Adaptive Educational Systems, Game Design, Educational Psychology, or Instructional Design.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  Personality traits and types

§  Learning styles

§  Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs)

§  Behaviours, motivation and emotions

§  Designing GBL systems for people with disabilities

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Patrick Felicia

Call for Papers: Mini Track on Multiplayer Serious Games
Track Co-Chairs: Dr. Stefan Göbel and Viktor Wendel, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

Today’s game-based learning applications are mainly focused on single player games. However, learning concepts like collaborative learning or training of soft skills like communication skills, negotiation, or teamwork requires the involvement of multiple persons working/playing together.

The concept of Multiplayer Serious Games offers a wide range of new application areas for these learning concepts and soft skills. Yet there are still many open research questions to solve. Both Serious Multiplayer Game design questions and technical questions are unresolved. Also the influence of various factors like group size, competition, or communication in Multiplayer Serious Games is still not investigated exhaustively. Furthermore, storytelling in multiplayer learning scenarios requires new concepts.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  Learning theory for Multiplayer Serious Games

§  Mobile Multiplayer Serious Games

§  Multiplayer Serious Games for use in classroom

§  Communication in Multiplayer Serious Games

§  Applicability of game genres for various learning scenarios

§  Narration and Storytelling in Multiplayer Serious Games

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Stefan Göbel


Viktor Wendel

Call for Papers: Mini Track on Empirical Evidence on the Effectiveness of Games-Based Learning
Track Chair: Dr. Thomas Hainey, University of the West of Scotland, UK

The gathering of empirical evidence is essential to investigate the validity of GBL as a learning approach.  The purpose of the track is to invite papers specifically presenting some form of empirical evidence that has been gathered in the GBL field.  This empirical evidence may be of a quantitative or qualitative nature.  The empirical evidence should focus on the effectiveness of GBL applications specifically from a learning effectiveness and motivational perspective.  The track also invites papers that have performed some form of GBL application experiment that has produced some good evidence and is specifically looking for comparisons between different traditional teaching approaches.  The track is also focused on ‘why people play computer games?’ and can focus on specific types of computer games such as MMORPGs.  The track is also interested in papers describing evaluation frameworks, models and methods that can be used to gather empirical evidence in GBL application interventions.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  Empirical evaluation evidence associated with the effectiveness of GBL applications with regards to the following topics:  learning effectiveness, motivations, attitudes, preferences etc.

§  GBL experiments compared with traditional teaching approaches.

§  GBL experiments producing empirical results.

§  Empirical evidence associated with understanding why people play computer games (this can mean specific genres ranging from fighting games to MMORPGs, for example).

§  Empirical evidence associated with understanding players attitudes towards GBL (this can be either in a learning or instructional capacity).

§  Potential methods of evaluation for GBL applications (this can be proposed frameworks, models or methods developed to gather empirical evidence in GBL).

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Thomas Hainey

Call for Papers: Mini Track on Games on a Budget
Track Co-Chairs: Alex Moseley, University of Leicester, UK and Dr Nicola Whitton, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Across the world, education is being hit hard by funding and quality crises, with increasing pressure to increase student achievement with decreasing resources. The feasibility of game-based learning can be limited by the cost of design, development or purchase. We welcome papers to this stream which focus on case studies and theoretical proposals for game-based methods which will be cheap and effective enough to be persuasive choices in this environment.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  The development of games cheaply (including simple games, non/low-digital games, alternative reality games, simple/mixed media etc)

§  Using game-based techniques in traditional teaching

§  Theories and methods for efficient design and integration of games into the curriculum

§  Case studies of successful, efficient and economical game-based learning

§  Examples of low-cost technological solutions for game development

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Alex Moseley


Nicola Whitton

Call for Papers: Mini Track on The Adoption of Commercial ‘Serious’Games in the Educational Arena
Track Chair: Paul Peachey, University of Glamorgan, Wales, UK

Games such as ‘Second Life’, ‘Rollercoaster Tycoon’, ‘ Sims’ etc. are commercially-marketed simulation games that might offer a valuable learning experience to students. Does your education institution use these or indeed, other commercially oriented games? What are the pedagogical and epistemological arguments? Should commercial video games be included in the higher education environment at all? How might the adoption of these games enhance the student experience? What are the barriers to adoption of these games in educational institutions? Etc.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  The use of commercial video games in education

§  The pedagogical value of commercially oriented video games

§  Institutional barriers to the adoption of commercially oriented video games for education

§  Enhancing the student experience through commercially-oriented video games

§  Edugames - borne of the marriage of commercially-oriented video games and educational-oriented video games

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Paul Peachey

Call for Papers: Mini Track on Games Research as a Means for Developing New Theories of Knowledge, Practice & Learning
Track Co-Chairs: Dr. Constance Steinkuehler and Dr. Kurt Squire, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Growing evidence connects videogames, both commercial and educational, to important forms of learning and practice in domains as diverse as science, literacy, mathematics, information technology, citizenship, ethical reasoning, and workplace skills. Yet, to date, much emphasis has been place on games as a means for teaching accepted goals using new forms. However, games and the communities that organize around them also “push back” on our theories of disciplinary knowledge, practice and learning in ways that force us to rethink contemporary accepted theoretical definitions and educational goals. The purpose of this minitrack is to highlight research on game based learning that challenges our existing definitions of what it means, for example, to be literate in a given domain. Empirical arguments that bear on new theories of knowledge, practice, participation and learning are especially welcome.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  revised conceptions of traditional models of educational goals (e.g. “science citizenship” or “science literacy” in place of “science”)

§  new conceptions of knowledge production and practice based on games research (e.g. “collective problem solving”)

§  redefinitions of what counts as thinking or reasoning in a traditional domain (ie. new conceptualizations of how an existing learning goal, such as math, is operationalized, such as “systems reasoning”)

§  new frameworks for understanding participation (e.g. “collective intelligence” or “digitally distributed knowledge production”)

§  other empirically driven arguments that help us develop more sophisticated understandings of educational goals or means or contexts.

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Constance Steinkuehler


Kurt Squire

Join the mailing list