Matching serious games with museum’s educational roles: smart education in practice

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to present a meta-analysis of the use of serious educational games in museums. The analysis is based on a critical literature review that maps educational roles of museums against serious educational games used in support of those roles. The meta-analysis focuses on the specific context of informal learning in museums. Design/methodology/approach The research design presented in this study is based on a meta-analysis research design that consists of a critical literature review, a multi-matrix representation of findings of the literature review and a conceptual visualization of the multidisciplinary area of the usage of serious games in support of educational roles in museums. Findings Clear and detailed categorizations of educational roles and serious games types for informal learning are presented. These are followed by matching these educational roles with published reports of the use of serious games within museums. The study concludes with observations and a conceptual map of the design of serious games for museums. Originality/value This study presents the first meta-analysis of research in this emergent multidisciplinary field. It will help serious game designers, museum educators and educational practitioners to make decisions regarding the choice of game type, customization and content design to support informal learning in the specific context of museum educational activities.

Vignettes of Computer-based Museum Interactive and Games Software through the Years

“…Rowe et al (2017) focus on serious game design in science museums, highlighting the importance of free-choice learning environments. Wang & Nunes (2019) considered educational goals and genres.…”

Research landscape of smart education: a bibliometric analysis

“…Its social impacts have been demonstrated in various relevant initiatives. For example, Wang and Nunes (2019) presented the use of educational games in museums for learning outside formal educational environments. Kang and Yoon (2020) reported the development of smart education in Korea, covering the aspects of policy, infrastructure, educational contents, standardisation, curricula and methods, human resources and information services.…”

Turing's Sunflowers: Public research and the role of museums

“…Eyewire is hosted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology inviting the public to map neurons in the retina. Serious games are further instances of contribution by the public in problem-solving tasks being adopted by museums in both research and educational contexts (Curtis 2014;Wang and Nunes 2019).…”