Effectiveness of digital educational game and game design in STEM learning: a meta-analytic review

Gui, Yang; Cai, Zhihui; Yang, Yajiao; Kong, Lingyuan; Fan, Xitao; Tai, Robert H.

doi:10.1186/s40594-023-00424-9

International Journal of STEM Education

Table 7 Results of moderator analyses for meta-analysis 2 (enhancement effect of added game-design element over base game version)

From: Effectiveness of digital educational game and game design in STEM learning: a meta-analytic review

Moderator variables	No. St	No. ES	Mean g	se	t	p	95% CI lower	95% CI upper	Omnibus test F (df1, df2)	p	Level 2 variance	Level 3 variance
Game type	44	81							F (5, 75) = 2.230	0.06	0.087	0.092
Role playing	17	32	0.397	0.103	3.849	< 0.001	0.192	0.603
Strategy	1	1	− 0.618	0.512	− 1.207	0.231	− 1.638	0.402
Action	1	2	− 0.165	0.404	− 0.41	0.683	− 0.97	0.639
Adventure	5	7	− 0.031	0.202	− 0.153	0.879	− 0.432	0.371
Simulation	3	3	0.779	0.276	2.824	0.006	0.229	1.328
Puzzle	17	36	0.287	0.104	2.769	0.007	0.08	0.493
Game time	39	68							F (2, 65) = 0.342	0.711	0.126	0.098
Up to 1 day	22	39	0.282	0.099	2.841	0.006	0.084	0.48
Between 1 and 7 days	8	15	0.142	0.174	0.818	0.417	− 0.205	0.489
Over 7 days	9	14	0.329	0.162	2.033	0.046	0.006	0.652
Level of realism	40	74							F (2, 71) = 0.031	0.97	0.072	0.15
Cartoon-like	26	49	0.295	0.096	3.076	0.003	0.104	0.487
Photorealistic	7	13	0.284	0.181	1.566	0.122	− 0.078	0.646
Schematic	7	12	0.342	0.185	1.852	0.068	− 0.026	0.71
Educational level	44	81							F (3, 77) = 1.423	0.242	0.096	0.099
Elementary school	16	28	0.403	0.117	3.444	< 0.001	0.17	0.636
Middle school	16	28	0.19	0.112	1.704	0.092	− 0.032	0.412
High school	4	8	0.016	0.227	0.07	0.944	− 0.436	0.468
College/University	8	17	0.442	0.145	3.047	0.003	0.153	0.731
Subject	44	81							F (3, 77) = 2.374	0.077	0.088	0.098
Science	24	53	0.295	0.087	3.394	0.001	0.122	0.468
Math	12	15	0.259	0.138	1.882	0.064	− 0.015	0.533
Engineering	1	1	1.528	0.471	3.247	0.002	0.591	2.465
Computer	7	12	0.223	0.166	1.345	0.182	− 0.107	0.553
Learning outcome	44	81							F (1, 79) = 6.055	0.016	0.088	0.099
Knowledge	28	52	0.428	0.085	5.059	< 0.001	0.26	0.596
Cognitive skills	16	29	0.091	0.108	0.849	0.398	− 0.123	0.305
Added game design element	44	81							F (1, 79) = 4.315	0.041	0.085	0.112
For gaming	25	40	0.175	0.091	1.917	0.059	− 0.007	0.357
For learning	25	41	0.432	0.093	4.629	< 0.001	0.246	0.617

No. St: number of studies; no. ES: number of effect sizes; g: mean effect size (g); SE: standard error; CI: confidence interval; F (df1, df2): Omnibus test of regression coefficient in the model; p: p-value of the omnibus test; level 2 variance: variance between effect sizes extracted from the same study (heterogeneity of within-study); level 3 variance: variance between studies (heterogeneity of between-study)

Back to article page