It is with great enthusiasm that I am writing the preface for this special issue of the Electronic Journal of e‑Learning (EJEL). This issue includes sixth excellent papers, which have been recently presented at the 6th European Conference on Game‑Based Learning (ECGBL) in Cork (Ireland).

Game‑based learning (GBL) combines pedagogy and interactive entertainment to create a virtual learning environment in an effort to motivate and regain the interest of a new generation of ‘digital native’ learners. However, this approach is impeded by the limited availability of suitable ‘serious’ games and high‑level design tools to enable domain experts to develop or customise serious games. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) goes some way to provide the techniques required to generate a wide variety of interoperable serious games software solutions whilst encapsulating and shielding the technicality of the full software development process. In this paper, we present our Game Technology Model (GTM) which models serious game software in a manner independent of any hardware or operating platform specifications for use in our Model Driven Serious Game Development Framework.

Joseph Campbell's Monomyth not only provides a well‑proven pattern for successful storytelling, it may also help to guide teams and team leaders through the challenges of change and innovation processes. In project "HELD: Innovationsdramaturgie nach dem Heldenprinzip" researchers of the University of the Arts Berlin and the Berlin Gameslab, part of the University of Applied Sciences HTW‑Berlin, team up to examine the applicability of the Hero's Journey to change management using an adaptation of Campbell's pattern called „Heldenprinzip®“. The project's goal is not to teach the stages of the Monomyth as mere facts but to enable participants of training courses and interventions to actually experience its concepts using a portfolio of creative and aesthetic methods. While a pool of aesthetic methods ‑ like drawing, performing or role‑playing ‑ is already being used, the Gameslab subproject qualitatively researches the potentials for enriching and complementing these methods with interactive digital media and games. This paper discusses three types of game based learning treatments to be used in training and intervention sessions as well as teaching the Monomyth in a game based learning university course. The first option is providing participants with a game that follows the Hero's Journey and inducing them to reflect on the experience and its relation to the learning goal. An alternative strategy is to make participants go through a game sequence broaching issues that are relevant for a stage or the journey of change in general. Last but not least, digital equivalents of the non‑digital aesthetic methods can be constructed using digital games or digitally enhanced set‑ups for playful interactions. All three treatments have their merits and pitfalls, which are discussed in relation to the identified game‑based learning scenarios: self‑study, blended game‑based learning and face‑to‑face sessions. Furthermore, these scenarios are compared while specific techniques boundary conditions are highlighted.

Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revolution and its implications for learning in the 21st century. In the present new media age, educational reforms are desperately needed to support more open and flexible structures of on‑demand learning that equip students with competencies required in a globalized and multicultural world. Game‑based learning represents one pathway to educational reform through its emphasis on performance. In this paper we describe the Statecraft X game‑based learning program that blends performative game‑based learning with dialogic pedagogy in the context of citizenship education. The Statecraft X curriculum was designed with the understanding that a digital game on its own does not necessarily lead to meaningful student learning. Rather, it is the students together with their peers and aided by their teacher who must work together to make meaning of their in‑game experiences and connect these experiences to real‑world events and issues through thoughtful reflection. With a view to addressing widespread shortcomings of citizenship education that reduce the curriculum to learning about citizenship, the Statecraft X game, played on Apple iPhones, provides students with a first person experience of governance by allowing them to take on the role of governors and thus to enact governance. Central to the SCX program is its dialogic pedagogy where teachers facilitate meaningful conversations among students and advance their understanding of citizenship and governance. In this paper, we report an implementation of the Statecraft X curriculum in a Social Studies class attended by 42 15‑year‑olds attending a secondary school in Singapore. Students’ understanding of governance and citizenship was assessed by means of an essay that students attempted at the end of the program. Students’ performance in the essay was compared with a comparable control group taught the same topic by traditional method. The results indicate that students of the intervention class outperformed the control class students. Our findings suggest that the Statecraft X curriculum has efficacy in achieving the desired curricular learning outcomes. These findings have implications for school leaders, teachers, and students with respect to introducing and integrating game‑based learning in regular classrooms.

The emergence of social media has forced educators to think differently about the way learning occurs. Students and practitioners alike are using new technologies to connect with peers/colleagues, share ideas, resources and experiences for extracurricular activities. The social business gaming platform considered in this study leverages the social networking concept (an activity that all students actively participate in) in an academic environment. The primary objective of this technology is to foster a sense of ‘thinking outside the box’ and analytical ability through a medium that is widely accepted by students and graduates who have entered the workplace. Both the environment and problems are developed to adapt to suit any academic course from conducting research to proposing business solutions. This study was undertaken in order to develop information systems security (ISS) skillsets through the creation and facilitation of social business gaming, which allowed students to measure their performances of understanding as part of their on‑going learning. The online business game required students to apply what they have learned to problem situations and to further develop their understanding of ISS topics. The problems posed required that the learners had to prove that they understood the material being taught in the traditional lecture and could apply what they had learned in an online environment. The on‑going assessment component of the gaming network was used not just as an assessment for grades but also as a learning tool. This research focuses on a group of final year undergraduate students completing Bachelor of Science in Information Systems (IS). The online social game was utilised as part of the continual assessment process to evaluate group interaction, role‑playing, competition and learning in an ISS assignment.

During the last decade there has been a growing focus on preschool learning within education, especially with regard to the learning of basic literacies such as reading and writing. In addition to this many nation states increasingly focus on the basic literacy competences of the information society, ICT and English. This has, as suggested by for instance Scanlon and Buckingham (2007) boosted opportunities for the sale of educational material and hardware to children for home learning, but also for learning material that links content directly to the curriculum, to school work and to assessment. This paper will focus on the design of learning material for pre‑school teaching and learning through the example of a game‑based platform for learning English called Mingoville.com. Mingoville has been studied in connection with the project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007‑11), where a number of games were followed into classroom environments across nations. Currently, the developers of Mingoville are working on a platform version that targets preschool learners and works on tablets as well as pcs and smartboards. The paper will discuss the implications of redesigning the platform for pre‑school teaching and learning and how this affects game‑based language teaching and learning with Mingoville.

For a child to learn through Problem‑Solving in Serious games, the game scaffolding mechanism has to be effective. Scaffolding is based on the Vygotzkian Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) concept which refers to the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers. Scaffolds in serious games are learning stimulators. The effectiveness of these learning stimulators lies in the way they are managed or regulated. Scaffolds that are not regulated could lead to expertise‑reversal effect or redundancy effect which inhibits learning. In the current classroom application of serious games, the game‑based learning stimulators remain the same for everyone (“blanket scaffolding”) – the learning stimulators are not managed or regulated. In order to make scaffolding in serious games more effective for classroom use, the calibration of the game’s learning stimulators has to be enabled – this would help in meeting the changing needs of the learners. The concept of fading which is critical to scaffolding is introduced to serious games, to facilitate the fine‑tuning of the learning stimulators to the changing needs of the learners. This paper seeks to address the issues in the design and implementation of a Fine‑Tuning System for serious games based on the fading concept. Also discussed in this paper are the factors to be considered in the implementation of the Fine‑Tuning System in serious games. These include fading decisions; fading and learning rates; optimal scaffolding distance; classroom culture and collaborative learning. The adverse effects of neglecting fading such as expertise‑reversal effect and redundancy effect are also discussed.