Serious games in education: Fact or fad?

The use of serious games in education is growing, particularly within the field of health professional training (Graafland, Schraagen, & Schijven, 2012; Wattanasoontorn, Boada, Garcia, & Sbert, 2013). Serious games aim to teach or train whilst simultaneously entertaining and engaging users (Hawn, 2009). Serious games are viewed as a useful methodology for enhancing student motivation for learning and engagement with material (Coates, 2005). Despite being heralded as a cutting edge innovation, research validating the efficacy of serious games demonstrates mixed results (Susi, Johannesson, & Backlund, 2007). A serious game to support training of professional post graduate psychology students was developed by the first author. This paper presents the results of two pilot studies comparing the learning and training experiences of students using the serious game as compared to those using a control serious game and teaching as usual, as an example of an application of serious games in post graduate education.