Comparison of Serious Games with Established Strategy Games in the Context of Knowledge Transfer

Especially in times of distance learning, educational institutions need to diversify their digital teaching methods. Often, they offer only few opportunities for interaction, which is, however, essential for learning motivation. To integrate motivational aspects into digital teaching, this study tests digital games for their compatibility with a learning objectives catalogue of economics. Numerous studies have already shown that serious games have positive effects on learning motivation. In this study, however, not only serious games are considered, but also entertainment games. The main findings include that, on average, there is a 57% thematic overlap with the learning objectives catalogue. 20% of the objectives are explained in a way that makes abstract application possible. The thematic overlap of serious and entertainment games is nearly the same. The results show that there is a lack of games that are compatible with the considered learning catalogue. Remarkably, on average no major differences regarding knowledge transfer were found between the analysed serious and entertainment Games.