The article presents a review of 68 articles in the field of education, and 67 articles in the field of training regarding the use of immersive (3D) virtual reality (VR) technology in serious games (SGs). The review sheds light on both the state of VR-SGs in education and training from different angles and the state of research into VR technology in education and training fields. The principal findings are suggestions that in the future, research into immersive VR-SGs should have larger subject pools, appropriate control groups, and that use of these tools will be integrated into holistic learning processes as well as in innovative new ways in each field.

The research method included a multi-stage survey of existing literature. The researchers collected an initial sample of articles from two interdisciplinary databases using three key terms in their search parameters, and some references from within their initial searches. Professional magazines and other related organizations were also included. The researchers then read the article abstracts to exclude irrelevant articles, and of those remaining, read the body text to remove those that did not include a final user performance evaluation of the VR-SGs.

The review was thorough and provided interesting descriptive statistics on target publics, tools and applications for VR-SGs, and types of games. Notably, the researchers went beyond their data to suppose reasons why they found what they found. As they had no data to support these suppositions, their causal logic may well be spurious. What I found most interesting was their finding about the lack of research standardization in the fields, as well as their revelation of a discouraging lack of rigour in how data evaluating learning experiences is collected. Finally, I had concerns that no information was presented about resources such as available hardware, or internet bandwidth for users, a key issues in effectively disseminating this technology for learning and training.

Checa, D., & Bustillo, A. (2020). A review of immersive virtual reality serious games to enhance learning and training. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 79(9-10), 5501-5527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-019-08348-9

This article reviews educational gaming literature to focus specifically on failure as a mechanic of games and as a motivation for learning. The authors collected articles based on whether they dealt with game-based instructional interventions and failure and/or loss. The resulting 14 articles included in the review span a spectrum of risk related to failure from no-consequences to real-life consequences. The findings show that unlimited failure has negative consequences for learning just as too much failure does. Within the Goldilocks zone of failure, learners may transfer their new skills in creative ways to non-game contexts and retain their learning.

The authors employed a technique called a scoping review to explore the existing research on failure states and to arrive at appropriate research questions. They underwent a 5 of 6-step process from a previously establish scoping review methods framework to review the literature, create the research questions, select the initial articles, identify themes, and to summarize and report their results on the scope and degree of failure employed in educational games. In the end, this method produced two conclusions: one on the research into failure in games (we need more), and one on how failure and loss-based mechanics affect learning (we need medium).

The most profound acknowledgement this article makes happens at the very end in directly connecting game mechanics and educational pedagogy. A game experience is a learning pathway with a pedagogical perspective, which lends weight to their discussion of failure states. Additionally, the authors have very clearly defined the parameters of what was interesting to them about failure which helped inform a succinct and robust model of risk and failure. Situating the impact of failure on learners in this way makes it clear when failure states work and when they don’t, giving future designers clear goalposts to manage failure in game-based instructional interventions. One question: why wasn’t inter-coder reliability done in the filtering process? Perhaps it wasn’t part of the methods framework.

Powers, F. E., & Moore, R. L. (2021). When failure is an option: A scoping review of failure states in game-based learning. Techtrends, 65(4), 615-625. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-021-00606-8