Digital game-based learning in accounting and business education

ABSTRACT

This article presents a review of the accounting and business literature on digital game-based learning (DGBL). The article classifies what is already settled in the literature about the theoretical foundations of DGBL’s effectiveness and its practical use into three categories. The first comprises what is known about the evaluation of digital games in the preparatory stage preceding its use in an educational setting. The second comprises what research has concluded to be appropriate for DGBL deployment. Finally, the review explores what types of learning outcomes can be attained through digital games and how their achievement has been evaluated. Furthermore, this article provides researchers interested in DGBL with a set of interesting questions that promise fruitful investigation. Answering these questions will help accounting educators to move forward in understanding digital games’ effectiveness and advance in the use of digital games in the classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital game-based learning
• videogames
• simulations
• accounting education
• serious games

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This concept will be defined in Section 5.

2. It is worth noting that simulations have been widely used, as this review shows, while videogames and virtual worlds are still rare in the classroom. This will be addressed in later sections.

3. Experiential learning is defined as the process of learning through experience. Kolb (1984) developed the well-known Experiential Learning Model based on four steps: active experimentation, concrete experience, reflective observation, and abstract conceptualization.

4. The concept of attributes, along with some examples, is discussed in Section 3.3.

5. In a card sorts procedure, a group of experts on a subject are guided to generate a categorization. Participants are provided with cards featuring topics, words, or some other kind of information and are asked to sort these cards based on the relationships they perceive. The goal of card sorting is to generate a taxonomy derived from the knowledge of experts.

6. www.educause.edu.