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Thematic series on Harnessing Constructivist Online Gameā€based Learning in Formal Educational Settings

Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning welcomes submissions to the thematic series on Harnessing Constructivist Online Gameā€based Learning in Formal Educational Settings.

Constructivist approaches to learning and teaching have been strongly advocated in the twentyā€first century education, emphasizing knowledge should be constructed actively by students rather than being received passively from teachers. Against this backdrop, the purpose of harnessing online (computer/mobile) games in the process of learning and teaching has moved from "sugaring the pill" to offering learners various constructivist experiences, such as learning in near realā€life virtual environments, pursuing realā€time collaborative inquiryā€based activities, and participating in online learning communities.

Contemporary initiatives of constructivist online gameā€based learning (COGBLe) can be categorized into two main genres, namely, education in games (EIG) and games in education (GIE). The former focuses on adopting commercial offā€theā€shift games, making use of the existing "educative" contents therein for learning and teaching purposes. The latter focuses on developing serious games which are articulated with specific pedagogical paradigms and embedded with specific educational contents. However, most of recent EIG or GIE studies/instances have too focused on harnessing games in ad hoc informal learning activities or developing games for conducting shortā€term learning experiments (for testing out the corresponding pedagogical propositions). There has been less attention on the real adoption and sustainable use of COGBLe in formal educational settings.

This thematic series will provide a timely opportunity to present and share knowledge, research results, and concerns about harnessing COGBLe in formal educational settings.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Constructivist educational games for school education/tertiary education
  • Adopting commercial offā€theā€shift games in formal educational settings
  • Mobile games for schooling
  • Design and implementation of serious games
  • Teachers' roles in gameā€based learning
  • Social and collaborative aspects of gameā€based learning
  • Evaluation of gameā€based learning in formal curriculum teaching
  • Ergonomics in gameā€based learning
  • Students' individual learning differences in the process of gameā€based learning
  • Assessment fairness in gameā€based learning
  • Learning for gaming
  • Barriers for introducing today's games into formal educational settings

Submission Instructions

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the submission guidelines for Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning. The complete manuscript should be submitted through the Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning submission system. To ensure that you submit to the correct thematic series please select the appropriate thematic series in the drop-down menu upon submission. In addition, indicate within your cover letter that you wish your manuscript to be considered as part of the thematic series on Harnessing Constructivist Online Gameā€based Learning in Formal Educational Settings. All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review and accepted articles will be published within the journal as a collection.

Deadline for submissions: 31 Aug, 2016

Lead Guest Editor

Morris Jong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Guest Editors

Juā€Ling Shih, National University of Tainan, Taiwan

Ben Chang, National Central University, Taiwan

Junjie Shang, Peking University, China


Submissions will also benefit from the usual advantages of open access publication:

  • Rapid publication: Online submission, electronic peer review and production make the process of publishing your article simple and efficient
  • High visibility and international readership in your field: Open access publication ensures high visibility and maximum exposure for your work - anyone with online access can read your article
  • No space constraints: Publishing online means unlimited space for figures, extensive data and video footage
  • Authors retain copyright, licensing the article under a Creative Commons license: articles can be freely redistributed and reused as long as the article is correctly attributed

For editorial enquiries please contact editorial@telrp.com.

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