Underpinning Learning Theories of Medical Educational Games: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND: Gamification is the process of game thinking and game mechanics to attract learners and solve problems. It is a unique growing phenomenon in education and training programs. Educational games, by application of game design and game elements in learning environments, motivate students to learn and improve the teaching and learning process. Herein, this scoping review presents an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of gamification that is crucial in understanding the theoretical pillar of successful educational games. METHODS: This scoping review follows Arksey and O’Malley’s stages of scoping review. In this review, the gamification in medical education articles that implicitly or explicitly presented underpinning learning theories of gamification in medical education was retrieved. So, keywords such as gamification, learning theories, higher education, and medical education were searched in Scopus, PubMed, WEB OF SCIENCE, EMBASE, ERIC, and Cochrane Library from 1998 to March 2019. RESULTS: The search indicated 5416 articles which were narrowed down by title and abstract relatedness. 464 articles entered the second phase of the study and after reviewing their full text, finally, 10 articles which were explicitly and implicitly reported the underpinning learning theories remained. CONCLUSION: Gamification is a strategy using game design techniques for non-game experiences for more effective learning and provides a more attractive environment for teaching and learning. Designing gamification based on learning theories (behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist), makes them more efficient, and the application of learning theories in designing gamification is recommended.