Designing Intuitive Environments: Creative Interaction, Educational Affordances, and Co-Design in Immersive Serious Gameo-Designin Immersive Serious Game
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4108/eetct.13947Keywords:
Virtual Reality, Serious Games, Learning, Co-Design, Trivia GamesAbstract
Virtual Reality (VR) environments offer immersive experiences that deeply engage users with educational content. While trivia-based serious games successfully blend learning and entertainment, their implementation within VR remains underexplored. A critical gap exists in understanding how VR trivia games foster content knowledge, sustain motivation, and influence knowledge acquisition; empirical comparisons between VR and mobile formats are also lacking. This study addresses these gaps by presenting the design, development, and evaluation of Trivia World Quest, a VR serious game developed via a co-design approach. A comparative user study (N = 43) revealed that VR yielded significantly higher immersion, natural mapping, and visual engagement than its mobile counterpart. Additionally, a one-way ANCOVA, controlling for baseline knowledge discrepancies, demonstrated that the VR platform yielded significantly higher post-test knowledge retention than the mobile condition.
References
[1] Petersen GB, Petkakis G, Makransky G. A Study of How Immersion and Interactivity Drive VR Learning. Computers & Education. 2022;179:104429.
[2] Guertin-Lahoud S, Coursaris CK, Sénécal S, Léger PM. User experience evaluation in shared interactive virtual reality. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. 2023;26(4):263-72.
[3] Abeele VV, Spiel K, Nacke L, Johnson D, Gerling K. Development and validation of the player experience inventory: A scale to measure player experiences at the level of functional and psychosocial consequences. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 2020;135:102370.
[4] Bandura A, Wessels S. Self-efficacy. vol. (4). Academic Press, New York; 1994.
[5] Vizzotto ADB, de Oliveira AM, Elkis H, Cordeiro Q, Buchain PC. Psychosocial characteristics. In: Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine. Springer; 2020. p. 1794-5.
[6] Tisza G, Zhu S, Markopoulos P. Fun to Enhance Learning, Motivation, Self-efficacy, and Intention to Play in DGBL. In: Entertainment Computing–ICEC 2021: 20th IFIP TC 14 International Conference, ICEC 2021, Coimbra, Portugal, November 2–5, 2021, Proceedings 20. Springer; 2021. p. 28-45.
[7] Pelletier C. Games and Learning: What’s the Connection. International Journal of Learning and Media. 2009;1(1):83-101.
[8] Hubert-Wallander B, Green CS, Bavelier D. Stretching the limits of visual attention: the case of action video games. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews: cognitive science. 2011;2(2):222-30.
[9] Shin DH. The evaluation of user experience of the virtual world in relation to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. 2009;25(6):530-53.
[10] Merhi MI, Meisami A. The Role of Technological and Motivational Factors on Students’ Satisfaction with E-learning Assessments Platforms. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems. 2024;16(3):4.
[11] Leontyeva A, Schnittke E. The use of authentic games in teaching L2 Russian grammar. In: Dynamic Teaching of Russian. Routledge; 2023. p. 81-106.
[12] Ouyang A, Gadiraju M, Gadiraju V, Power L, Gadiraju V, Liu G, et al. GRAPES: Trivia game increases sickle cell disease knowledge in patients and providers and mitigates healthcare biases. Pediatric Blood & Cancer. 2022;69(7):e29717.
[13] Walsh KR, Pawlowski SD. Virtual reality: A technology in need of IS research; 2002.
[14] Sanchez-Vives MV, Slater M. From presence to consciousness through virtual reality. Nature reviews neuroscience. 2005;6(4):332-9.
[15] Bond M, Marín VI, Dolch C, Bedenlier S, Zawacki-Richter O. Digital transformation in German higher education: student and teacher perceptions and usage of digital media. International journal of educational technology in higher education. 2018;15(1):48.
[16] Lampropoulos G, Keramopoulos E, Diamantaras K, Evangelidis G. Augmented reality and virtual reality in education: Public perspectives, sentiments, attitudes, and discourses. Education Sciences. 2022;12(11):798.
[17] Devi KS. Constructivist approach to learning based on the concepts of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky An analytical Overview. Journal of Indian Education. 2019;44(4):5-19.
[18] Kolb DA. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press; 2014.
[19] Bloom BS. Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook II. David McKay; 1956.
[20] Gilakjani AP, et al. Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic learning styles and their impacts on English language teaching. Journal of studies in education. 2012;2(1):104-13.
[21] Hartsock JM, Lange RH. Trivia games: stimulating student learning. Nurse Educator. 1987;12(1):24-7.
[22] Nuci KP, Tahir R, Wang AI, Imran AS. Game-based digital quiz as a tool for improving students’ engagement and learning in online lectures. IEEE Access. 2021;9:91220-34.
[23] Kurniawan AEH, Nugroho AC, Prasetya F. Tank Battle And Trivia Quiz Games Development Using Construct 2 To Improve Critical Thinking Ability. journal of busines and technology. 2023;3(2):74-81.
[24] Licorish SA, George JL, Owen HE, Daniel B. “Go Kahoot!” enriching classroom engagement, motivation and learning experience with games. 2017.
[25] Kahoot!. Kahoot! Learning Platform; 2026. https://kahoot.com/.
[26] Moutinho A, Sá S. Implementing active learning through pedagogical coaching in Control Systems lectures. In: 2018 3rd international conference of the Portuguese society for engineering education (CISPEE). IEEE; 2018. p. 1-6.
[27] Sweller J. Cognitive load theory and educational technology. Educational technology research and development. 2020;68(1):1-16.
[28] Ryan RM, Deci EL. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist. 2000;55(1):68.
[29] Reer F, Wehden LO, Janzik R, Tang WY, Quandt T. Virtual reality technology and game enjoyment: The contributions of natural mapping and need satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior. 2022;132:107242.
[30] Unity Technologies. Unity Real-Time Development Engine; 2026. https://unity.com/pt.
[31] Meta. Meta Quest Virtual Reality; 2026. https://www. meta.com/quest/.
[32] Etermax. Trivia Crack. Etermax; 2013. Mobile application. Available from: https://etermax.com.
[33] Skalski P, Tamborini R, Shelton A, Buncher M, Lindmark P. Mapping the road to fun: Natural video game controllers, presence, and game enjoyment. New Media & Society. 2011;13(2):224-42.
[34] Rosenthal R, Cooper H, Hedges L, et al. Parametric measures of effect size. The handbook of research synthesis. 1994;621(2):231-44.
[35] Abrahamson D, Trninic D. Toward an embodied-interaction design framework for mathematical con-cepts. In: Proceedings of the 10th international confer-ence on interaction design and children; 2011. p. 1-10.
[36] Paas F, Renkl A, Sweller J. Cognitive load theory and instructional design: Recent developments. Educational psychologist. 2003;38(1):1-4.
[37] Song I, Baek K, Kim C, Song C. Effects of nature sounds on the attention and physiological and psychological relaxation. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. 2023;86:127987.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sandra Câmara Olim, Lígia Gonçalves, António Ramos, Pedro Campos

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 license, which permits unlimited use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.