Looking back and moving forward with game-based learning across the disciplines

Game-based learning is a dynamic field that has recently garnered much interest from different areas. Although game-based learning is not limited to digital games, and has in fact a long-standing history in human learning and development far beyond the times of digitalization, the growing interest in educational settings can also be attributed to technological advances as well as to particular preferences in users’ digital media behavior. If games exert such a fascination, it is only natural to ask whether and how they can be used to successfully promote learning purposes. This edited volume presents a wide-ranging collection of work and findings on game-based learning inside and across various disciplines. This concluding chapter aims to situate the single contributions of the volume within more general reflections on the concept and potential benefits of game-based learning as well as to provide an analysis and synthesis of major themes that have emerged in the previous chapters. Finally, it intends to sketch ideas for future research on game-based learning from an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective