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It seems necessary to review the literature to explore the effectiveness of serious games in education, since the number of studies on serious games is surging up. This study systematically reviewed the literature within around a recent decade. The trend of the number of publications related to use of serious games in education was firstly clarified based on the data retrieved from major databases. Secondly, various factors were determined that influenced the effect of serious game assisted learning. The major section identified both advantages and disadvantages of use of serious games in education. Use of serious games in medical science has been rising in a recent decade, which is thus highlighted in this study. Attitudes toward use of serious games in education were explored, as well as the new development of use of serious games in education. Future theoretical and practical exploration might need interdisciplinary cooperation.

With the rampant pandemic of COVID-19, an increasing number of people are acquiring knowledge through online learning approaches. This study aims to investigate how to improve online learning effectiveness during this special time. Through a mixed design, this study revealed the effect of educational levels, gender, and personality traits on online learning outcomes. It was concluded that postgraduates (N = 599) outperformed undergraduates (N = 553) in online learning, learners (N = 1152) with strong personality traits such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to a new experience outperformed those with strong extraversion and neuroticism. Future research could improve interpersonal interactions and encourage learners to post words in the online discussion forum, focus on how to design scaffolding online learning and how to improve the quality and dynamic of the online contents, and highlight blended learning rather than either merely online or traditional face-to-face learning.

The past several years have been witnessing the fast development of information and communication technology, with which an increasing number of serious games are being designed and developed. Randomly selected participants were divided into the treatment and control cohorts. Two experiments, as well as a semi-structured interview, were administered to both cohorts. It was concluded that: (1) Learning outcomes in gamified English vocabulary learning are significantly better than in non-gamified English vocabulary learning; (2) The motivation in gamified English vocabulary learning is significantly stronger than in non-gamified English vocabulary learning; (3) The satisfaction in gamified English vocabulary learning is significantly higher than in non-gamified English vocabulary learning. Future research could include various serious games with interdisciplinary cooperation to testify the effect of gamification on English vocabulary learning.

Digital academic reading tools on computers bring multiple benefits to higher-education students. Through structural equation modeling methods, this study contributes to the following findings: (1) Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and lecturers’ positive responses significantly predict students’ positive attitudes toward digital academic reading tools on computers; (2) perceived ease of use, lectures’ positive responses, and expectations of academic achievement are significantly positive predictors of students’ perceived usefulness of these tools; (3) attitudes and expectations of academic achievement significantly predict students’ positive intentions to use these tools; (4) academic experience significantly predicts students’ negative attitudes toward these tools; (5) perceived ease for collaborative learning and self-efficacy are significantly positive predictors of students’ perceived ease of using these tools. Findings in this study may contribute to understanding the external factors influencing students’ acceptance and use of digital academic reading tools on computers with a substantial explanatory power of the proposed model (R2 = 64.70–84.20%), which may benefit researchers, instructors, students, and technology designers.

Initially developed in 2012, Kahoot! is a game-based student response system aiming to transform the class into a game show. However, some people have doubts about effectiveness of Kahoot! as an educational game. Therefore, based on past studies, this study explored the influence of Kahoot! on learning outcomes and collaboration including curricular interaction and extracurricular collaboration. The results of this study showed that Kahoot, if appropriately used, could improve learning outcomes. At the same time, Boller’s summaries about educational games could not fully define what were needed in the games designed for learning to some extent. It was also concluded that Kahoot! could enhance curricular interaction between students and teachers as well as extracurricular collaboration between or among students. Kahoot! has a bright prospect in both regular and flipped classes, while there are still challenges of Kahoot! use. Lastly, suggestions for future research limitations of this study were discussed as well.

The study on the impact of video lecturing on clicker-assisted English flipped class was necessary because it has seldom been explored. This study studied the impact of video lecturing on student satisfaction and English proficiency, plus correlations between student satisfaction levels and English proficiency. Randomly recruited Chinese participants (Female N = 44; Male N = 43) from a university in China received both pre and post College English Test Band 4 and satisfaction measurements, together with a semi-structured interview. We concluded that the video-assisted class could cause significantly higher English proficiency than the non-video-assisted class (F = 23.17, p < .001, Partialη2 = .216); there were significant differences between video- and non-video-assisted cohorts for post interaction (F = 8.37, p = .005, Partialη2 = .093), post efficacy (F = 7.68, p = .007, Partialη2 = .086), and post regulation (F = 16.34, p < .001, Partialη2 = .166); there were strong, positive relationships between post English proficiency and post student interaction (R2 = .70; β = .84; p < .01), self-efficacy (R2 = .57; β = .75; p < .01) and self-regulation (R2 = .59; β = .77; p < .01) levels in both cohorts at the .05 level. However, no strong, positive correlations were found in both cohorts at the .05 level between pre English proficiency and pre student interaction (R2 = .00; β = .05; p = .33), self-efficacy [R2 = .03;β = -.17 (negative); p = .05] and self-regulation [R2 = .05;β = -.23 (negative); p = .01] levels. Future research into video-assisted English flipped class may need interdisciplinary cooperation.

The flipped classroom has been achieving a great success in teaching innovation. This study, aiming to determine the effectiveness of the flipped model in business English writing course, combined the quantitative with the qualitative research methods. Participants were randomly selected from undergraduate students majoring in business English. The research instruments in this study included a satisfaction scale, a Business English Writing Test, and a semi-structured interview. The research procedure was made up of a pretest-treatment-posttest design. Both hypotheses were accepted and it was concluded that (1) the flipped business English writing classroom brought about better academic achievements than the traditional one, and (2) the flipped business English writing classroom was more satisfactory than the traditional one. Future studies could pivot on different courses and expand the research scopes to examine the effectiveness of the flipped classroom.

Although the flipped pedagogical approach has been exhaustively explored, the effect of video length remains sparsely studied. Through a mixed design, videos, and three ratio scales, this study determined the effect of video length on English proficiency, student engagement, and satisfaction in a flipped English classroom in China. We concluded that: (1) The short video (shorter than 5 minutes)-assisted English flipped classroom could lead to significantly higher English proficiency, student engagement, and satisfaction than the flipped classroom assisted with medium videos (10–20 minutes); and (2) The medium video-assisted English flipped classroom could lead to significantly higher English proficiency, student engagement, and satisfaction than the flipped classroom assisted with long videos (longer than 30 minutes). Designers of videos could make every effort to provide short videos to improve English proficiency, engagement, and satisfaction. They could also seriously consider a scale, a mobile platform, quizzes, pictures, and multimedia in the future design and innovation of videos.

As the years progress, blended learning has risen in popularity. In light of a lack of systematic research on the significant intertwined influence on English learners’ academic success, this empirical study attempted to reveal critical success factors of students’ English learning outcomes in the blended learning environment based on the extensive review of previous studies. This study developed a novel model to investigate and assess the key factors that affect students’ learning success. Accordingly, this study adopted a questionnaire survey as a research instrument. Based on the survey data from 1,478 university students in China, this study used structural equation modeling by AMOS (version 24.0) to analyze the survey data and validate the proposed model. The results of this study revealed that learner attitude, self-identity, and course design were the predominant factors for learners’ academic success. Besides, learning outcomes and self-identity could significantly impact learners’ learning intentions and behaviors.

Learning communities have become a focal point of research due to their potential impact on learning outcomes, motivation, and communication. These factors are recognized as crucial determinants of the effectiveness of learning communities. To guide this study, a thorough review of 35 relevant studies was conducted, employing rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria based on the PRISMA framework to ensure a systematic and robust approach. The findings of this study indicated that learning communities possess the capacity to enhance communication, motivation, and learning outcomes, while simultaneously alleviating learner anxiety. Specifically, it was observed that well-designed online learning communities can significantly improve learning outcomes. Furthermore, the utilization of online technologies within these communities can facilitate enhanced communication, leading to improved learning outcomes. Moreover, this study offers a range of recommendations for optimizing learning outcomes through the implementation of learning communities. These recommendations serve as valuable guidance for harnessing the full potential of learning communities to achieve educational goals. In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of learning communities in enhancing learning outcomes, motivation, and communication. It highlights the efficacy of appropriately designed online communities and the integration of technology in fostering effective communication and improving learning outcomes. The study contributes important insights into ways of maximizing the benefits of learning communities in promoting educational success.