A Systematic Review of the Definition and Measurement of Engagement in Serious Games

Abstract

A systematic review was designed to address the question of "What is engagement and how has the term been used, defined and measured in the context of serious games?". The goal of the review was to collect, evaluate, and analyse literature related to the definition and measurement of engagement in serious games published between in 1970 to 2015 across a broad range of disciplines. A total of 1390 papers were initially identified from the search criteria. These were reduced to 107 papers that directly assessed engagement in a serious game. These selected papers were then analysed to examine the use of the term 'engagement' in the serious games, the genres of the games studied, the various definitions of engagement and the methods used to measure different aspects of engagement. Three distinct types of engagement, related to behaviour, affect and cognition are found in the studies, along with a broad range of evaluation methods including interviews, questionnaires, physiological approaches, in game metrics, and time and performance on task.