Gamifying climate content to enhance climate literacy: Opportunities for adult learners

Abstract

Educational games are well suited to tackle the complexity of challenges like climate change because they can simulate complex systems. The purpose of this study is to build upon the work of previous scholars to (a) identify the opportunities associated with the gamifying of climate change content for adult learners and (b) propose how games can further enhance the functional climate literacy of adults. To our knowledge, there is not a review of peer-reviewed literature that assesses knowledge gained or provides a framework for designing these games. We explored the observed impacts of 48 unique climate change educational games and synthesized the work of 53 peer-reviewed journal articles. In general, we noted the games contributed to an increase in knowledge about climate change. Games that implemented a combination of hands-on and digital elements to explore the impacts of future decisions appeared to be the most impactful for increasing climate change knowledge and fostering an action-oriented mindset following the game. Our study also noted that these climate change educational games are primarily designed and implemented for youth and college audiences. This finding is in line with previous research and continues to highlight the need for climate change educational games for adult learners that allow them to bring in their own life experiences and learn how to solve problems that relate to their everyday lives. As a result, we developed a multi-phase framework to guide the development and implementation of climate change educational games for adult audiences.