Evaluating user enjoyment, engagement, and intention to play in edugames4all MicrobeQuest!

BACKGROUND: The widespread use of mobile phones among children and the growing popularity of games in this age group have led to the development of mobile learning applications, including educational health games. However, many of these games either fail to present healthcare topics in an engaging way for children or are still in early development stages. Although there is increasing research interest in serious educational health games for children, their appeal, such as enjoyment, engagement, and intention to play, is often not properly evaluated. However enjoyment is what motivates the use of games for learning especially for children, and educational games must be engaging and rewarding, as this fosters greater persistence, achievement, and completion outcomes among students. METHODS: This research presents an evaluation of the appeal of a mobile educational game, Edugames4all MicrobeQuest!, designed to promote hygiene and responsible antibiotic use among primary school children. The evaluation focuses on three dimensions of appeal: enjoyment, engagement, and intention to play, and relationship between them. The study included 19 participants. RESULTS: The findings indicate that the game was generally appealing to children across all three evaluated dimensions. It also shows a strong and positive correlation between enjoyment, engagement and intention to play. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating the appeal of educational health games is important, as it cannot be assumed that children will enjoy them simply because they are games. The study shows that the evaluated game successfully achieved a good level of appeal among its target audience. The three constructs are positively correlated.