Dive Brief:

• At this year’s 2015 ED Games Expo, 30 of the 45 games on display had been backed by federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, which EdSurge reports are intended to finance “products backed by rigorous research" and that "have potential to be commercialized.” 
• Over the past four years, half of all SBIR awards from the U.S. Department of Education went toward educational games annually, according to EdSurge.
• Subjects covered by the games include politics, nanotechnology, cultural competency, transportation engineering, physical molecular biology, and foreign language, though the efficacy of such learning methods hasn't yet been proven.

Dive Insight:

E-learning via games is big business, with an estimated market worth of around $1.5 billion in 2013 and projections of rapid growth, according to NPR’s Marketplace.

Some, like Phaedra Boinodiris, global lead for serious games and “gamification” at IBM, say certain features are crucial to educational gaming success — namely, that such games have to actually be fun as opposed to being "chocolate-covered broccoli." Another key is for there to be some kind of award or something at stake to foster competition, motivations, and engagement for players.  

Studies have shown that some games can motivate student learning. One report by researchers from New York University and the City University of New York found that “well-designed games can motivate students to learn less popular subjects, such as math, and that game-based learning can actually get students interested in the subject matter—and can broaden their focus beyond just collecting stars or points,” according to one of the study’s authors, NYU’s Jan Plass. Further, students playing games were less likely to become overly concerned with appearing smart in the classroom, highlighting games' ability to alleviate the fear of failure.

Still, debate continues over whether or not video games or e-games really do work for learning. The Scientific American recently reported that doubts over the amount of focus on games is a sign that "there is little proof that skillful game play translates into better test scores or broader cognitive development."