User acceptance of edutainment mobile applications : advancing an experiential design-engagement model (EDEM)

Abstract

Mobile users are increasingly engaging with edutainment gaming apps in formal and informal contexts. They are drawn to them for their educational and entertainment aspects. In this light, this study validates the Theory of Planned Behavior’s key measures and integrates them with game narratives and game aesthetics constructs to better understand the extent to which psychological and gaming design factors are predicting the individuals’ intentions to play with these learning technologies. The data were gathered through a survey questionnaire from one hundred eighty-six (n = 186) respondents, who were higher education students in a Southern European university. The quantitative findings analyzed through partial least squares (PLS) revealed that the gamers appreciate the edutainment platforms’ audiovisual effects as well as their storylines and narratives. The results reported that mobile users enjoyed playing with entertaining learning apps. Respondents indicated that they were willing to continue their gameplay in the future. In conclusion, this contribution raises awareness on the important synergies between gaming design elements and behavioral dimensions driving the users’ engagement with edutainment apps. It puts forward a robust theoretical framework that is empirically-grounded.