A Review of Adaptable Serious Games Applied to Professional Training

Abstract Serious Games have been used in professional training to increase employee engagement and improve training initiatives. This review intends to identify the application of Serious Games in professional training and how these games have been developed, evaluated, and adapted to relate to the learning outcomes. It aims to map the use of Serious Games in professional training, verifying which forms of adaptation are used, learning outcomes, and models and frameworks of Serious Games that include game elements. Different learning outcomes associated with Serious Games were identified, in the general context and professional training, with knowledge acquisition being the most investigated result and questionnaires the most used type of assessment. It was found that several technologies are used in the adaptation of Serious Games. This literature review highlighted gaps in Serious Games research, especially in adaptive games applied in the context of professional training, such as the absence of frameworks for adaptive Serious Games and the lack of a framework for Serious Games that relates game elements to learning outcomes.