An Integrative Review of the Conceptualization and Assessment of the Learner Flow Experience in the Digital Game-Based Learning Environment between 2011 and 2021

The impact of the learner flow experience (LFE) on learning outcomes has been studied for over four decades in a variety of formal and informal instructional settings, including the digital game-based learning (DGBL) environment. Since 2011, the examination of the LFE and its impact on learning outcomes has expanded to computer science-related disciplines, as well as other research communities. During this expansion, an increase in the number and definitions of terms related to the LFE has occurred. Likewise, the number of assessment tools used to capture evidence of the flow experience in learners playing DGBLs has increased. This integrative review examined 66 peer-reviewed articles published between 2011 and 2021, which reported the results of empirical studies seeking to identify and measure the learner experience of flow during DGBL gameplay. More specifically, this study sought to understand how the LFE and its dimensions were conceptualized and assessed in those articles. To do this, the relevant data was extracted from the articles, and, via iterative processes of analyses, the information related to the conceptualization and assessment of the LFE during DGBL game play was identified, analyzed, and organized. The study's findings demonstrated that the number of terms used to describe the LFE dimensions increased during the time period studied, and that there is seemingly little consensus with regard to the conceptualization of the terms or their use in the assessment instruments applied. However, this study also revealed that these terms and the methods by which they were assessed may be examined within the theoretical structure defined by Csikszentmihalyi in 1990, in which he codified nine dimensions to explain the flow experience. These dimensions are: (1) balance of skills and challenge; (2) clear goals; (3) swift, unambiguous feedback; (4) merging of action and awareness; (5) concentration on the task at hand; (6) sense of control; (7) distorted sense of time; (8) loss of ego; and (9) autotelic experience. Organizing the research question findings within this structure enabled the identification of themes of and synonyms for the nine flow dimensions with the addition of the construct flow experience. To encourage future researchers' ability to interpret, compare, and contrast studies of the experience of the LFE during gameplay in the DGBL learning environment, a set of researcher guides was developed following an iterative process of comparisons and analysis across the research questions' findings. These guides present a description of each of the flow dimensions, associated key words and/or key phrases, synonyms for the dimension, and statements or questions used to solicit information from learners regarding their experience of each of the flow dimensions, organized by theorist. The goal for these researcher guides is that they will be used as references for future studies of the impact of flow on learning outcomes for DGBL players through providing a common vocabulary and set of assessment items. They also may help encourage and enhance collaboration between instructional designers and DGBL game designers in creating effective DGBLs that increase learning or user engagement and enjoyment through the fostering of conditions that enable the LFE phenomenon.