Fake News Resilience through Online Games? Tentative Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Higher Education

Abstract

Learners’ cognitive abilities to assess the credibility of information in digital spaces are a relevant part of 21st century skills. Emerging evidence suggests that gamification could be a suitable approach for learners to develop these skills independently of their educational level. This study examined two popular online fake news games in a higher education setting using a randomized controlled trial. 72 students were randomly assigned to one of two games. Their ability to classify news, i.e. to distinguish fake news from correct news, was tested before and after playing the game. The results from multiple regression analysis suggest that there was only a very modest increase in participants’ news classification abilities in one game and no improvement in the other game. Contrary to some prior literature, these preliminary findings provide no evidence for the use of gamification in developing students’ fake news resilience in higher education contexts and they call for more nuanced education and gamification approaches.