About me
Kristian Kiili is Professor of Game-Based Learning in the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University and holds the title of Docent in user-centered design. He serves as co-leader of the Research Centre of Gameful Realities and co-leads the university’s profiling area, Games as a Platform to Tackle Grand Challenges. He also leads the Games and Learning Research Group, which investigates how game elements shape learning, motivation, emotions, and engagement across diverse educational settings. With over twenty years of experience in the field of game-based learning, he has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles. He has been a Visiting Scholar with Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, for 20 months.
Professor Kiili has led numerous research and development projects in technology-enhanced learning, particularly in game-based learning, with outcomes translated into award-winning educational products. His research focuses on the design and empirical evaluation of interactive digital learning and assessment environments, especially game-based environments that support the development of numerical skills, graph literacy, critical reading, perspective taking, and learner engagement.
A central aim of his work is to understand how cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes unfold during gameplay and learning activities. By combining learning analytics, experimental methods, and design-based research, he develops evidence-based models of game-based learning and contributes to the creation of adaptive, personalized, and engaging learning environments.
In addition to his research activities, Professor Kiili serves as Head of the Master’s Degree Programme in Teaching, Learning and Media Education.
Selected publications
Kiili, K., & Dindar, M. (2026). Advancing gameful learning research: Insights on instructional design, learner engagement, and analytical approaches. Learning and Individual Differences, 129, 102951.
Kiili, C., Kiili, K., Räikkönen, E., & Coiro, J. (2025). Explicit Video-Based Instruction Enhanced Students’ Online Credibility Evaluation Skills: Did Storifying Instruction Matter?. Computers & Education, 105252.
Kiili, K., Siuko, J., & Ninaus, M. (2024). Tackling misinformation with games: a systematic literature review. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-16.
Huber, S. E., Kiili, K., Nebel, S., Ryan, R. M., Sailer, M., & Ninaus, M. (2024). Leveraging the potential of large language models in education through playful and game-based learning. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 25.
Huber, S. E., Cortez, R., Kiili, K., Lindstedt, A., & Ninaus, M. (2023). Game elements enhance engagement and mitigate attrition in online learning tasks. Computers in Human Behavior, 149, 107948.
Kiili, K., Juho, S., Cloude, E., & Dindar, M. (2023). Demystifying the Relations of Motivation and Emotions in Game-Based Learning: Insights from Co-Occurrence Network Analysis. International Journal of Serious Games, 10(4), 93-112
Koskinen, A., McMullen, J., Hannula-Sormunen, M., Ninaus, M., & Kiili, K. (2023). The strength and direction of the difficulty adaptation affect situational interest in game-based learning. Computers & Education, 194, 104694.
Koskinen, A., McMullen, J., Ninaus, M., & Kiili, K. (2023). Does the emotional design of scaffolds enhance learning and motivational outcomes in game‐based learning?. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 39(1), 77-93.
McMullen, J., Koskinen, A., Kärki, T., Lindstedt, A., Määttä, S., Halme, H., ... & Kiili, K. (2023). A game-based approach to promoting adaptive rational number knowledge. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 1-17.
Greipl, S., Klein, E., Lindstedt, A., Kiili, K., Moeller, K., Karnath, H. O., ... & Ninaus, M. (2021). When the brain comes into play: Neurofunctional correlates of emotions and reward in game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106946.
Ninaus, M., Greipl, S., Kiili, K., Lindstedt, A. Huber, S. Klein, E. Karnath, H.-O., Moeller, K. (2019). Increased emotional engagement in game-based learning – A machine learning approach on facial emotion detection data, Computers & Education, 142, 103641.
Kiili, K. (2007). Foundation for Problem-Based Gaming. British Journal of Educational Technology – Special issue on Game-Based Learning, 38(3), 394-404.
Kiili, K. (2005). Digital game-based learning: Towards an experiential gaming model. The Internet and Higher Education, 8(1), 13-24.