Introduction

As the threat of climate change persists, conventional knowledge transfer has often proven ineffective for climate communication [1]. By combining entertainment with learning opportunities video games have recently attracted attention as innovative tools that can foster attitude change and environmental awareness [2]. A recent meta-analysis shows [3] that video gaming can influence attitudes on social and environmental issues, including climate change, with effects that are typically small but nonetheless consistent. Drawing on persuasive game mechanics such as perspective-taking and meaningful feedback, even games designed primarily for entertainment can influence players’ attitudes [3]. However, research is needed on how ecogames, i.e. games that address environmental issues, can be integrated into educational contexts to maximise their impact. As such, the present study examines a commercially available ecogame, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, and tests its effects on pro-environmental attitudes, affect, and behaviour. We experimentally varied the level of post-gameplay reflection across three conditions (none, moderate, and substantial) to assess whether structured reflection moderates the effects of gameplay on these outcomes.

Methods

A total of 211 participants played the game Gibbon: Beyond the Trees in a controlled lab environment and were randomly assigned to one of three post-game activities with varying degree of reflection: (1) a control condition involving no reflection; (2) a moderate reflection condition, in which participants wrote a brief game review; and (3) a substantial reflection condition, in which participants engaged in guided self-debriefing by answering reflection-oriented questions. The used game was selected based on previous natural language processing-based analysis of over 180.000 player-written reviews of ecogames on the gaming platform Steam, which identified and ranked ecogames by climate change–related content [4].

The current study employed a mixed experimental design with one between-subjects factor (degree of reflection; three levels: no reflection, moderate reflection, substantial reflection) and one within-subjects factor (time; two levels: pre- vs. post-gameplay). The procedure comprised three phases: (1) an online pre-measurement, (2) an on-site lab session in which participants played the full story mode of the ecogame, and (3) an optional online follow-up. Participants completed environmental measures and affect ratings at pre and immediately post-gameplay. At the end of the lab session, participants received 20.00€ and could donate any portion to one or more environmental NGOs as a proxy for pro-environmental behaviour.

Results and Discussion

Participants showed significant pre/post improvements in palm-oil-related attitudes (i.e., one of the core themes in the game; d = .454), wildlife value orientations (d = .234), and global environmental attitudes (d = .430), accompanied by affective changes aligned with the game’s narrative (increased sadness, anger, disgust, and guilt; decreased joy). These attitudinal and affective shifts coincided with substantial behavioural responses. In particular, on average, participants donated 45% of their 20.00€ compensation to environmental NGOs. Feelings of guilt and sadness correlated most strongly with donation amount (r = .221 and r = .208, respectively). Effects were stronger among participants who liked the game, underscoring the importance of appeal and production quality.

Notably, post-gameplay reflection manipulations did not moderate attitudinal change or donation amounts, indicating robust effects of gameplay alone. Potential explanations include a ceiling effect given the predominantly young sample (mean age = 26.7) and participant fatigue due to a prolonged lab session (over two hours). Importantly, attitude change was largest for attitudes tied to the game’s central theme (palm oil production), indicating specificity of the found effects even in the absence of an impact of the reflection manipulation. An optional follow-up, completed by 128 participants, indicated prolonged cognitive engagement with the game and its themes: participants reported thinking about it, discussing it with friends, and acknowledging its educational value.

Educational Significance

Overall, ecogames, particularly well-received commercial titles with strong thematic alignment, show promise for climate change communication and environmental education. Given the vast global reach of video games, they offer unique potential to scale pro-environmental engagement across diverse audiences. This is notable because video games are culturally pervasive artifacts, reaching billions of players globally [5], especially young people who will face long-term consequences of climate change. Engaging and educating them is vital for fostering solutions [6]. Importantly, games need not be “serious games” to have impact; commercial entertainment titles, as used in this study, can also influence attitudes and behaviour.

Introduction: Theoretical background, aims, and research questions.

In the digital age our everyday lives are deeply connected to data, codes, algorithmicity, and changing forms of social communities and communication (Stalder, 2018). The term post-digitality points to the inevitability and loss of alternatives to digital structures (Cramer, 2014). While the early Internet was promising fostering democracy and participative and active infrastructures, today, both the digital environment and corresponding media education are strongly shaped by monopolistic providers in digital capitalist structures (Dander et al., 2025; Grünberger, 2025; Staab, 2020; Staab & Nachtwey, 2016; Varon & Peña, 2021). This has far-reaching implications for media education and the education sector. In other words, the current structures of digital capitalism represent the results of the decisions of only a handful of people following the narrative of innovation for solving social challenges, while at the same time not listening to the voices of people outside the decision-making institutions of the tech industry. This gives rise to far-reaching social and individual challenges with a particular focus on social inequality as part of a broad understanding of sustainability. Digital technologies are “seen as a means of resolving the problems of society, yet never quite seem to deliver convincingly” (Srinivasan & Bloom, 2021, S. 23). And again, digital technologies and their developers are postulating the rules of how our society works, what is becoming possible, and what remains impossible or not representable within digital infrastructure (Niesyto, 2017; Staab, 2020). Digital technologies are the “loom on which we spin the myths” of a functioning free market, of more democratic structures and freedom on the Internet—and finally of a rescue “from the disasters of our own making“ (Srinivasan & Bloom, 2021). Digital technologies tend to discriminate against racial minorities, women, and the poor, thus perpetuating the colonializing tendencies (Grünberger, 2025) that are generally attributed to media in the context of the writing of history and the associated codification of the nationstate in a culture shaped by books (Dhawan, 2014). In particular, applications based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) often build on data sets in which basic discriminatory structures of the past are already mapped and thus teach the AI this bias as correct (Crawford, 2021; Innerarity, 2024).

This diagnosis is relevant to educational considerations in many ways: on the one hand, it continues the debate on unequal educational opportunities in a digital age and allows us to examine the underlying structures of these systematic inequalities. However, this explanation also calls into question the simplistic and overly simplistic concerns of media education in the sense of a protective educational attitude towards the unsustainable influences of digital technologies, as well as technosolutionist approaches. The focus will then be on the question of the current and future role of education in bringing possibilities of change in the development of digital technologies.

Methods

Starting with outlining the complex relationship between digital technology, sustainable development and education (especially the relationship of media education and Education for sustainable development) in a media- and educational-philosophical manner, this presentation explores the im-/possibilities of education for a more sustainable use of digital technologies while simultaneously problematising digital-capitalist structures. In doing so, the article opens up a conflicting field of topics and interdisciplinary research approaches which all efforts towards education for sustainable development are embedded.

Results and Discussion

The exploration of the complex relationship between digital technologies, criticism of capitalism, sustainability agendas and education is the starting point for didactic developments and pedagogical approaches for sustainable media education. This has already been published in several publications and projects (Grünberger et al., 2024; Rau & Rieckmann, 2023; Topfstedt et al., 2022). In this article, we will once again focus on the complex circumstances, particularly with regard to social inequality and unequal educational opportunities.

Educational Significance of the research

The presentation thus addresses major contemporary social challenges in the digital age, which educational research must also face. This can only happen in an inter- and transdisciplinary mode that also draws on findings from disciplines such as computer science, critical computer studies, and science and technology studies. A consistent comparison with sociological and educational findings on educational inequality – particularly through and in digital infrastructures – provides some clues.

Introduction and Background

Environmental protection and education for sustainable development (ESD) are key priorities in schools. Yet, educators face challenges fostering understanding and engagement due to the complexity of sustainability issues, including the abstractness of environmental consequences and limited emotional involvement in traditional formats (Mendoza et al., 2025; Thoma et al., 2023).

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) has been proposed as a promising educational technology to address these challenges. IVR refers to fully immersive digital environments experienced through head-mounted displays (HMDs) and controllers (Makransky, 2021). A central feature of IVR is presence—the sense of “being there” in the virtual environment (Slater & Sanchez-Vives, 2016). This may enable authentic, emotionally engaging learning that strengthens connectedness to nature and awareness of human-induced environmental consequences (Makransky & Petersen, 2021; Mendoza et al., 2025; Spangenberger et al., 2024, 2025; Thoma et al., 2023).

However, IVR learning effects depend on instructional design. Exposure alone does not reliably produce affective gains (Ahn et al., 2022), and some studies report disadvantages for cognitive learning outcomes (Makransky et al., 2021; Thomann et al., 2024). Therefore, research increasingly emphasizes combining IVR with instructional supports such as pre-training (Lawson & Mayer, 2025), generative learning strategies (Stenberdt et al., 2025), and debriefing (Evangelou et al., 2026). Learner characteristics may further moderate IVR effectiveness (Felnhofer & Kothgassner, 2022), for example via different levels of experienced presence, which can relate to learning outcomes (Buchner, 2024). However, systematic evidence on moderating effects remains scarce (Buchner & Mulders, 2026).

This study investigates an IVR-based learning design in environmental education on pollination using the Pollinator Park application (European Commission, 2025). It examines cognitive and affective outcomes and whether outcomes differ by subjective presence. The following research questions are investigated:

1. Does a sequence of pre-training, IVR experience, and debriefing foster knowledge about pollination?

2. Does it promote affective outcomes related to sustainability and nature protection?

3. Do outcomes differ depending on learners’ subjective experience of presence?

Method

An evaluative pre–post field study (Mulders, 2023) was conducted with 60 students (Mean age = 16.4 years; 50 boys) during regular science lessons. Measures included a self-developed knowledge test (10 items), an adapted sustainability attitude scale (Waltner et al., 2019; αpre = .84, αpost = .87), and behavioral intention using the Green Scale (Haws et al., 2014; αpre = .86, αpost = .90).

Pre-training consisted of an educational video on bees and pollination plus technical instructions for operating the VR equipment. Students then completed a 20-minute IVR experience, followed by a structured small-group debriefing to discuss and summarize key content.

Results and Discussion

Paired-sample t-tests showed higher knowledge posttest scores (M = 7.03, SD = 1.41) than pretest scores (M = 5.67, SD = 1.19), t(59) = −7.19, p < .001, d = 0.93, indicating substantial cognitive gains when IVR is embedded in an instructional sequence.

Attitudes toward sustainability increased from pretest (M = 4.77, SD = 1.10) to posttest (M = 4.98, SD = 1.08), t(59) = −2.51, p < .05, d = 0.32. Behavioral intention (Green Scale) also increased from pretest (M = 4.09, SD = 1.11) to posttest (M = 4.36, SD = 1.12), t(59) = −2.99, p < .05, d = 0.39.

Independent t-tests comparing higher vs. lower presence groups showed no significant differences for knowledge posttest or attitude scores, but a significant difference for behavioral intention: higher presence (M = 4.67, SD = 1.15) vs. lower presence (M = 4.02, SD = 1.05), t(56) = 2.24, p < .05, d = 0.59. This suggests presence may be particularly relevant for intention-related outcomes, partially aligning with prior IVR climate change findings (Buchner, 2024).

Educational Significance

The study supports the view that IVR is most effective when combined with instructional elements such as pre-training and debriefing, promoting both cognitive and affective outcomes and providing further support for the immersion principle (Makransky, 2021). Practically, it suggests Pollinator Park can contribute to ESD when implemented as a structured learning sequence rather than a standalone experience. The results also underline variability in presence and its potential importance for behavioral intentions; future research should identify learner characteristics that explain presence differences and test transferability of this design to other sustainability topics.