DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION EDUCATION NUMERATION WITH VISUAL-INTERACTIVE FEATURES FOR THE ALPHA GENERATION: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW
Keywords:
Educational Games, Numeracy, Smartphone, Visual-Interactive Features, Generation Alpha, Systematic Literature ReviewAbstract
Indonesian students' numeracy skills remain concerned, with a PISA 2022 mathematics score of only 366 points, significantly below the OECD average of 472. Meanwhile, 83.39% of Indonesian internet users access the internet via smartphones, creating substantial opportunities to leverage mobile-based education games for improving numeracy. However, the design of visual-interactive features in numeracy educational games and their alignment with Generation Alpha's learning characteristics have not been systematically examined. This study aims to folder the visual-interactive features of smartphone-based numeracy educational games and evaluate their alignment with Generation Alpha's learning characteristics. A systematic literature review (SLR) following PRISMA guidelines was conducted across four databases (Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, and ERIC) for the period 2015–2025. Of 79 identified articles, 38 met the inclusion criteria (30 for RQ1 and 8 for RQ2). The findings reveal that visual-interactive features in numeracy educational games are dominated by basic elements: 2D illustrations (93%), tap interactions (93%), scores (90%), and levels (83%). on the contrary, immersive features such US 3D representation (10%), augmented reality (0%), multitouch (3%), and badges (0%) are rarely implemented. The alignment analysis shows that none of Generation Alpha's seven learning characteristics are fully addressed, with the largest gaps in personalization and collaboration. These findings indicate the need to develop numeracy educational games that integrate more immersive visual features, richer touch interaction variations, deeper game mechanics, and personalization and collaborative features better suited to Generation Alpha's learning characteristics
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