Towards Ambient Serious Games in Higher Education -- Vision, Requirements and Technical Solutions

Serious games have shown educational benefits in various studies and case reports. In higher education, they support active learning and can align with the evolving concept of Education 4.0--an approach that leverages modern technologies to personalize learning. While virtual reality is one step in this direction, further opportunities arise through pervasive technologies such as IoT and natural user interfaces. These are central to the concept of smart universities, where smart, computing-enriched environments enhance learning experiences. This paper explores how serious games in higher education can integrate ambient computing concepts to create what we define as Ambient Serious Games (ASGs). A literature review identified key influencing factors, including digitalization, ethics, user needs, learning psychology, and smart environments. Based on these, a target scenario was developed using the human-centered design process to derive design requirements for ASGs. ASGs are serious games embedded in digitally smart environments. The surrounding smart space supports immersive, goal-oriented gameplay. In higher education, ASGs are characterized by an integration with learning management systems for adaptive content delivery, full coverage of educational material through game progression, immersive, multimedia environments to boost engagement, usable interfaces avoiding interaction barriers, physical activity tailored to individual abilities and many other aspects, shown in the paper.