Development and validation of FABLE-S: a scale to measure the ludic and pedagogical experience in serious games

Serious games have gained recognition as effective tools for active learning, merging educational content with engaging gameplay. However, existing evaluation instruments tend to focus on either ludic or pedagogical aspects in isolation, leaving a critical gap in comprehensive assessment tools. This study addresses this gap by developing and validating a multidimensional scale based on the FABLE framework. Adhering to standards on scale construction, a literature-based item pool (Study 1) was refined through expert judgment (Study 2) and pilot testing (Study 3, N = 97). Using an international sample of higher education students from Spain and The Netherlands (N = 1,399), the instrument was explored using EFA (Study 4, N = 415), validated using CFA (Study 5, N = 415), and cross-validated in an independent sample (Study 6, N = 472). Thus, this research proposes FABLE-S, a 22-items instrument distributed across six-factor structure which integrates ludic and pedagogical aspects of serious games. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency, factorial validity, and appropiate model fit indices supporting the theoretically six-factor structure. All dimensions showed excellent reliability, and the model achieved strong fit indices. The instrument performed consistently across different student populations, confirming its structural stability. This study provides a validated tool that evaluates serious games through both ludic and pedagogical perspectives, unlike other scales that prioritize primarily on one aspect, such as the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ), which focuses on players’ social and emotional experiences, or EGameFlow, which primarily assesses the enjoyment offered by learning games. Its development through multiple validation studies ensures rigor while making it adaptable to various educational contexts.