Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit
the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective
approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth
of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and
education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different
Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students’ characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on
the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in
regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands
and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall
research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and
distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related
to the overall research question: