Serious games are increasingly explored as collaborative tools to enhance social learning on sustainable management of land and natural resources. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine the current state of the art of the different methods and procedures used to assess social learning outcomes of collaborative serious games. Forty-two publications were identified and included in the review following study selection and quality assessment steps. Extracted data from the publications were categorized in relation to five research questions. Approaches that were used to assess cognitive, normative, and relational learning outcomes of collaborative serious games were subsequently identified based on the categorizations. As a result, these approaches distinguished between the nature of learning in the assessment of collaborative serious games. Combined, these approaches provide an overview of how to assess social learning outcomes of collaborative serious games, including the methods and procedures that can be used, and may serve as a reference for scholars designing and evaluating collaborative serious games.

Calls for transformative change and participatory modes of knowledge production demand researchers to assume new roles. This paper synthesizes the literature on knowledge co‐production and researcher roles to explore challenges for researchers involved in transdisciplinary environmental management projects. Our research methods combine a scoping review and reflections on personal experiences with three transdisciplinary projects. To conceptualize researcher roles in transdisciplinary knowledge co‐production, we distinguish between three spaces: knowledge, formal policy, and stakeholder. Knowledge co‐production requires collaboration between actors from different spaces and integration of diverse knowledge sources and types. Depending on whether researchers adopt knowledge‐oriented, change‐oriented or intermediating roles, they will experience different challenges. When researchers combine knowledge development with change‐oriented and/or intermediating roles, they encounter new challenges, such as, maintaining independence or objectivity. To assist researchers in transdisciplinary projects, we conclude with a checklist of four elements to reflect upon: orientation, norms and values, expectations and resources.

Integrated river basin management increases technical as well as management and governance complexity. In this multidisciplinary setting, actors, from their different backgrounds, frame both issues and solutions differently. To resolve conflicts, it is important to recognize – and to not ignore – the existence of contending social framings. A better understanding is needed of how actors frame issues and solutions in integrated river basin management. To gain this better understanding, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Dutch river basin management actors following Sense-making methodology. Three challenges were identified where respondents framed both the issue and solution differently: (1) creating flexibility in a controlled river system; (2) sustaining the integrated approach in the maintenance of floodplains; and (3) formulating future river basin management policies to adapt to climate change. Cultural Theory was subsequently used to analyse how respondents construct perspectives towards these challenges. The analysis showed how actors use different rationalities in constructing these perspectives. As an implication, it is important for actors to recognize and acknowledge these perspectives in integrated river basin management decision-making. New tools, embedded in learning environments, are needed to facilitate exchanging and understanding actors’ perspectives.

Effective communication practices are needed to support adaptive, collaborative and integrative environmental management. We propose the use of online storylines to communicate scientific outcomes in a way that is captivating, easily understood and accessible. Based on 20 interviews, we identified important attributes for the storyline content, structure and user interaction. We designed a storyline example about stakeholders’ perceptions of a river management intervention with consequences on the landscape. The intended audience consists of multi-disciplinary researchers and practitioners that could consider or apply research solutions outside their field of expertise in river management. We introduced the example in a workshop with 14 participants from research and practice. Our findings highlight the importance of including narrative elements via images, interactive figures and timelines to illustrate the research context. Moreover, storylines should explicitly state benefits as well as the limitations of the river research and include a glossary to clarify specific terms.