The TLC lab is excited and proud to announce that, on November 14th 2025, Robin Sharma successfully defended his PhD dissertation, "Designing and Testing the Effectiveness of Digital Games to Develop Adolescents’ Understanding of Mathematics."

Dr. Sharma joined the TLC lab in 2020, after working at UNESCO as a gaming curriculum designer and having already collaborated with TLC lab director Dr. Dubé on the UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRY GUIDELINES ON DIGITAL LEARNING.

At the lab, he co-lead the development of teacher curriculum guides for Ubisoft's Discovery Tour series and published studies testing how they impact educators self-efficacy and acceptance of game-based learning.

His PhD work combines his love for the beauty of mathematics and knowledge of game-based learning.  He systematically reviewed intervention approaches for geometry instruction for adolescents, created a theory-driven model of educational game design that combines learning theory, game design, and emotional design principles, and conducted a value-added experiment testing the effect of the geometry game he developed on adolescents' knowledge of geometry.   All of this was supported by funding from both the Quebec government and Universities Canada. 

When he joined the lab, his goal was to become a leader in game-based learning research and development. The TLC lab will always remember when we got to work alongside Dr. Robin Sharma.