A mixed-method approach on digital educational games for K12: gender, attitudes and performance

Effie Lai-Chong Law, Tim Gamble, Daniel Schwarz, Michael D Kickmeier-Rust, Andreas Holzinger

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceedingChapter or section

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

Research on the influence of gender on attitudes towards and performance in digital educational games (DEGs) has quite a long history. Generally, males tend to play such games more engagingly than females, consequently attitude and performance of males using DEGs should be presumably higher than that of females. This paper reports an investigation of a DEG, which was developed to enhance the acquisition of geographical knowledge, carried out on British, German and Austrian K12 students aged between 11 and 14. Methods include a survey on initial design concepts, user tests on the system and two single-gender focus groups. Gender and cultural differences in gameplay habit, game type preferences and game character perceptions were observed. The results showed that both genders similarly improved their geographical knowledge, although boys tended to have a higher level of positive user experience than the girls. The qualitative data from the focus groups illustrated some interesting gender differences in perceiving various aspects of the game.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHCI and Usability for e-Inclusion
EditorsA Holzinger, K Miesenberger
Place of PublicationBerlin, Heidelberg
PublisherSpringer
Pages42-54
Number of pages13
Volume5889
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-642-10308-7
ISBN (Print)978-3-642-10307-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Event5th Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society - Linz, Austria
Duration: 9 Nov 200910 Nov 2009

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science
PublisherSpringer

Conference

Conference5th Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society
Abbreviated titleUSAB 2009
Country/TerritoryAustria
CityLinz
Period9/11/0910/11/09

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A mixed-method approach on digital educational games for K12: gender, attitudes and performance'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this