ERIC Number: EJ1145827
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1939-1382
EISSN: N/A
Investigating the Impact of Gaming Habits, Gender, and Age on the Effectiveness of an Educational Video Game: An Exploratory Study
Manero, Borja; Torrente, Javier; Fernandez-Vara, Clara; Fernandez-Manjon, Baltasar
IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, v10 n2 p236-246 Apr-Jun 2017
This study examines the influence of players' age, gender, and gaming preferences and habits (from now on, "gaming preferences") on the effectiveness of a specific videogame that has been designed to increase the interest towards classical theater among teenagers. Using a validated instrument, participants were divided into four groups based on their gaming preferences: (1) Well-rounded (WR) gamers, who play all types of games often; (2) Hardcore players, who frequently tend to play first-person shooter (FPS) and sports games; (3) Casual players, who play moderately and tend to play music, social, and puzzle games; and (4) Non-gamers, who barely play videogames at all. Among all of the participants' personal factors (age, gender, and type of player) that were measured, only gaming preferences seemed to have a significant (p<0.05) positive influence on students' interest in theater-going. Neither age nor gender seemed to affect the outcomes. Casual and Well-rounded gamers scored higher in the game than Non-gamers and Hardcore players. Due to these results, we also explored whether the gaming profile affected traditional educational approaches. Traditional education worked better than videogames only for students who do not usually play videogames. This study suggests that gaming preferences may influence the effectiveness of different educational approaches. Knowing students' gaming preferences in advance may help educators find the best educational approach for each student.
Descriptors: Computer Uses in Education, Gender Differences, Age Differences, Instructional Effectiveness, Educational Games, Video Games, Computer Games, Age, Preferences, Theater Arts, Adolescents, High School Students, Foreign Countries, Conventional Instruction, Comparative Analysis, Pretests Posttests, Statistical Analysis, Student Characteristics, Student Motivation, Quasiexperimental Design
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Tel: 732-981-0060; Web site: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=4620076
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain (Madrid)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A