Designing for All: Exploring gender diversity and engagement with digital educational games by young people

Opeyemi Dele-Ajayi, Rebecca Strachan, Alison Pickard, Jonathan Sanderson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Digital educational games development is an emerging area receiving attention from educators and researchers. Several studies have looked at their educational value, and some have established their usefulness as an effective pedagogical tool. However, few studies have examined the design process for digital educational games and how they can provide engagement experiences comparable to those found in entertainment games. Even fewer studies have specifically investigated how concepts of inclusivity and diversity can be built into games. This study explored gender diversity in digital educational games. The authors have worked with young people to create a digital game engagement framework, which identifies the most important factors that attract and engage young people in a digital game. The factors are: challenge, rewards, clarity of goal, feedback, visual appeal, social interaction, thematic appeal, creativity and immersion. Using a mixed methods approach and a 'Diamond 9' tool, young people were asked to rank the nine factors. The results indicate that while rewards ranked highly independent of gender, the importance of other factors (feedback, social interaction and clarity of goal) differed by gender. This study provides implications for designing inclusive digital educational games and calls for further research into diversity and inclusiveness in digital games.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
PublisherIEEE
ISBN (Electronic)9781538611746
ISBN (Print)9781538611753
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Mar 2019
Event48th Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2018 - San Jose, United States
Duration: 3 Oct 20186 Oct 2018

Conference

Conference48th Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Jose
Period3/10/186/10/18

Keywords

  • Diamond 9
  • Digital game
  • Educational game
  • Engagement
  • Game design
  • Gender and diversity
  • STEM education

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