An Investigation of Gender Differences in a Game-based Learning Environment with Different Game Modes

Background:This study aimed to explore the gender differences of participants’ learning results, perceptions and gaming behaviors related to an energy quiz game with both single-player and multiplayer game modes simultaneously provided for participants.Material and methods:Seventy-four ninth-grade students played the game in six classes over three weeks. The pretest-posttest on energy knowledge and a survey on computer gaming attitude, competitive attitude and participation perception were also conducted in this study.Results:The research findings indicated that although the female participants exhibited lower online gaming experience and a less positive gaming attitude than the male participants did before the experiment, all the participants had positive attitudes toward the quiz game, and the participants of both genders preferred the multiplayer game mode. However, the females had significantly better learning performance on energy knowledge acquisition than the males did after playing the game. More females than males were in favor of the single-player game mode according to the clustering analysis of students’ gaming behaviors.Conclusions:After an in-depth analysis, this study found that their negative attitude toward computer games could be an important factor in explaining why more females than males preferred the single-player game mode, and why females performed better on learning performance than males did.