Digital educational escape rooms as a novel approach to cybersecurity education: An empirical study on learner perceptions of usefulness and usability

With the increasing number and severity of cybersecurity incidents, programs for security education, training, and awareness (SETA) have become essential components of organizational and educational strategies to promote information-secure behavior at the workplace. While traditional training is often perceived as uninspiring and tedious, digital educational escape rooms (DEERs) are a promising tool that combines immersive, game-based learning with authentic problem scenarios to improve cybersecurity skills. Despite their growing popularity in cybersecurity education, key acceptance factors of DEERs have not been systematically investigated. This study applies the Technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine how perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use affect the intentions of target learner groups to engage with DEERs in SETA programs. A total of 217 participants, comprising trainees, students, and employees, played one randomly selected DEER from a set of three on password management, privacy and security, and social engineering. After completion, participants evaluated the learning environment using a standardized TAM-based questionnaire. Structural equation modeling revealed that perceived usefulness was the strongest predictor of learners’ intentions to engage with DEERs. Perceived ease of use influenced intention directly and indirectly by positively affecting perceived usefulness. Multigroup Analysis revealed no significant differences across age, gender, professional background, or DEER scenario. These findings highlight the importance of balancing ease of use with the extent to which learners perceive the content to be meaningful, important, and relevant to their professional context in order to ensure acceptance and effective integration of DEERs into SETA programs. • Usefulness is a strong predictor of the intention to engage with DEERs • Ease of use increases DEER engagement directly and indirectly through usefulness. • Core acceptance factors remained stable across learner subgroups. • TAM remains valid in immersive, narrative-based learning environments. • DEERs are a well-accepted alternative to traditional corporate security training.