# Assessing the Effects of Gamification on Enhancing Information Security Awareness Knowledge
## 3 Methodology
### Information Security learning Game System  
A free web-based IS digital game (IS learning game) provided by _PaGamO_ was utilized in this study to help students learn ISA knowledge. _PaGamO_, developed by Taiwanese Company _BoniO Inc._, is the world's first online gamification learning platform. This platform offers multiple subjects and programs, ranging from elementary school to adult education and training, and more than 1.5 million global users participate in individual or collaborative online gamification learning. The IS learning game system offers an updated cloud-based, hierarchical user interface that allows students to use computers or mobile devices and intuitively assess ISA knowledge learning materials under a gamification mechanism. Such benefits and affordance may reduce the bias concerning technical difficulties that affected students' learning performance [41]. Furthermore, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [42] empirically identified that the scores of the _PaGamO_ educational game related to examination scores. Accordingly, an IS learning game of _PaGamO_ is a suitable tool for examining the gamification effects on students' ISA knowledge enhancement. The IS learning game system has three primary databases: a user's profile, IS knowledge materials, and gamification mechanisms. A user's profile database saves users' registration information and automatically records participants' learning performance status and behaviors in a game. An IS knowledge and materials database stores the IS learning materials in terms of awareness, technical, and management categories provided by the _PaGamO_ course designers. Given the time limitation and ISA knowledge topics implemented in this study, this study mainly focused on the awareness knowledge category because the current IS learning game includes the learning materials of the ISA topics shown in Table 1. The knowledge materials database also allows teachers to build specific learning tasks, but the instructor did not use this function in the current study. The gamification mechanisms database includes the game dynamics and mechanics. Figure 1 shows the architecture of the IS learning game system, and Figure 2 displays a front page screenshot of IS learning game. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l} \hline \hline
**Week** & **ISA Areas** & **Topics** & **HAIS-Q** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Week 1} & \multirow{4}{*}{IS principles and policies} & \(\bullet\) & Cybersecurity fundamentals & \(\bullet\) & Password management \\  & & \(\bullet\) & Information security & \(\bullet\) & Email use \\  & & & management & \(\bullet\) & Internet use \\  & & \(\bullet\) & Compliance and legal issues & \(\bullet\) & Social media use \\  & & & & \(\bullet\) & Information handling \\  & & & & \(\bullet\) & Incident reporting \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Week 2} & \multirow{2}{*}{Cybersecurity of the network} & \(\bullet\) & Operating system security & \(\bullet\) & Password management \\  & & \(\bullet\) & Software security & \(\bullet\) & Email use \\  & & \(\bullet\) & Network security & \(\bullet\) & Internet use \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Week 3} & \multirow{2}{*}{Attack methods and basic defense against attacks} & \(\bullet\) & Social engineering & \(\bullet\) & Email use \\  & & \(\bullet\) & Attacks and defenses & \(\bullet\) & Internet use \\  & & \(\bullet\) & Web security & \(\bullet\) & Social media use \\  & & & & \(\bullet\) & Information handling \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Week 4} & \multirow{4}{*}{Security management of mobile devices, USB, and database} & \multirow{4}{*}{Database security} & \(\bullet\) & Password management \\  & & & & \(\bullet\) & Internet use \\ \cline{1-1}  & & \(\bullet\) & Information assurance & \(\bullet\) & Social media use \\ \cline{1-1}  & & & & \(\bullet\) & Mobile devices \\ \cline{1-1}  & & & & \(\bullet\) & Information handling \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: ISA knowledge topics and the HAIS-Q. Figure 1: IS (Information Security) learning game architecture.