# Assessing the Effects of Gamification on Enhancing Information Security Awareness Knowledge
## 6 Conclusions and Suggestions  
This study investigated whether using an IS learning digital game and game mechanics simultaneously in a classroom can enhance students' information security awareness knowledge. This study further examined the effects of gamification on students' attitudes toward and intentions to IS compliance, willingness for IS continuous education, and gender differences in a gamified IS learning system. The results indicated that participants within a gamified classroom performed superiorly in ISA knowledge acquisition than those within a lecture-based instructional classroom. The findings revealed that gamification can positively influence students' three specific IS areas: password management, Internet use, and information handling. Contrary to our expectations, gamification did not significantly impact student's security attitudes and intentions, and the influence of gender differences on the effects of gamification was not observed. This study contributed to the literature regarding both gamification and IS learning. These results suggested that gamification enhances students' knowledge acquisition in an appealing, timely, economical, and repeated manner. Such selected gamification mechanics and dynamics foster students' IS learning. This study thus enriches the literature by addressing the feasibility and efficacy of incorporating gamification in security education that has received less than adequate attention [8; 20; 24]. This study contributes to observing the ways and outcomes of security education that may have a deterrent influence on students' deviant behavior in their future careers [12; 16] and further lead to a security policy compliance culture in an organization [14; 15]. This study also had practical implications. Using digital technology in the classroom is a trend in education. This study provided a free gamification learning platform as an alternative that can make boring IS tasks and materials more engaging and enjoyable [8; 11] and make IS learning more feasible and regular [2; 7; 9]. Despite that, these results suggested that the game mechanics such as points and leaderboard can be applied in a traditional classroom, raising the learning interests in boring, challenging subjects [24]. This study had several limitations and future directions. First, the experiment was conducted over a short period. The time variable could become an essential factor influencing the effectiveness of gamification [34]. Future studies can utilize longitudinal design to provide evidence on whether using game mechanics may be effective over the long run in improving students' IS learning and compliance intention [28; 39; 40]. Further,while this study mainly used ISA knowledge to measure participants' performance, many varying cognitive-behavioral factors [37], individual learning characteristics [25, 30], educational setting factors such as curricula, pedagogies, or instructors [35, 38], or learners' game learning experience and behavior [44, 45] were neglected. A future study may benefit from incorporating these considerations that provide additional insights into how game mechanics support deeper learning and strengthen students' compliance beliefs and behaviors. Third, this study used a quasi-experiment method and only game and lecturing instructional approaches that could not provide sufficient evidence. The researchers may consider a laboratory experiment, other teaching methods, or new algorithms for learners' behavior [45] to gain a richer understanding of gamification in education. Lastly, although gender difference was not observed in the current study, future studies focusing on gender are recommended, as age and gender have produced mixed results on the HAIS-Q [1]. In the context of IS education, gender-specific gamification practices, pedagogies, and content materials may offer the potential to increase awareness, improve compliance attitude, and further commit to security behaviors [17]. Conceptualization, T.W. ; project administration and supervision, T.W. and W.-C.H.