# Assessing the Effects of Gamification on Enhancing Information Security Awareness Knowledge
## 5 Discussions  
The first research question (\(RQI\)) aimed to identify whether gamification practice enhances students' overall and the specific areas of Information security awareness (ISA) knowledge. The current study's findings suggested that gamification effectively supports learning achievement in information security awareness knowledge. Notably, a gamified education system significantly impacts the three specific focus subjects: password management, Internet use, and information handling. \(RQ2\) aimed to answer whether gamification practice influences students' attitudes and intentions to comply. On the contrary, neither a significant effect of gamification on students' attitudes nor IS compliance intentions. Gamification practice also did not impact students' willingness to learn continuously IS subject. The third question (\(RQ3\)) addressed whether gender moderates gamification practice on students' learning performance. The results revealed that the moderating effect of gender influencing the relationship between gamification and IS knowledge enhancement was not found. We discuss the findings from the empirical evaluation as follows. First, the results indicated that the overall ISA performance of students in a gamified classroom is significantly superior to that of students in a lecture-based classroom. An IS learning digital game here provided a media richness experience that likely improves students' attention, understanding, and recall [2; 11]. When users' incorrect answers were given, the online learning mechanism may offer time-efficient and continuous exercises [6; 7] \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l l l} \hline \hline
**Dependent** & **Groups** & **Mean** & **SD** & \(t\) **Test** & \(p\) **Value** & \(\eta^{2}\) & **Observed Power** \\ \hline Attitude & Game-based & 25.32 & 3.36 & 0.05 & 0.96 & 0.00 & 0.06 \\  & Lecture-based & 25.50 & 3.62 & & & & \\ \hline Intention & Game-based & 19.34 & 2.38 & \(-\)0.27 & 0.79 & 0.00 & 0.05 \\  & Lecture-based & 19.31 & 2.61 & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Results of \(t\) test on attitude and intention. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{ISA knowledge} & Game-based & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Lecture-based} \\ \cline{2-4}  & Males (N = 24) & Females (N = 32) & Males (N = 34) & Females (N = 20) \\ \cline{2-4}  & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) & Mean (SD) \\ \hline Overall & 126.71 (14.11) & 122.91 (12.68) & 116.79 (17.84) & 121.20 (17.46) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Results of descriptive data based on groups and gender. and trial and error learning paths for individual learners [25]. The game elements with points, rewards, and leaderboards likely became motivators or feedbacks to encourage students' participation and recognize their efforts [25; 33]. The abovementioned benefits generated from gamification may thus contribute to the meaningful learning of learners. Additionally, gamification advanced IS education in an appealing, timely, economical, and repeated manner for teachers such that practical ISA training and education can be likely achieved [3]. Next, although gamification significantly impacted the overall performance of students, we observed the significant effects enhancing three areas of ISA rather than all areas: password management, Internet use, and information handling. The explanations could be a distinct difference between students and employees in perceiving the types and probabilities of IS threats [6; 10], or students' repeated exposure to certain favored security issues for increasing awareness or meeting particular demands [5]. Thus, significant effects on all ISA areas were not found. Overall, our findings suggested that a gamified IS education system can improve participants' overall ISA knowledge. A high ISA of students likely contributes to their involvement in IS compliance, controlling their accidental deviant behaviors while heightening an organization's ISA culture that students belong to in the future [2; 14; 15; 16].