Assessing health science students’ gaming experience: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Digital gamification applied to university students enrolled in health-related degrees is considered an innovative and beneficial tool that complements traditional teaching. Objectives: To analyze the enjoyment experience obtained by university students in the Faculty of Health Sciences and to know the gender differences after participating in a digital game. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Participants: A total of 156 university students from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Zaragoza. Methods: The activity of a digital game took place in the academic year 2021–2022 and was carried out as a teaching innovation project with the final approval of the University of Zaragoza. The tools used were the Spanish version of the Gameful Experience Scale and a self-administered questionnaire on satisfaction and suitability reported by the activity. Results: A total of 156 students participated with an age of 21.2 ± 6.2 years. The highest score is the enjoyment dimension (4 ± 0.7), and the lowest score is the negative affect dimension (1.5 ± 0.9). Cronbach’s alpha for the whole Gameful Experience Scale was 0.95. There were significant differences in three dimensions of the Gameful Experience Scale: male students had more enjoyment than female students (p = 0.05), enjoyed a greater sense of domination (p = 0.01), and had fewer negative effects (p = 0.0). In the highest corresponding positions it was used for other topics such as learning (m 4.4; SD 0.5), motivation to learn (m 4.1; SD 0.8) or helping memorize concepts (m 4.4).4; SD 0.5). Conclusion: Gender influences student satisfaction after carrying out a gamification activity, especially after a digital game. The dimensions in which gender differences were found were fun, absence of negative effects, and dominance.