Does Gamer Personality Affect the Experience and Engagement of Architectural Engineering Sophomores in Fundamental Classes?

Games as a part of teaching pedagogy are gaining popularity from K-12 to college education. Instructors of even traditional courses (without major online components) are utilizing online textbook resources, games, and videos. However, there is conflicting research regarding the benefits of these tools in comparison to traditional teaching methods. With the intention of improving student experience in a required and particularly challenging fundamental engineering course (Engineering Statics) in the Architectural Engineering (AE) Program at the University of Nebraska, the authors implemented some games and assessments. The guiding hypothesis of the study is that students choosing architectural engineering may be more visual or hands-on learners, and the high attrition rates in the first two years may be linked to the relatively dry fundamentals courses required in the AE curriculum. The young student struggles to understand the relationship of these courses with their desired occupation. However, the impact of the interventions to prove or disprove this hypothesis will necessitate a longer study to observe retention rates. The authors' secondary hypothesis is that different personalities, identified as one of the four established gamer types, may react to various teaching tools in contrasting ways and this may affect their experience and engagement in the class. This presentation will discuss the following questions and related findings: How do the different personalities react to new instructional trends? Are there correlations between the students' characteristics as a "gamer" to their academic success? Are there differences between Male and feMale engineering students regarding gamer types, gaming-related engagement, and success in this class?.