Leveling up: Are non gamers and women disadvantaged in a virtual world classroom?
Today's young gamers are tomorrow's students who expect more immersion from their online learning experiences. Teachers and administrators, however, must ask are some students at a disadvantage in such a class and does gender play a role? We examine the degree to which gaming experience and gender influence sense of presence in a virtual world learning classroom. Feelings of presence are key to involvement in virtual worlds. Participants, 348 undergraduates, interacted within a custom designed virtual world classroom focusing business negotiation skills. Results reveal that while gaming experience gives a slight advantage, lack of previous software ownership and gender do not put learners at a disadvantage. This finding shows that non gamers and females can equally participate in a virtual world classroom, relieving concerns of adoption. Display Omitted Students without gaming experience are not significantly disadvantaged when in virtual world instruction.Gender does not influence feelings of presence in a virtual world classroom.Experience of software ownership does not influence feelings of presence.Teachers can confidently implement virtual world learning environments without concern.
Comput. Hum. Behav.