Research Article

Serious games and complex thinking: A study on gender differences and study discipline in university students

María Soledad Ramírez-Montoya 1 , Carolina Alcantar-Nieblas 2 * , Leonardo David Glasserman-Morales 2
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1 Department of Research, Benemérita Escuela Normal de Coahuila, MEXICO/Research Department, University of Design, Innovation and Technology (UDIT), Madrid, SPAIN2 Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, MEXICO* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 15(4), October 2025, e202540, https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/17544
Published: 15 December 2025
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ABSTRACT

Serious games are a fundamental tool to promote learning in a playful way and to develop a wide range of cognitive skills such as complex thinking. In this study we sought to first analyze the perceived achievement of complex thinking sub-competencies by majors, and we also aimed to investigate mean differences in the group of students coming from computer science and engineering related majors and by gender of the participants in complex thinking sub-competencies. 417 learners were part of this study, of which 65.7% were male and 34.3% were female. It was found that medical students perceived higher achievement in systems, scientific and innovative thinking, while data science and industrial engineering students excelled in critical thinking. Statistically significant differences were found between engineering and computer science careers and systemic thinking, being higher in engineering. Likewise, significant differences by gender were found in all sub-competencies except innovative thinking, where women outperformed men. The findings are discussed in light of the evidence in the literature on the subject.
Keywords: serious games, complex thinking, higher innovation in education, future of education, gender differences

CITATION (APA)

Ramírez-Montoya, M. S., Alcantar-Nieblas, C., & Glasserman-Morales, L. D. (2025). Serious games and complex thinking: A study on gender differences and study discipline in university students. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 15(4), e202540. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/17544

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