PlayMINT—an effective digital learning game for leadership competencies of female STEM students

Leadership competencies become increasingly important for realizing disruptive technologies but are rarely taught at universities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Due to the threatening skills shortage and the prevailing gender gap in STEM, especially in leadership positions, it is vital to engage women and to improve leadership competencies for STEM professionals in the long term during their jobs or studies with a low entrance barrier. To address this issue, we developed PlayMINT—the first serious learning game for leadership competencies relevant to 21st-century challenges. We comprehensively evaluated PlayMINT in a rigorous randomized long-term user experiment including a control group using traditional learning methods over nine months with a substantial sample size of 181 female STEM students from German universities. Moreover, we used a multi-method approach combining self-assessments and learning analytics. Despite the low entrance barrier, the leadership competencies gained through PlayMINT were equivalent to those obtained through traditional learning methods. PlayMINT enabled significant improvements in innovative work behavior, creative self-efficacy, effective communication, empowerment, envisioning, and business knowledge of participants over time.