Empirical Study of the Effectiveness of Gamified Cybersecurity Training in Nigerian Universities

Gamification approaches to cybersecurity awareness training offer improved engagement and retention over conventional methods, and empirically evaluating their effectiveness in Nigerian university contexts fills an important gap in African cybersecurity education research. This study empirically evaluated gamified cybersecurity awareness training compared to conventional online training among undergraduate students at the University of Port Harcourt and Ignatius Ajuru University, Rivers State, South South Nigeria. A randomised controlled design assigned 200 students to a gamified training condition (n = 100) and a conventional online module condition (n = 100). Both groups completed identical content on phishing, password security, and social media risks. Knowledge tests were administered at pre-training, immediately post-training, and at 4-week follow-up. The gamified group showed significantly higher immediate post-test scores (mean 78.4 versus 65.2, p < 0.001) and significantly better 4-week retention (mean 74.1 versus 58.3, p < 0.001). Engagement metrics were significantly higher in the gamified condition across all items. Female students showed equal benefit from gamification as male students. The study fills a contextual evaluation gap and recommends gamified security awareness platforms for university student orientation programmes, with competitive leaderboard elements adapted for Nigerian group achievement cultural orientation. Keywords: gamification, cybersecurity awareness training, universities, Rivers State, security education effectiveness