Gender Differences in Mixed Reality Flight Simulator Training: Enhancing Inclusive Engineering Education

Contribution: This study reveals significant gender differences in mixed reality (MR) training by demonstrating that female participants experience higher simulator sickness and lower perceived performance compared to males, thereby informing the design of more inclusive training systems in engineering education. Background: As MR technologies become increasingly integrated into training for electrical, computer, and aerospace engineering, understanding user differences is crucial for enhancing learning outcomes and system usability. Research Questions: 1) Does gender influence the experience of simulator sickness, workload, and situation awareness during MR-based flight simulation and 2) does female users encounter these challenges more acutely than male users? Methodology: A controlled experiment was conducted with 32 participants equally divided by gender, using standardized instruments—the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ), NASA task load index, and situation awareness rating technique (SART)—to assess user responses during an MR flight simulation. Findings: The results indicate that female participants report significantly higher levels of simulator sickness, especially oculomotor symptoms. Female participants also reported lower self-assessed performance and situational awareness (SA) than male participants. These findings emphasize the need for adaptive feedback mechanisms and ergonomic design improvements in MR educational training tools.