Does Providing a Personalized Educational Game Based on Personality Matter? A Case Study

Abstract

While researchers have highlighted the importance of considering learner's personality as a personalization parameter in computer based learning, very few studies have really addressed this parameter in educational games. Therefore, this paper presents an educational game which models learner's personality, specifically introvert/extrovert dimension, to serve as a personalized game learning environment. Fifty one learners were randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group which learned with a non-personalized and a personalized version of the game respectively. The experimental results show that the personalized educational game did not have a significant impact on learners' motivation, while it did significantly decrease learners' cognitive load. Besides, the learners who learned with the personalized version of the game revealed a significant higher degree of perceived usefulness and intention to use the game than those who learned with the non-personalized version of the game. The findings of this study can be used by educators and game designers to adopt and develop personalized game learning environments based on learner's personality.