How Personalization Affects Motivation in Gamified Review Assessments

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Traditional one-size-fits-all (OSFA) gamification struggles to motivate diverse learners.
• Existing personalization often focuses on single user dimensions, neglecting multifaceted influences on motivation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate multidimensional personalized gamification versus OSFA in enhancing student motivation.
• To compare the effectiveness of personalized gamification strategies across multiple institutions.

Main Methods:

• A controlled experiment was conducted across three institutions with 58 students.
• Gamification designs compared were OSFA and personalized (based on task, gaming habits, demographics).
• Student motivation to complete learning assessments was the primary outcome measure.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in motivation were found between OSFA and personalized gamification designs.
• Personalization reduced the number of user characteristics influencing motivation.
• Exploratory analysis indicated positive effects for females and technical degree holders, but negative for adventure/single-player game preference.

Conclusions:

• Multidimensional personalized gamification may not universally outperform OSFA approaches.
• Personalization effectiveness is contingent on user characteristics and preferences.
• Findings inform designers, practitioners, and researchers on personalization strategies in educational gamification.