The impact of personalization feature on students' engagement patterns in a role-playing game: A cultural perspective

The personalization feature has been implemented in various ways in educational games but the effectiveness of personalization feature on students' engagement was mixed in literature. Culture might be one possible reason but has been seldom explored in previous studies. This study filled in this gap by investigating the impact of the personalization feature on students' engagement patterns through the lens of culture. Results showed that the personalization game feature could engage students by capturing and maintaining students' attention and interest. Gender affected students' engagement patterns via cultural differences in attitudes toward time. Additionally, when the game was personalized, students' perceptions of student-teacher relation and group power would affect engagement patterns during gameplay and re-engagement in the future. Findings of this study demonstrated that the personalization game feature delivered via computers could be used to initiate and maintain students' engagement. Gender needs to be considered when utilizing games to engage students. Motivational design is needed to engage less active students in the personalized gaming environment. Students' cultural differences, such as perceptions of power distribution between students and instructors and power of group, need to be considered when designing personalized games. This study contributes to the field by explaining how gender influenced students' engagement patterns and why nonengagement was observed in some previous studies.