| dc.description.abstract | In the past decades, game-based learning has been applied to deliver learning materials in various fields. This is due to the fact that game-based learning provides many benefits. For example, game-based learning contains various game elements (i.e., story, music, hints and help documents), which promote students’ learning motivation. However, previous research also indicated that game-based learning may cause some problems, such as the increase of learners’ cognitive overload. Nevertheless, not all of learners can overcome these problems because learners have diverse characteristics, especially cognitive styles. Thus, two approaches, i.e., customization and personalization, can be applied to accommodate students’ individual differences. However, such two approaches have different advantages and disadvantages. Thus, there is a need to compare these two approaches.
To address this issue, the research presented in this dissertation conducted two empirical studies to examine how cognitive styles affect learner’s reactions to customization and personalization in the context of game-based learning. In Study One, a customized game learning system (CGBLS) is developed to examine how cognitive styles affect learners’ reactions to the CGBLS. The results of Study One showed that Holists and Serialists have different preferences. Based on such different preferences, a personalized game-based learning system (PGBLS) is developed to further examine how each cognitive style group reacts to the CGBLS and PGBLS in Study Two.
The results of Study One demonstrated that Holists may not always favor to listen to music because they frequently switch on or switch off music. On the other hand, Serialists need additional supports because they meet a lot of difficulties but they do not prefer to use hints. In addition, the results of Study Two showed that learners in the CGBLS got better improvement on their learning performance while learners in the PGBLS got greater improvement on their game performance. Another interesting finding was that learners in the CGBLS had more positive perceptions while learners in PGBLS had more negative perception. Based on the results of each study, a framework is produced. This framework can be applied to support learners, designers, researchers and instructors to promote the effectiveness of game-based learning. | en_US |