Big Five Personality in Online Learning and Games: Analysis of Student Activity

Online learning gives promise of effective learning for masses. Personalized learning experiences tailored for individual needs and preferences of each student are key ingredients in making online learning successful. Current approaches to adaptive and personalized online learning use student's personality profile and preferred learning style to adapt learning content and activities in order to provide the best possible experience to each individual student. Research has shown that effects on different types of learning activities in various settings may be different. This study analyses how personality affects student's performance in an online learning environment for programming exercises and how the student's personality can be estimated unobtrusively using a casual online game. The data used to evaluate were collected from an online learning environment used in university programming courses over the course of several years. The activity indicators show significant correlations with overall academic results of students and particularly with personality traits.