Avatar customization orientation and undergraduate-course outcomes: Actual-self avatars are better than ideal-self and future-self avatars

Abstract

Digital education tools increasingly incorporate mechanisms traditionally associated with video games, such as avatars, defined as mediated representations of human users that facilitate interactions with others. Harnessing avatars to promote behavioral change and positive outcomes—the concept of avatar-focused gamification—is underexplored within educational contexts. The present research examines the potential for instructional designers to influence students' avatar customization orientation—defined as an individual's psychological approach to creating an avatar—to improve education-related outcomes; namely, student performance, self-efficacy, and growth mindset. Results of a field experiment (N = 170) in an undergraduate course suggest that, unexpectedly, using an ideal-self or future-self avatar, compared to an actual-self avatar, was associated with slightly lower exam scores and self-efficacy, though no association was found with growth mindset. Based on these findings, we suggest that educators encourage their students to customize avatars to represent who they actually are, while researchers should continue to explore other types of avatar customization guidelines that might be beneficial for students.