IJIET 2026 Vol.16(9): 2317-2326
doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2026.16.9.2690
doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2026.16.9.2690
Personalized Inquiry and Game-based Learning Approaches for Supporting University Students’ Achievement and Emotional Engagement
Narisra Komalawardhana 1 and Patcharin Panjaburee 2,3,*
1. Center for Advanced Therapeutics, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
2. Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
3. Digital Education and Learning Engineering Association, Thailand
Email: narisra.kom@mahidol.ac.th (N.K.); patchapan@kku.ac.th (P.P.)
*Corresponding author
2. Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
3. Digital Education and Learning Engineering Association, Thailand
Email: narisra.kom@mahidol.ac.th (N.K.); patchapan@kku.ac.th (P.P.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received December 22, 2025; revised February 23, 2026; accepted March 6, 2026; published September 10, 2026
Abstract—Personalized learning has been widely recognized as an effective approach to address individual student needs; however, many systems face challenges in supporting students to explore content while maintaining motivation and enjoyment systematically. To address these limitations, the Augmented Reality, Inquiry-Based Personalized Gaming (ARIPG) framework integrates the strengths of Augmented Reality (AR), inquiry-based learning, and personalized learning to compensate for the limitations inherent in each approach, resulting in a more coherent and balanced learning model. While AR enhances the visualization and contextualization of abstract concepts, inquiry-based learning promotes active knowledge construction and scientific inquiring, and personalized learning addresses individual differences among learners. By synergistically combining these approaches, ARIPG creates a holistic learning environment that leverages its complementary advantages to support both cognitive and affective learning outcomes. An experiment was conducted in a biochemical university course to evaluate students’ learning achievement and the role of emotional engagement. The results indicated that students who learned with the ARIPG approach significantly outperformed those in a conventional personalized gaming environment. Moreover, the findings revealed no significant differences in achievement between students with low and high levels of affection, suggesting that the proposed approach can effectively support diverse learners’ emotional engagement.
Keywords—higher education, personalized learning, immersive technology, game-based learning, equality education
Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Keywords—higher education, personalized learning, immersive technology, game-based learning, equality education
Cite: Narisra Komalawardhana and Patcharin Panjaburee , "Personalized Inquiry and Game-based Learning Approaches for Supporting University Students’ Achievement and Emotional Engagement," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 2317-2326, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).