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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present principles for personalization of both learning content and gameplay in serious games for learning, which are based on a combined model of the student that comprises user, learner and player-related aspects of the student’s profile. Each of the considered user, learner and player sub-models has a static and dynamic group of characteristics. These characteristics assist general approaches for learning mazes game personalization applied to embedded mini-games (designed as information units, learning objects and educational tasks) so that to be adjustable and to enable learners to acquire knowledge more effectively. Design/methodology/approach A student modelling approach was applied to design the personalization of learning content in the educational maze game and each of them contained mini-games. To evaluate the student’s preferences about the types of mini-games and ways of their personalization depending on individual and group student characteristics, the authors conducted an online survey. Findings This study presents examples of personalization of four types of mini-games available in maze halls, namely, question, searching, arranging and action games. Next, the research discusses findings from an online survey aiming at the evaluation of the preferred types of mini-games and the way of their personalization. There are analysed results concerning the impact of the student model characteristics on the preferred ways of personalization in educational maze games, together with criteria for personalization of educational resources according to student’s level of knowledge, age, goals and learning style. Research limitations/implications A significant limitation of the research is the relatively small number of survey participants and the lack of studying the impact of learning and playing styles over game personalization. Another limitation of the study is the inclusion of only some of the mini-games within the demonstration maze, which respondents play before answering the survey questions. Originality/value This paper presents original research on the personalization of educational maze game based on a model of the student profile that comprises both static and dynamic properties reflecting user, learner and player-related aspects of the student character, together with results obtained from an online survey.

Computer games are used more and more often in education. Their application in the learning process brings a lot of benefits and advantages compared to the classic form of teaching without the use of new technologies. Some of the more sophisticated games can include a variety of smaller ones, which supplement their functionality. In this article are described in detail the mini-games, which will be part of a 3D educational labyrinth game. They include: quiz, 2D puzzle, solving a Wordsearch Puzzle, rolling balls, shooting on moving inanimate objects, etc. The characteristics of mini-games are considered, and they may be mandatory or optional. The opinions of students and teachers regarding their preferences for the mini-games and the results are studied and compared. Surprisingly, according to the survey, teachers show a more positive attitude towards educational games than students. The APOGEE project aims to create a platform for automatically generating an educational 3D labyrinth game that can be easily used by teachers, even if they are not IT specialists. Thus, they will have the opportunity to choose the right mini-games and the necessary training material.

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