Individual Experience and Engagement in Avatar-Mediated Environments: The Mediating Effect of Interpersonal Attraction

Abstract

The application of different virtual reality interventions has been recently gaining interest from researchers and practitioners. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions increased the use of these technologies to help create much value for educators and students. The relationship between individual experience and engagement in avatar-mediated environments has garnered empirical support, but still little is known about the mediating mechanisms underlying this relation. This study investigated the mediating role of interpersonal attraction (e.g., social, physical, and task attraction) in the link between individual experience and engagement in an avatar-mediated learning environment. A total of 112 participants (21–23 years; 73 male and 39 female) participated in online peer learning sessions in Second Life. After controlling for demographic covariates, the results showed that (1) individual experience was positively associated with students’ engagement; (2) social, physical, and task attraction was found to positively mediate the link between experience and engagement. The outcomes from this study provide valuable implications for promoting online learners’ engagement in avatar-mediated environments.