Research Collection

Videogame-based environments are an increasingly popular choice to facilitate training. The purpose of the current research was to investigate the influence of two trainee characteristics, prior videogame experience and computer self-efficacy, on learner outcomes of a videogame-based training environment. In this research, 413 participants played a first-person-perspective videogame that began with a single-player section to introduce game-specific tasks, followed by a multi-player section where participants formed small teams to conduct several collaborative missions. Results indicated that computer self-efficacy and prior videogame experience were predictive of several learner outcomes such that trainees with greater computer self-efficacy and prior videogame experience reported less difficulty using the game interface and greater team cohesion, training satisfaction, and training motivation. Further, a videogame genre-specific effect was demonstrated in that only specific prior game experiences that share similar characteristics with the current training game were significantly predictive of the learner outcomes. These findings have implications for training game developers and instructors utilizing such games.

Integrating theory from research on training, computer self-efficacy (CSE), and motivation, this research validated a model of four factors that contribute to application-specific computer self-efficacy (AS-CSE) formation (previous experience, personality, learning goal orientation and computer anxiety) and three factors that mediate the relationship between AS-CSE and performance (goal level, goal commitment and performance goal orientation (PGO)). Using data from 313 individuals in an introductory computer skills course, the model was validated for database software. Results indicate that previous database software experience, trainee personality and learning goal orientation were positively related to AS-CSE, whereas computer anxiety was negatively related to AS-CSE. Additionally, goal level, goal commitment and PGOs were related to database test performance, and the relationship between AS-CSE and database test performance was also partially mediated by goal level and goal commitment. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Outcomes and mediators of differences in online and traditional course delivery were tested with a sample of 112 graduate students who completed an introductory course in training and development. Specifically, the individual learner characteristics of self-efficacy, motivation, goal orientation, and meta-cognition and their effects on success through online delivery were examined. The study also addressed three outcomes: trainees' reactions to that program, their learning, and subsequent planned changes in job behavior. The findings indicate that online learners have significantly more positive reaction levels of enjoyment and utility and significantly stronger intent to transfer their learning. Online students find the coursework more difficult, but there was no significant difference in learning based on delivery mode. Implications for both managers and educators involved in online learning are discussed.

This paper reports on an innovative, computer-mediated, educational technology application in a simulated distance learning environment. As an initial evaluation, real student groups completed an entire university course using this state-of-the-art, two-way synchronous audio/visual communication technology, Distributed Tutored Video Instruction (DTVI). The study reported here explored student perceptions of a simulated distance learning environment using the system. The learning environment was characterized by videotaped lectures by the course instructor, delivered in computer-mediated small group settings. Six separate groups made up of six to eight students and a facilitator were studied. Group members were in separate locations, interacting via synchronous audio and visual computer channels. Our findings indicate an overall high level of perceived effectiveness and satisfaction with the instructional mode. In addition, significant relationships were established between facilitator effectiveness and student satisfaction, student motivation and class participation, student exam grades and perceived amount of group discussion. Findings indicate innovations in computer-mediated instructional designs can achieve desired levels of participant interaction considered critical to effective distance education technology.

This study was designed to evaluate how individual learner differences relate to one's achievement level in the online environment. This study focused on student characteristics such as student entry characteristics as well as student use of learning strategies, or self-regulated learning, as factors that contribute to positive academic performance in an online course. Understanding the role of learner differences in the online learning environment will assist institutions to make decisions regarding online programs. These decisions go beyond the initial question of whether to invest in online programs or whether to increase or decrease online course availability. Understanding the role of learner differences in the online learning environment will also help institutions understand what resources need to be allocated toward support of online learning programs in the form of online advising and technical support for students, course development support for faculty, and investing in learning management software or collaboration software. Data was gathered using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Many studies have used this instrument to study self-regulated learning characteristics of students in traditional face-to-face courses (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1990). In addition demographic variable data were also collected from participants. Participants included graduate students enrolled in online courses at a Midwestern university during the Spring 2005 and Summer 2005 semesters. This data was analyzed for relationships among student entry characteristics, self-regulated learning characteristics, and academic performance. Results indicated there were no significant relationships between student entry characteristics and academic performance and no significant relationships between self-regulated learning characteristics and academic performance. There were significant relationships found between student entry characteristics and self-regulated learning characteristics. Implications and recommendations related to these results were discussed. It was determined that results were inconclusive. Due to low variance of the final course grade scores, the study should be replicated using an expanded sample including undergraduate and K-12 online students.

The present study examined whether an extraneous cognitive load condition adversely affected participants' performance, self-efficacy, and anxiety. The participants were sixty-six pre-service teacher education students across two pre-service undergraduate teacher education courses who volunteered to take part in this study. The correlation coefficient was used for the content because Nolen (1995) found that self-efficacy for statistics was related to cognitive engagement. Participants were randomly assigned to either an extraneous cognitive load or non-extraneous cognitive load condition. This study yielded a mixture of significant and non-significant findings regarding the effect of extraneous cognitive load upon motivation and performance. The results suggest two things. First, the correlation instruction improved participants' self-efficacy. Second, that there were confounds such as processing time and content domain that may have affected the results. This suggests that extraneous cognitive load conditions can still adversely impact motivation and performance, but further research is needed to examine these issues.

This study is a quasi-experimental design to examine students' performance in integrating the web in different aspects of teaching and learning in an introductory programming course. This course is an introduction to problem-solving methods and algorithm development using a higher-level programming language (C++). This empirical, exploratory study examined the academic performance, motivation, satisfaction and course completion rate of students using three instructional modalities: (1) traditional face-to-face, (2) web-assisted, and (3) online. Participants were primarily entering first year college students attending an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) majoring in computer science. Data collected included scores on the departmental computer placement test, the proficiency examination, two multiple-choice examinations, three programming assignments, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), the course evaluation form, and the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). This study supports the body of research studies that have concluded that online instruction is as effective as traditional face-to-face instruction. This study revealed that the instructional modality did not affect student motivation, self-regulation completion rate, and academic performance on the end of semester proficiency examination. However, in this study face-to-face, web-assisted, and online instructional modalities were equally effective for teaching computer programming.

Animated graphics are extensively used in multimedia instructions explaining how natural or artificial dynamic systems work. As animation directly depicts spatial changes over time, it is legitimate to believe that animated graphics will improve comprehension over static graphics. However, the research failed to find clear evidence in favour of animation. Animation may also be used to promote interactions in computer-supported collaborative learning. In this setting as well, the empirical studies have not confirmed the benefits that one could intuitively expect from the use of animation. One explanation is that multimedia, including animated graphics, challenges human processing capacities, and in particular imposes a substantial working memory load. We designed an experimental study involving three between-subjects factors: the type of multimedia instruction (with static or animated graphics), the presence of snapshots of critical steps of the system (with or without snapshots) and the learning setting (individual or collaborative). The findings indicate that animation was overall beneficial to retention, while for transfer, only learners studying collaboratively benefited from animated over static graphics. Contrary to our expectations, the snapshots were marginally beneficial to learners studying individually and significantly detrimental to learners studying in dyads. The results are discussed within the multimedia comprehension framework in order to propose the conditions under which animation can benefit to learning.

In two experiments, the role of spatial ability in learning from an instructional animation versus a series of static pictures was studied. In both experiments, a statistical interaction of spatial ability and type of visualization was obtained: Low-spatial ability students showed poor learning outcome when learning from pictures while high-spatial students did not; when learning from animation, however, learning outcome was independent from spatial ability. The results are in line with an ability-as-compensator hypothesis which states that constructing mental animations from non-dynamic materials needs spatial ability; with animated learning materials, however, spatial ability is not required. No overall differences between static pictures and animation were found. ?? 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper investigates the relationship between instructional effectiveness of animated vs. static diagrams and levels of learner expertise in the task domain of transforming graphs of simple linear and quadratic functions. It was demonstrated on many occasions that instructional formats that are effective for low-knowledge learners could be ineffective, or even deleterious, for high-knowledge learners, and vice versa (the expertise reversal effect). The levels of learner (university students) expertise in this study were measured using an online rapid diagnostic method, a rapid verification technique, that involves presenting learners with a series of possible solution steps reflecting various stages of the solution procedure and asking them to rapidly verify the suggested steps. The results indicated a significant interaction between levels of learner expertise and instructional formats. Novice learners benefited more from static diagrams than from animated diagrams, while more knowledgeable learners benefited more from animated rather than static diagrams. A theoretical explanation of the effect is suggested within the framework of cognitive load theory.

The current study investigated whether learning from dynamic and two presentation formats for static visualizations can be enhanced by means of cueing. One hundred and fifty university students were randomly assigned to six conditions, resulting from a 2x3-design, with cueing (with/without) and type of visualization (dynamic, static-sequential, static-simultaneous) as independent variables. For transfer tasks, learners receiving dynamic visualizations outperformed learners receiving static visualizations. A main effect in favour of cued visualizations could be observed only for pictorial tasks, but not for transfer tasks. There was no interaction between type of visualization and cueing for any learning outcome measure. Taken together, the study suggests that dynamic visualizations may be beneficial whenever understanding concerning the dynamic features of a domain is crucial to learning. Cueing on the other hand may not necessarily lead to a deeper understanding, but supports to achieve a better comprehension of the depicted visualizations.

Describes the development of a computer-based learning courseware that presented associative learning between abstract and concrete domains and discusses results of a study of college students that determined whether various audio-visual combinations and differences in IQ levels influenced learning and long-term retention using the courseware. (LRW)

This study compares students' performance and attitudes in a hybrid (blend of online and face-to-face) model of Elementary Statistics and a traditional (face-to-face) model of the same course. Performance was measured by test, quiz, project, and final exam grades. Attitude was measured by the results of a course survey administered at the end of the semester. Both models of the course required the same textbook and statistical computer package, were taught by the same instructor, and had similar demographic characteristics such as gender, major, and classification. Significant differences were found in an extra credit grade comprised of points earned on interactive worksheets, and attitudes toward the course. There was no significant difference in students' performance as measured by grades. The value of hybrid courses as a viable option in distance education and their potential benefits to students and the educational institution are discussed.

Advances in technology coupled with increasing student enrollment numbers have led some universities to begin offering on-line classes. This paper discusses a study comparing a traditional offering of elementary statistics with a "hybrid" offering. In the hybrid offering the class met once a week, but students were required to learn the material on their own using web-based materials and a textbook. We examined differences in student performance, student satisfaction and investment of both student and instructor time. Performance of students in the hybrid offering equaled that of the traditional students, but students in the hybrid were slightly less positive in their subjective evaluation of the course.

This dissertation study investigated the relationship between students' cognitive styles and learning environments and its impact on students' performance, course satisfaction and attitudes toward computers. It was hypothesized that field-independent students would perform better on posttest measures than field-dependent students in the computer lab and science center environments while using a computer-based learning system. It was also hypothesized that field-independent students would have more positive attitudes toward computers and would have higher scores in course satisfaction than field dependent students in the same technology-related learning environments. It was hypothesized that there would be no difference in the students' performance, attitudes toward computers, and course satisfaction in the classroom environment between field-independent and field dependent students.The participants were 174 high school 9th and 10 th grade students from the Orlando area. Participants were assigned to one of three experiment groups: classroom, computer lab, or the Orlando Science Center. Before the experiment, students were asked to take a computer attitude survey and statistics pretest. Students took the same survey and test again together with a course satisfaction survey, after the experiment. Data analysis consisted of 2 x 3 x 3 analysis of covariance to examine the main effects and interactions between field dependency, learning environments, and students' performance; also, the main effects and interactions between field dependency, learning environment and students' attitudes toward computers were examined. A multivariate statistical analysis was employed to examine the relationship between field dependency, learning environment, and student course satisfaction. Data analysis revealed no difference in the students' performance in relation to their cognitive styles and learning environment. There was, however, a significant difference in the students' performance between the classroom and the technology related learning environments regardless of students' cognitive styles. The study found no difference in students' attitudes toward computers in relation to their cognitive styles and learning environment. A multivariate statistical analysis found a significant difference in students' course satisfaction between the traditional classroom environment and the technology-based learning environment. However, the study found no significant difference in students' attitudes toward course satisfaction in relation to cognitive styles and different learning environments.

In this study, the author administered a 19-question survey instrument to students in 2 types of business statistics classes at Virginia Commonwealth University. In the 1st class, a traditional 1, students used pocket calculators during exams and had access to tables in a textbook. In the other class, a technology class, each student had a computer and used the Minitab statistical software for calculations. The author compared the 2 classes to investigate differences in attitude toward technology learning and learning enhancement. Results showed that both classes felt comfortable with their corresponding approaches and performed similarly on a common final exam.

Describes and evaluates three computer-assisted simulations used with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. Designed the simulations to reinforce and enhance student understanding of sampling distributions, confidence intervals, and significance tests. Reports evaluations revealed improved student comprehension of difficult material encountered in an introductory social statistics course.

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a computer-assisted learning program called Link, which was designed to be used by psychology students to review their understanding of correlation. Unlike existing computer-assisted learning programs that were reviewed, Link makes use of data from authentic research studies in psychology and provides learner activities that are specifically designed to address students' misconceptions about correlation. A summative evaluation study of Link involving fifty psychology students was carried out to assess the effect on students' understanding of correlation. It was found that the use of Link significantly contributed to students' general understanding of correlation. However, it was found that students use of paper-based instructional materials could also achieve this. The implication of this research outcome is considered in relation to the design and use of computer-assisted learning applications for statistics in higher education.

The teaching and learning of statistics has impacted the curriculum in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Because of this growing movement to expand and include statistics into all levels of education, there is also a considerable interest in how to teach statistics. For statistics concepts that tend to be very difficult or abstract, many researchers have recommended using computer simulation methods (CSMs), but there have been very few empirically and theoretically based studies related to student achievement using these methods. The purpose of this study was to determine whether using CSMs enhanced student understanding of abstract statistics concepts for students enrolled in an introductory course. Based on a theoretical framework of how students learn statistics, the preliminary results of this study indicate some evidence that these methods may improve student understanding of abstract statistics concepts.

Undergraduate students often leave statistics courses not fully understanding how to apply statistical concepts (M. Bonsangue, 1994). In order to enhance student learning and improve the understanding and application of statistical concepts, an elementary statistics course was transformed from a lecture-based course into one that integrates technology with active and collaborative learning methods. The redesigned course is more student-centered than instructor-centered. Students have one session each week in a large group meeting, and two sessions in a computer laboratory. The organizing center for the new course is a Web site developed by the institutions Center for Academic Computing. The effect of these changes was evaluated using a combination of pre- and postcontent knowledge tests for 340 students in the traditional format and 140 in the new design. The overall result of these changes shows that student performance on the content test was higher in the redesigned classes than in the traditional course.

A lectlet is a short Web streamed-audio lecture synchronized to an interactive text-graphics display. Lectlets can be used either as distance-education courseware or as enhancements to traditional classroom education. In this study, I compared lectlet-based distance education to traditional education for 4 semesters by simultaneously teaching 2 sections of introductory statistics: one lectlet based and the other in traditional format. Students in each format visited the other format and compared them. Student evaluation and course outcomes showed that (a) lectlets effectively presented content, (b) lectlet-based format was better than the traditional course in 6 specific ways, (c) the traditional format was rated as a better overall learning environment, and (d) lectlets were valuable as ancillaries to the traditional format. Lectlets may be useful in any content-oriented course.

This paper presents the results from a large, randomized, controlled experiment conducted in the introductory statistics course at Brigham Young University. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of multimedia lectures on student learning and attitudes. A randomized complete block design was implemented to evaluate the treatment that had two levels: multimedia versus overhead transparencies. Data was collected over four semesters on 5,603 students. Several student characteristics were measured and controlled for in the analyses. Our findings indicate that the multimedia lectures did not improve student learning or attitudes compared to the control group. However, our research also indicates that large, randomized, controlled experiments can be implemented in educational research. We advocate their use as the standard method of evaluation for educational innovations.

A graduate level research methods and statistics course offered on the World-Wide Web was evaluated relative to the traditional lWith their consent, course members were randomly assigned to the two versions of the course for the first block of sessions. For the second block of sessions the groups crossed over to access the alternative version of the course. Quantitative and qualitative outcome data were collected to sample cognitive and affective domains. Improvements in knowledge and reductions in anxiety were apparent following both versions, with no significant differences between versions being detected. Analysis of course member comments indicated less satisfaction with the teaching input on the web-based version but more satisfaction with the peer collaboration that was stimulated. An activity theory framework is applied in conceptualising the findings and generating recommendations for further course development and evaluation.

We compare students in online and lecture sections of a business statistics class taught simultaneously by the same instructor using the same content, assignments, and exams in the fall of 2001. Student data are based on class grades, registration records, and two surveys. The surveys asked for information on preparedness, reasons for section choice, and evaluations of course experience and satisfaction. Using descriptive statistics, regression analysis and standard hypothesis tests, we test for significant differences between the online and lecture sections with regard to performance and satisfaction with the course as well as motivation and preparedness for taking an online course. We report several differences, including better performance by online students.

Interactive Web-based tutorials were developed as a supplement to lectures in an introductory statistics class. A quasi-experimental design compared learning outcomes of students who attended one of two classes that offered the tutorials to students as an extra-credit course option to those who attended a lecture-only class. Analysis of critical items on five course exams revealed that students who attended the classes with tutorials scored higher on four out of five topics covered by the tutorials than students who attended the lecture-only class. Tutorial use leading to mastery of the concepts was associated with exam performance on the critical items. These findings suggest that Web-based tutorials can be an effective supplement to class lectures for enhancing student learning.

The authors used Just-in-Time Teaching in their statistics class. When compared to an equivalent class based on content and textbook, the students in the JiTT class performed better on the final exam and expressed satisfaction with the approach.

In this article, we present an evaluation of a Web-based, interac- tive tutorial used to present the sampling distribution of the mean. The tutorial allows students to draw samples and explore the shapes of sampling distributions for several sample sizes. To eval- uate the effectiveness of the tutorial, 111 students enrolled in sta- tistics or research methods courses used either the interactive tutorial or attended a lecture and a demonstration on the sam- pling distribution of the mean. Students in both groups improved from pretest to posttest and no statistically significant differences between improvement scores were found between groups. Addi- tionally, students rated the tutorial as easy to use and understand. In this study, we provide evidence that an Internet tutorial can be comparable in effectiveness to standard lecture or demonstration techniques.

This paper describes an interactive Web-based tutorial that supplements instruction on statistical power. This freely available tutorial provides several interactive exercises that guide students as they draw multiple samples from various populations and compare results for populations with differing parameters (for example, small standard deviation versus large standard deviation). The tutorial assignment includes diagnostic multiple-choice questions with feedback addressing misconceptions, and follow-up questions suitable for grading. The sampling exercises utilize an interactive Java applet that graphically demonstrates relationships between statistical power and effect size, null and alternative populations and sampling distributions, and Type I and II error rates. The applet allows students to manipulate the mean and standard deviation of populations, sample sizes, and Type I error rate. Students (n = 84) enrolled in introductory and intermediate statistics courses overwhelmingly rated the tutorial as clear, useful, easy to use, and they reported increased comfort with the topic of statistical power after using the tutorial. Students who used the tutorial outperformed those who did not use the tutorial on a final exam question measuring knowledge of the factors influencing statistical power.

This study assessed the impact of computer animations illustrating the chemical reactions that occur inside a battery n students enrolled in a college introductory chemistry course. Students received two lectures on electrochemistry dealing with the chemical principles of how batteries generate electricity utilizing either animations or still diagrams. Students also completed a chemical knowledge test, a Flashlight pre-test and two chemistry content exams before receiving the lectures. A spatial ability test was given after the lectures and the students were classified as high or low spatial ability according to their spatial ability scores. The chemical knowledge and Flashlight pre-test and two previous content exams were used to assess any interaction of spatial ability and treatment. The dependent measures were two parts (knowledge and transfer) of a post-test on electrochemical concepts (labelled Post1 and Post2). One Post1, instructor-guided animations led to better performance than static diagrams. No interaction of spatial ability and treatment was observed. On Post 2, there was no main effect of treatment, but there was a significant treatment by spatial ability interaction. Animations led to better performance overall , but more so for students with high spatial ability. These results imply that instructor-guided animations may help students acquire a better understanding of targeted chemistry concepts, and that the relationship between narration, spatial ability and computer animations illustrating chemical concepts and principles should be further investigated in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Science Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent studies exploring the effects of instructional animations on learning compared to static graphics have yielded mixed results. Few studies have explored their effectiveness in portraying procedural-motor information. Opportunities exist within an applied (manufacturing) context for instructional animations to be used to facilitate build performance on an assembly line. The present study compares build time performance across successive builds when using animation, static diagrams or text instructions to convey an assembly sequence for a handheld device. Although an immediate facilitating effect of animation was found, yielding a significantly faster build time for Build 1, this advantage had disappeared by Build 3. ?? 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Although animations may intuitively seem more effective than static graphics for teaching, there is no clear-cut evidence for the superiority of simple computer-based animations in medical education. We investigated whether simple animations are better than static graphics as an aid to medical students in learning home safety assessment, an important part of geriatric curriculum. We used two versions of an interactive online module, one that depicted common home safety issues in static graphics and the other in animations. We randomized first-year medical students who agreed to participate into two groups. After the module, students completed a cognitive burden scale and a standardized competency assessment test in which they had to identify the salient home safety issues and give recommendations based on the hazards. We also captured time spent on task. We found no significant differences between the groups in the cognitive burden level, competency assessment scores, and time spent on task. The much cheaper-to-produce static graphics were equally effective as simple animations in this medical education scenario.

The attentional effects of animation on the processing of information from node-link maps and text were explored. The authors randomly assigned college students to receive a static node-link map presentation (n = 40), an animated node-link map presentation (n = 37), a static text presentation (n = 29), or an animated text presentation (n = 27), The participants were asked to recall the information 48 hr later The participants recalled more main-idea information from animated node-link maps than from static maps or animated text, There were no differences with regard to presentation or display format on the recall of microstructural information

This paper compares the effects of graphical study aids and animation on the problem-solving performance of students learning computer algorithms. Prior research has found inconsistent effects of animation on learning, and we believe this is partly attributable to animations not being designed to convey key information to learners. We performed an instructional analysis of the to-be-learned algorithms and designed the teaching materials based on that analysis. Participants studied stronger or weaker text-based information about the algorithm, and then some participants additionally studied still frames or an animation. Across 2 studies, learners who studied materials based on the instructional analysis tended to outperform other participants on both near and far transfer tasks. Animation also aided performance, particularly for participants who initially read the weaker text. These results suggest that animation might be added to curricula as a way of improving learning without needing revisions of existing texts and materials. Actual or potential applications of this research include the development of animations for learning complex systems as well as guidelines for determining when animations can aid learning.

The current national passing rate of college students enrolled in college algebra is approximately 40 percent. Since college algebra is a key prerequisite course for students preparing for STEM programs of study, the need for investigating effective teaching and learning strategies to increase student success in college algebra is imminent. This study addressed this need by comparing traditional (lecture-based) to Replacement Model (technology and hands-on real world applications-based) college algebra teaching and learning environments utilizing a quasi-experimental research design involving 384 undergraduate students in an urban community college in the Midwest College students' cognitive outcomes (college algebra achievement) and affective outcomes (math anxiety and self esteem) were used as pre/post assessments with appropriate statistical analyses. The effects of teacher variable were controlled in the study design by requiring all faculty participants to teach both traditional and Replacement Model college algebra classes. Results of the study indicate significantly greater college algebra achievement levels, higher academic confidence, and stronger personal security as well as significantly lower math anxiety in the experimental group (Replacement Model) than in the traditional control group (lecture approach). Implications of these findings for undergraduate STEM Programs of study provide strong support for technology-based teaching and learning environments in mathematics.

The positive effects of collaborative learning in a face-to-face environment are well known. However, little empirical research exists to determine if such effects transfer to a computer-mediated environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computer-mediated collaboration on solving ill-defined problems. Participants first worked through a Web-based instructional program that taught them a four-step problem-solving process. Then they worked in computer-mediated dyads or alone to apply the steps to solve a realistic problem scenario. Results indicated that participants who worked in computer-mediated collaborative dyads performed significantly better than did participants who worked alone. The results also indicated that dyads spent significantly more time than participants in the individual treatment. Both treatment groups had positive attitudes toward working collaboratively, Internet-based instruction, and transfer of problem-solving skills. Implications for the implementation of computer-mediated collaboration in distance learning are discussed.

Many recently developed learning environments incorporate collaborative learning as well as the use of technology in their design. However, at least within the social psychology literature that has investigated groups as information processors, studies have found that groups of people working together are frequently less effective than individuals working alone, or than the combined efforts of an equal number of individuals working alone (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Gigone & Hastie, 1997; Hastie, 1986; Hill, 1982). On the other hand, among studies of collaborative learning in educational contexts, advantages of the performance of a group over individuals have been reported (Hertz-Lazarowitz & Miller, 1995; Johnson & Johnson, 1989; Webb & Palincsar, 1996). The focus of this chapter is to begin to explore what may be responsible for the discrepancy between the findings of these two literatures, the kinds of processes that may underlie gains and losses in group contexts, and finally, the use of technology to promote successful collaborative problem solving and reasoning.

An animated concept map represents verbal information in a node-link diagram that changes over time. The goals of the experiment were to evaluate the instructional effects of presenting an animated concept map concurrently with semantically equivalent spoken narration. The study used a 2 ?? 2 factorial design in which an animation factor (animated vs. static) was crossed with a representation factor (concept map vs. text). Students (. N = 140) were randomly assigned to study one of four presentations on the human nervous system. The dependent measures were tests of free recall, knowledge and transfer. The concept map groups significantly outperformed the text groups on free recall and transfer. The animated concept map group did not significantly outperform the static map group. The authors hypothesize that the animated concept map provided no advantage over the static concept map because participants in both conditions were able to use the spoken narrative to sequence their reading. ?? 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

The objective of this paper is to report on the outcome evaluation of web_assisted graduate foundation research courses in the summer research sequence of Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville. The quasi_experimental pretest/posttest comparison_group design was used to test the hypothesis that students that unknowingly sign up for traditional or web_assisted courses would acquire knowledge at equal rates, but that the students in the web_assisted courses would report higher levels of course satisfaction. Although the actual content knowledge gain was better for the students in the traditional course, the two groups did not differ in their research knowledge at the end of the course. There was also a significant amount of knowledge increase for the experimental group, and a higher level of satisfaction in perceived knowledge gain. The students in the web_assisted courses showed a significantly higher level of overall satisfaction with the course. In conclusion it was found that the benefits of using web_assisted techniques are maintained even when strategies are used in courses that have not been advertised as web_assisted, hence eliminating selection effects. The study further indicates that web_assisted courses are just as effective as traditional courses in transferring knowledge to students. An important benefit of web_assisted technology is that course_satisfaction can be enhanced due to the effective path that technology provides to meet the needs of students.

A self-paced intermediate algebra course with computer tutorial software as the mode of instruction was implemented at a private four-year liberal arts college in the fall semester of 1998. The course was designed to provide a review of algebra for students whose mathematics placement test scores indicated that they were not prepared for college level mathematics. The purpose of his qualitative study was to investigate the impact of this computer assisted instruction (CAI) on students' knowledge of mathematics prerequisite to college algebra. Case study methodology was used to discover and describe (1) the impact of the tutorial on the students' ability to solve algebra problems successfully, (2) the experiences students have using CAI, (3) how this mode of instruction compares to that in previous mathematics courses, and (4) the strengths and weaknesses of such a course. The subjects in the study consisted of 12 students who were recommended for placement into intermediate algebra during summer placement testing and registration. During the data collection process, the following groups emerged: five participants, two drop-outs, three college algebra students, and two nonparticipants. Data were collected through interviews of four participants, participants' scores from tutorial sessions and chapter tests, and an interview with one college algebra student. Correspondence with academic advisors, dropouts, and college algebra instructors also provided data. Interviews were audio taped and transcribed. These transcriptions were reviewed by the participants. The data were coded and analyzed by the researcher and a case study report was developed. The main points concerning CAI that emerged from the study were the benefits to students of immediate feedback from the computer, the value of interaction with the computer as a means of learning mathematics, and the advantage of individualized instruction. The study indicated that the primary weaknesses of the course were the self-paced format and the lack of academic credit for course completion. The strengths of the course included clear and consistent instruction, promotion of student involvement, and instructive feedback. Recommendations for the college's intermediate algebra course included the continued use of CAI, the addition of a classroom component, and the award of credit for course completion.

Nurse Practitioners students, who are being educated to act as primary care providers, are faced with an ever expanding body of knowledge to master and keep abreast of after graduation. Developing instructional strategies that will provide support to assist them in integrating this information and creating retrievable cognitive structures has become a challenge. Problem-based learning is an instructional method where the problem becomes the root of learning. Conducted in small groups and facilitated by a trained tutor, this method has been studied extensively in medical schools with mixed results. This study evaluated the role online problem-based learning cases used to focus studying prior to class had in initial knowledge acquisition and subsequent transfer of learning with nurse practitioner students in a for-profit university in the Southwestern United States. The study was conducted on two content areas, hematology and pulmonary, in an Advanced Pathophysiology course. Assessments included a multiple-choice and narrative answer test that was given to the study group after the online cases were completed prior to their lecture on the same content and again at the end of the class. This same test was given to the control group prior to their class on similar content in their Adult and Geriatric Management class. Two weeks later, a narrative test of transfer was given to both groups. Comprehensiveness of responses to the narrative questions and satisfaction with the problem-based learning method, the online environment, and working in groups in the online environment were also assessed. Results revealed that the study group outperformed the control group on both tests of initial learning, reaching statistical significance. On the test of transfer, the study groups' performance came close but did not reach statistical significance. Depth of response to the narrative questions found 19% of the responses in the study group and 4% of those in the control group to be identified as comprehensive or rich responses. On questions related to satisfaction, 89% of the study group were satisfied with problem-based learning as a method, 86-89% were satisfied working in the online environment, and 71-78% were satisfied working online in groups.

Undergraduate students often leave statistics courses not fully understanding how to apply statistical concepts (M. Bonsangue, 1994). In order to enhance student learning and improve the understanding and application of statistical concepts, an elementary statistics course was transformed from a lecture-based course into one that integrates technology with active and collaborative learning methods. The redesigned course is more student-centered than instructor-centered. Students have one session each week in a large group meeting, and two sessions in a computer laboratory. The organizing center for the new course is a Web site developed by the institutions Center for Academic Computing. The effect of these changes was evaluated using a combination of pre- and postcontent knowledge tests for 340 students in the traditional format and 140 in the new design. The overall result of these changes shows that student performance on the content test was higher in the redesigned classes than in the traditional course.

The undergraduate program of electronics and communication engineering at the Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology (CIET), Punjab, India, has a course named Analog Electronics in its fourth semester. The usual approach has been to divide the course into lectures, tutorials, and practicals. The lecture plan is prepared beforehand by the faculty and the course duration in 16-18 weeks. The drawbacks to this usual approach have been many, the primary ones being the lack of attention given to the missing application and design part. As an alternative to the traditional method, problem-based learning (PBL) was introduced and practiced in Analog Electronics. While the mode of external evaluation remains the same-that of the university holding end-of-semester theory and practical examinations-a unique strategy has been worked out which integrates PBL and the traditional approach of Lecture, Tutorial, and Practical (L/T/P) classes. This paper describes this new approach, the design of problems to cover the subject matter, the preparation of students for PBL, the evaluation strategy, and the feedback that students give in support of PBL. A significant difference was seen between the attitudes of the treatment group (PBL based) and control group (L/T/P based). Additionally, presentation and teamwork skills were also greatly improved in the PBL class.

The present study describes the redesign of a Problem Based Learning (PBL) course in a Business curriculum and the effects of this approach on students' cognitive learning outcomes. The goal of the research was to explore the extent to which this new approach would yield better cognitive learning outcomes, when compared to a regular PBL setting. Three main aspects of the regular PBL course were redesigned. Firstly, the authenticity of the case studies was optimized. Authentic problem descriptions and company information were used for the acquisition, application, and assessment of knowledge. Ill-structured real-life information was used, from real companies. Secondly, control aspects between students and tutors were modified. Students were given increased control over their tasks as they worked more independently from their tutors in small, self-steering teams. Thirdly, the students' ways of social collaboration were adapted to resemble team working business practice. Apart from one regular PBL tutorial meeting, students worked in very small teams. Student collaboration on problem solving and information delivery was supported through electronic communication tools. In order to measure the effects of the redesign on students' cognitive learning outcomes, a quasi-experimental comparative design was setup. Subjects were second-year students who were enrolled in a marketing course at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. They completed a case study at the end of the course. The scores on this knowledge application test indicated that the redesigned PBL-format contributed significantly to improved cognitive gains, compared to the regular PBL-setting.

This paper reports the investigation of the effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) within a web-based environment in the delivery of an undergraduate Physics course. The effectiveness was evaluated by comparing the performances and the perceptions of the sample students (n=67) using the web-based PBL and comparing the outcomes with those of the web-based Content-Based Learning (CBL). The comparative post-test performance analysis conducted using a student t-test statistical analysis (p<0.05) revealed that the experimental web-based PBL approach yielded better performances than the controlled CBL approach. Where perceptions were concerned, the analysis also revealed that students exposed to the web-based PBL approach responded more positively with their knowledge enhancement compared to students exposed to the web-based CBL approach.

This study examines an alternative function of information sharing _ social construction of meaning. Drawing on social construction, social interaction, and task closure theories, we explored the influence of both the media environment in which students are situated and the medium that group members choose to communicate with one another on the intricate relationships among breadth of information sharing, depth of information sharing, and performance of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). A total of 126 students participated in the experiment _ including 63 students (15 groups of four students and one group of three students) in the control and experimental groups respectively. Our findings show that most of the proposed hypotheses are supported. Intersubjective interpretation underlies groups information sharing and plays a key role in student learning performance. Evidence shows that when facing a relatively complex task in multimedia environments, students who choose to utilize a medium lower in social presence (i.e., electronic information sharing) are more likely to achieve task closure than a medium higher in social presence (i.e., verbal information sharing). This in turn leads to higher learning performance. The implications for both theory and pedagogy are also discussed.

Educational technology supports meaningful learning and enables the presentation of spatial and dynamic images, which portray relationships among complex concepts. The Technology-Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) involves media-rich software for simulation and visualization in freshman physics carried out in a specially redesigned classroom to facilitate group interaction. These technology-based learning materials are especially useful in electromagnetism to help students conceptualize phenomena and processes. This study analyzes the effects of the unique learning environment of the TEAL project on students' cognitive and affective outcomes. The assessment of the project included examining students' conceptual understanding before and after studying electromagnetism in a media-rich environment. We also investigated the effect of this environment on students' preferences regarding the various teaching methods. As part of the project, we developed pre- and posttests consisting of conceptual questions from standardized tests, as well as questions designed to assess the effect of visualizations and experiments. The research population consisted of 811 undergraduate students. It consisted of a small- and a large-scale experimental groups and a control group. TEAL students improved their conceptual understanding of the subject matter to a significantly higher extent than their control group peers. A majority of the students in the small-scale experiment noted that they would recommend the TEAL course to fellow students, indicating the benefits of interactivity, visualization, and hands-on experiments, which the technology helped enable. In the large-scale implementation students expressed both positive and negative attitudes in the course survey.

Computers have been employed in education for years. They help to provide educational aids using multimedia forms such as films, pictures, interactive tasks in the learning process, automated testing, etc. In this paper, a concept of an intelligent e-learning system will be proposed. The main purpose of this system is to teach effectively by providing an optimal learning path in each step of the educational process. The determination of a suitable learning path depends on the student's preferences, learning styles, personal features, interests and knowledge state. Therefore, the system has to collect information about the student, which is done during the registration process. A user is classified into a group of students who are similar to him/her. Using information about final successful scenarios of students who belong to the same class as the new student, the system determines an opening learning scenario. The opening learning scenario is the first learning scenario proposed to a student after registering in an intelligent e-learning system. After each lesson, the system tries to evaluate the student's knowledge. If the student has a problem with achieving an assumed score in a test, this means that the opening learning scenario is not adequate for this user. In our concept, for this case an intelligent e-learning system offers a modification of the opening learning scenario using data gathered during the functioning of the system and based on a Bayesian network. In this paper, an algorithm of scenario determination (named ADOLS) and a procedure for modifying the learning scenario AMLS with auxiliary definitions are presented. Preliminary results of an experiment conducted in a prototype of the described system are also described.

A 7-month study of 178 students in grades 1-4 at two schools compared two daily 20-minute treatments. 88 students did Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in their classrooms. 90 students in 10-computer labs used the 2000 version of Project LISTEN's Reading Tutor (RT), which listens to a child read aloud, and gives spoken and graphical assistance. The RT group significantly outgained their statistically matched SSR classmates in word identification, word comprehension, passage comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, rapid letter naming, and spelling. The Reading Tutor made the greatest difference in grade 1, where effect sizes for these skills ranged from .20 to .72.

A wiki was used as part of a blended learning approach to promote collaborative learning among students in a first year university statistics class. One group of students analysed a data set and communicated the results by jointly writing a practice report using a wiki. A second group analysed the same data but communicated the results in a practice report that they wrote individually. Both groups were taught the same material. The report was used for practice as a way to support student learning and was not submitted for assessment. Both approaches improved report writing knowledge and did not differ in the mark obtained on an individually written research report subsequently submitted for assessment. The wiki approach produced higher engagement with other students, cognitive engagement, and class attendance than the individual approach. Qualitative feedback suggested some drawbacks to using a wiki. Overall participation was also low with only 2 of the 22 wiki subgroups completing all components of the practice report. The present findings suggest that student engagement, but not performance on assessment, may be enhanced when a wiki is used to support learning in higher education.

One of the best ways of incentivating the use of ICTs as university teaching tools is by providing clear evidence that this technology helps to increase educational benefits, i.e., that students learn more and more effectively _ in conditions of equivalent efforts by both teachers and students. The point, however, is that little has been reported on the specific impact of Web enhancements on classroom activities _ the face_to_face component of traditional courses _ and the nature of that impact. This contribution is intended to publish some evidence based on two well_documented experiments on the use of the Campus Global, the e_learning platform for undergraduate, traditional face_to_face courses introduced at the Pompeu Fabra University as early as 1998. The first analyses the failures that often accompany the introduction of ICTs into traditional teaching. The second describes the results of an experiment aimed at comparing the academic performance of two equivalent groups of students of the same subject, one receiving ordinary, lecture_based teaching and the other being taught with the novel use of ICTs. Finally, the results are discussed and future lines of research are proposed.

There is considerable evidence that using technology as an instructional tool improves student learning and educational outcomes (Hanna & de Nooy, 2003). In developing countries, pre-university education focuses on memorization, although meting the mission of AUST requires students to manage technology and to think more independently. This study examines the impact of incorporating a discussion forum on the achievement of university students enrolled in a Distance Education course, Educational Technology Department at Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST), United Arab Emirates. The study was conducted with 34 students divided into two sections, one a treatment group and one a control group. Both sections were exposed to the same teaching techniques covering the same course material on Distance Education. Four weeks after the course had commenced they were given the same teacher constructed test. However, after the first test, the treated group was exposed to the use of a World Wide Web (WWW) interactive discussion forum. At the end of the semester-long treatment period, a final test was given to both groups, and student scores were analyzed for any statistically significant difference. Questionnaires and interviews were also conducted to see if students had enjoyed the experience. The results of the study indicated that students in both groups showed learning improvement over the course of one semester, but discussion forums had an obvious impact on student achievement and attitude in distance learning/educational technology course.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of computer game-based instruction on adult students' programming achievement. This quasi-experiment proceeded in 2007. Participants were 146 technology college management information system students enrolled in a Visual Basic programming class. Students in four intact classes were assigned one of two instructional methods and received a ten-week treatment. Experiment groups were taught by computer game-based instruction; the control group received traditional programming instruction. Motivation, creativity, problem-solving questionnaires and programming tests were administered in the first and the tenth weeks to evaluate how instructional methods affected each of these in relation to programming achievement. Demographic and computer experience survey data gathered in the first class became independent variables. Data were analyzed with ANCOVA and step-down multiple regression. Statistically significance was set at p < .05. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that the computer game-based group significantly outperformed the traditional group in motivation, problem-solving ability and programming achievement. Step-down multiple regression revealed that for the experimental group, pretest programming scores and demographic data (gender, hours spent on computer games, motivation change, problem-solving ability change) were positively related to programming achievement change. Conversely, compared to older adulthood, middle adulthood related negatively to programming achievement. The results revealed that computer-game based instruction has a great potential in facilitating student's problem-solving ability and improving programming achievement. These findings provide empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of developmentally appropriate computer game-based instruction on achievement in the technology college Windows Programming classes.

This paper analyzes the educational effects of a peer-learning agent based on pair programming in programming courses. A peer-learning agent system was developed to facilitate the learning of a programming language through the use of pair programming strategies. This system is based on the role of a peer-learning agent from pedagogical and technical aspects and simulates the "tutor" and "tutee." The peer-learning agent uses artificial intelligence methods with a Bayesian network as well as teaching and learning methods that simulate pair programming. This paper develops a model for determining students' programming abilities. In addition, the roles of the tutor and tutee are like the roles of a navigator and driver in pair programming. The developed agent system is demonstrated to have positive effects on knowledge retention and transfer in a programming course, with a greater influence on transfer than on retention. This model combining peer-learning agents with a teaching and learning strategy is more effective in helping learners to acquire programming skills.

Two studies were conducted to examine the effect of prompting self-regulation, an intervention designed to improve learning from technology-delivered instruction. In Study 1, trainees who were prompted to self-regulate gradually improved their declarative and procedural knowledge over time, relative to the other conditions, whereas test scores declined over time for trainees who were not prompted to self-regulate. In Study 2, basic performance remained stable over time and strategic performance improved over time for trainees who were prompted to self-regulate, relative to the other conditions, whereas performance declined over time for trainees who were not prompted to self-regulate. Trainees’ cognitive ability moderated the effect of the prompts on basic performance and task-specific self-efficacy moderated the effect of the prompts on strategic performance. Prompting self-regulation resulted in stronger performance gains over time for trainees with higher ability or higher self-efficacy. These results demonstrate prompting self-regulation improved performance over time, relative to the other conditions, in both online, work-related training and laboratory settings. The results are consistent with theory suggesting self-regulation is a dynamic process that has a gradual effect on performance and highlight the importance of using a within-subjects design in self-regulation research.

Despite the widespread assumption that students require scaffolding support for self-regulated learning (SRL) processes in computer-based learning environments (CBLEs), there is little clarity as to which types of scaffolds are most effective. This study offers a literature review covering the various scaffolds that support SRL processes in the domain of science education. Effective scaffolds are categorized and discussed according to the different areas and phases of SRL. The results reveal that most studies on scaffolding processes focus on cognition, whereas few focus on the non-cognitive areas of SRL. In the field of cognition, prompts appear to be the most effective scaffolds, especially for processes during the control phase. This review also shows that studies have paid little attention to scaffold designs, learner characteristics, or various task characteristics, despite the fact that these variables have been found to have a significant influence. We conclude with the implications of our results on future design and research in the field of SRL using CBLEs.

Trainings on self-regulated learning (SRL) have been shown to be effective in improving both competence of self-regulated learning and objective measures of performance. However, human trainers can reach only a limited number of people at a time. Web-based trainings (WBT) could improve efficiency, as they can be distributed to potentially unlimited numbers of participants. We developed a WBT based on the process model of SRL by Schmitz and Wiese (2006) and tested it with 211 university students in a randomized control evaluation study including additional process analyses of learning diaries. Results showed that the training had significant effects on SRL knowledge, SRL behavior measured by questionnaires and diaries, as well as on self-efficacy. Time-series analyses revealed a positive linear trend in SRL for the training group but not for the control group as well as intervention effects for each of the three WBT lessons.

Adaptive guidance is an instructional intervention that helps learners to make use of the control inherent in technology-based instruction. The present research investigated the interactive effects of guidance design (i.e., framing of guidance information) and individual differences (i.e., pretraining motivation and ability) on learning basic and strategic task skills over time. One hundred thirty participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 types of adaptive guidance (autonomy supportive, controlling) or a no-guidance condition while learning to perform a complex simulation task over 9 consecutive trials. Results indicated that participants receiving controlling guidance acquired strategic task skills at a faster rate than participants receiving autonomy-supportive guidance or no guidance. The design of adaptive guidance also moderated the effects of pretraining motivation and cognitive ability on learners’ acquisition of basic and strategic task skills. Specifically, autonomy-supportive guidance enhanced the positive effects of pretraining motivation on the acquisition of basic task skills, and controlling guidance enhanced the positive effects of cognitive ability on the acquisition of strategic task skills. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Self-explaining has been repeatedly shown to result in positive learning outcomes for students in a wide variety of disciplines. However, there are two potential accounts for why self-explaining works. First, those who self-explain experience more content than those who do not. Second, there are differences in the activity of generating the explanations versus merely comprehending them. To compare these two accounts, the present in vivo classroom study, conducted in the PSLC physics LearnLab, attempted to contrast robust learning from generating explanations with the actively of studying instructional explanations. The students’ learning activities (self-explaining vs. paraphrasing) were crossed with the completeness of the examples they studied (complete vs. incomplete). During a classroom period on electrodynamics, students alternated between solving problems and studying examples. On these problems, the self-explainers made fewer errors and asked for less help than paraphrasers. On homework problems done many days later, self-explainers displayed evidence of far transfer in a related, yet new domain (i.e., magnetism). In conclusion, prompting students to self-explain while studying examples, in an authentic classroom environment, can result in positive near- and long-term learning.

The purpose of the research was to determine experimentally whether the addition of features to enhance learner motivation and collaboration, termed motivational scaffolding, to the "traditional" distance learning design improved engagement, and performance, particularly among procrastinators. Two versions of a web-based five-credit study skills course, both covering the same content and sharing all features save for the scaffolding, were compared: traditional-distance, and motivationally-scaffolded distance, during each of two terms. Motivational scaffolding consisted of using chat to run study skills support groups, where students were helped to stay on task, and instructor office hours. Students were classified as either high or low procrastinators, and randomly assigned to each version, and two instructors alternated between versions taught from one term to the other. Results showed that procrastinating students, for whom the lack of structure of distance learning may be problematic, performed better in the motivationally-scaffolded version than the traditional, while non-procrastinating students performed equally in both.

We developed an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that aims to promote engagement and learning by dynamically detecting and responding to students' boredom and disengagement. The tutor uses a commercial eye tracker to monitor a student's gaze patterns and identify when the student is bored, disengaged, or is zoning out. The tutor then attempts to reengage the student with dialog moves that direct the student to reorient his or her attentional patterns towards the animated pedagogical agent embodying the tutor. We evaluated the efficacy of the gaze-reactive tutor in promoting learning, motivation, and engagement in a controlled experiment where 48 students were tutored on four biology topics with both gaze-reactive and non-gaze-reactive (control condition) versions of the tutor. The results indicated that: (a) gaze-sensitive dialogs were successful in dynamically reorienting students’ attentional patterns to the important areas of the interface, (b) gaze-reactivity was effective in promoting learning gains for questions that required deep reasoning, (c) gaze-reactivity had minimal impact on students’ state motivation and on self-reported engagement, and (d) individual differences in scholastic aptitude moderated the impact of gaze-reactivity on overall learning gains. We discuss the implications of our findings, limitations, future work, and consider the possibility of using gaze-reactive ITSs in classrooms.

Experiential training simulators are gaining increasing popularity for job-related training due to their potential to engage and motivate adult learners. They are designed to provide learning experiences that are directly connected to users' work environments and support self-regulated learning. Nevertheless, learners often fail to transfer the knowledge gained in the simulated environment to real-world contexts. The EU-funded ImREAL project aimed to bridge that gap by developing a suite of intelligent services designed to enhance existing training simulators. This paper presents work that was a subset of this research project, reporting the iterative development and evaluation of a scaffolding service, which was integrated into a simulator for training medical students to perform diagnostic interviews. The study comprises three evaluation phases, comparing the pure simulator to a first version with metacognitive scaffolding and then to a final version with affective metacognitive scaffolding and enriched user modelling. The scaffolding service provides the learner with metacognitive prompts; affective elements are realized by an integrated affect reporting tool and affective prompts. Using a mixed-method approach by analysing questionnaires (N = 106) and log-data (N = 426), the effects of the services were investigated with respect to real-world relevance, self-regulated learning support, learning experience, and integration. Despite some limitations, the outcomes of this study demonstrate the usefulness of affective metacognitive scaffolding in the context of experiential training simulators; significant post-simulation increases in perceived relevance of the simulator, reflective note-taking, overall motivation, and feeling of success could be identified. Perceived usability and flow of the simulation increased, whereas overall workload and frustration decreased. However, low response rates to specific functions of the simulation point to a need to further investigate how to raise users' awareness and understanding of the provided tools, to encourage interaction with the services, and to better convey the benefits of using them. Thus, future challenges concern not so much technological developments for personalizing learning experiences, but rather new ways to change user attitudes towards an open approach to learning systems that enables them to benefit from all offered features.

This study examined the effects of technology-based scaffolds that were composed through the use of the seven-stage, problem-based learning strategy on knowledge construction in a problem-based online asynchronous discussion. In a quasi-experimental setting, 60 students in an undergraduate Instructional Technology and Material Design course were assigned to one of three groups. In one group, students posted messages using a prescribed set of message categories. Using the same message categories, another group completed their messages using suggested sentence openers. A control group received none of the above mentioned scaffolds. Using a multi-method approach (content analysis, measurement of learning performance), the research results showed that technology-based scaffolding in a problem-based online asynchronous discussion improves students' task orientation and leads to more task-related learning activity. Furthermore, using both message labels and sentence openers, which were composed through the use of the seven-stage problem-based learning process theoretical framework, offers an effective strategy for encouraging more elaboration and higher cognitive discourse.

This study investigates the hypothesis that students' learning and problem-solving performance in ill-structured domains can be improved, if elaborative question prompts are used to activate students’ context-generating cognitive processes, during case study. Two groups of students used a web-based learning environment to criss-cross and study case-based material in the software project management domain. The experimental group was additionally prompted to consistently answer a set of questions based on a model of context-generating processes, meant to engage students in deeper processing of information presented in cases. Students were also classified as having either “complex” or “simple” EB profile (based on their epistemological beliefs record), thereby establishing a 2 × 2 factorial design. Results indicated that scaffolding treatment had a significant main effect on students’ performance, with the experimental group performing better in both domain knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer post-test items. There is also tentative indication that EB profile and scaffolding treatment interact, with complex-EB learners benefiting most from the scaffolded condition. Overall, the study provides evidence that it is possible to improve individual learning in a technology environment for case-based learning, by implementing appropriate questioning strategies that trigger students to activate their context-generating cognitive processes, while studying the contextually rich material of cases.

This article reviews research to examine how teaching and learning are improved with the use of narrative story materials. Stories help to focus the reader's attention and build personal connection, resulting in better retention and deeper subject-matter understanding. Four key advantages of narratives cited by D. T. Willingham are discussed. The effectiveness of stories is further supported by a review of research from diverse fields, including cognitive psychology, social and physical sciences, education, and communication. Suggestions and strategies for the use of narrative materials in content area settings beyond the elementary classroom are also provided.

In a computer-based simulation of a chemical processing plant, the differential effects of three instructional strategies for learning how to troubleshoot the plant’s malfunctions were investigated. In an experiment concerning learners’ transfer performance and mental effort, the simulation presented the three strategies to three groups of learners and measured their performance on the transfer tasks. In this experiment, conventional problem solving was contrasted with two worked example strategies. The results indicated a significant difference between practicing problem solving and using worked examples. Learners who practiced problem solving in an interactive simulation outperformed the learners who studied computer-based worked examples. They also invested lower mental effort in transfer tasks. When accounting for the difference in the learners’ domain knowledge, the strategies were not significantly different among the more experienced learners. For the less experienced learners, those who practiced problem solving significantly outperformed their worked example counterparts. Among all participants and also among less experienced learners the problem solving group invested significantly lower mental effort in the performance of transfer tasks. Based on the results of this study, the authors recommend the use of the conventional problem solving strategy with or without worked examples for learning complex skills.

Objective: To assess the effects of mental practice on surgical performance. Background: Increasing concerns for patient safety have highlighted a need for alternative training strategies outside the operating room. Mental practice (MP), “the cognitive rehearsal of a task before performance,” has been suc-cessful in sport and music to enhance skill. This study investigates whether MP enhances performance in laparoscopic surgery. Methods: After baseline skills testing, 20 novice surgeons underwent training on an evidence-based virtual reality curriculum. After randomization using the closed envelope technique, all participants performed 5 Virtual Reality (VR) laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LC). Mental practice participants performed 30 minutes of MP before each LC; control participants viewed an online lecture. Technical performance was assessed using video Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills–based global ratings scale (scored from 7 to 35). Mental imagery was assessed using a previously validated Mental Imagery Questionnaire. Results: Eighteen participants completed the study. There were no intergroup differences in baseline technical ability. Learning curves were demonstrated for both MP and control groups. Mental practice was superior to control (global ratings) for the ?rst LC (median 20 vs 15, P = 0.005), second LC (20.5 vs 13.5, P = 0.001), third LC (24 vs 15.5, P < 0.001), fourth LC (25.5 vs 15.5, P < 0.001) and the ?fth LC (27.5 vs 19.5, P = 0.00). The imagery for the MP group was also signi?cantly superior to the control group across all sessions (P < 0.05). Improved imagery signi?cantly correlated with better quality of performance (? 0.51–0.62, Ps < 0.05). Conclusions: This is the ?rst randomized controlled study to show that MP enhances the quality of performance based on VR laparoscopic cholecystec-tomy. This may be a time- and cost-effective strategy to augment traditional training in the OR thus potentially improving patient care.

Does the immersive design of a serious game affect learners’ virtual presence? Does virtual presence improve learning? By identifying virtual presence as a variable that may determine learning outcomes, it is argued that computer gaming environments present a new challenge for researchers to investigate. Particularly, the effect of games on virtual presence might help designers to predict which instructional configurations will maximize learning performance. Results indicate that the serious game used as an example in this study leads to a strong form of virtual presence. Virtual presence enhanced retention and comprehension but not transfer. It also significantly increased learners’ motivation. Mediation analyses report that the positive relation between virtual presence, retention and comprehension is mediated through increased motivation. These findings suggest that the relation between all variables should be considered an important factor in the design of virtual worlds for learning.

This article presents a review of existent literature that provides insight in the effectiveness of computer learning games. Based on this research, the effectiveness of games is illustrated in detail with regard to three current perspectives on games: design characteristics of games, the process of gameplay and the reflection of specific objectives and outcomes. Although, all perspectives are connect with the hope of better learning through games, it is criticized that the effectiveness cannot be simply answered by one of the three alone. The goal of the article is therefore to clarify the different views. To further advance game research and design decisions, recommendations are proposed that include research on and alignment of individual learner factors, game design and learning outcomes.

A challenge for serious games designers is to integrate learning with entertainment. For this purpose, the generation of curiosity using the foreshadowing/back story technique is promising. To implement this technique we propose the Game Discourse Analysis (GDA) which discerns between information flow (i.e. the sequence of information elements in a chronological order) and game discourse (i.e. the manipulation of the information flow to make the game more engaging and effective). We elaborate on the GDA and describe how two of the authors applied it in order to implement foreshadowing/back story in the game ReMission. The GDA was found to have potential as a communication tool for multidisciplinary design teams. Also, two problems were signaled: (1) creating an information flow is laborious and designers may benefit from automating parts of the GDA; (2) substantial deviations from the optimal information flow by players’ actions may interfere with the intention of the game discourse. Additionally, in an experiment we tested the impact of this GDA supported manipulation on engagement (curiosity) and learning. We found that the GDA-supported foreshadowing/back story yielded more curiosity, but that it did not yield learning.

In 4 experiments, students received a lesson consisting of computer-based animation and narration or a lesson consisting of paper-based static diagrams and text. The lessons used the same words and graphics in the paper-based and computer-based versions to explain the process of lightning formation (Experiment 1), how a toilet tank works (Experiment 2), how ocean waves work (Experiment 3), and how a car's braking system works (Experiment 4). On subsequent retention and transfer tests, the paper group performed significantly better than the computer group on 4 of 8 comparisons, and there was no significant difference on the rest. These results support the static media hypothesis, in which static illustrations with printed text reduce extraneous processing and promote germane processing as compared with narrated animations.

Learning analytics seek to enhance the learning processes through systematic measurements of learning related data and to provide informative feedback to learners and teachers. Track data from learning management systems (LMS) constitute a main data source for learning analytics. This empirical contribution provides an application of Buckingham Shum and Deakin Crick’s theoretical framework of dispositional learning analytics: an infrastructure that combines learning dispositions data with data extracted from computer-assisted, formative assessments and LMSs. In a large introductory quantitative methods module, 922 students were enrolled in a module based on the principles of blended learning, combining face-to-face problem-based learning sessions with e-tutorials. We investigated the predictive power of learning dispositions, outcomes of continuous formative assessments and other system generated data in modelling student performance of and their potential to generate informative feedback. Using a dynamic, longitudinal perspective, computer-assisted formative assessments seem to be the best predictor for detecting underperforming students and academic performance, while basic LMS data did not substantially predict learning. If timely feedback is crucial, both use-intensity related track data from e-tutorial systems, and learning dispositions, are valuable sources for feedback generation.

In recent years, learner models have emerged from the research laboratory and research classrooms into the wider world. Learner models are now embedded in real world applications which can claim to have thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of users. Probabilistic models for skill assessment are playing a key role in these advanced learning environments. In this paper, we review the learner models that have played the largest roles in the success of these learning environments, and also the latest advances in the modeling and assessment of learner skills. We conclude by discussing related advancements in modeling other key constructs such as learner motivation, emotional and attentional state, meta-cognition and self-regulated learning, group learning, and the recent movement towards open and shared learner models.

Structural features of learning tasks are relevant for problem solving but not salient for novice learners. Feedback in the form of Knowledge of Correct Response (KCR) during practice is expected to help learners recognize the structural features and to profit from learner control over the selection of learning tasks. A 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 118) was conducted to study the effects of the KCR feedback (present and absent) and control over the selection of learning tasks (learner control and program control). The presence of the KCR feedback yielded higher efficiency on a near-transfer test as well as higher learner motivation. An interaction between feedback and control, indicating extra beneficial effects of feedback when learners control the selection of learning tasks, was not found. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Objectives: A case-based, worked example approach was realised in a computer-based learning environment with the intention of facilitating medical students’ diagnostic knowledge. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the approach, two additional measures were implemented: erroneous examples and elaborated feedback. In the context of an experimental study, the two measures were varied experimentally. Methods: A total of 153 medical students were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions of a 2 × 2-factor design (errors versus no errors, elaborated feedback versus knowledge of correct result [KCR]). In order to verify the sustainability of the effects, a subgroup of subjects (n = 52) was compared with a control group of students who did not participate in the experiment (n = 145) on a regular multiple-choice question (MCQ) test. Results: Results show that the acquisition of diagnostic knowledge is mainly supported by providing erroneous examples in combination with elaborated feedback. These effects were independent from differences in time-on-task and prior knowledge. Furthermore, the effects of the learning environment proved sustainable. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the case-based, worked example approach is effective and efficient.

The effects of feedback on performance and factors associated with it were examined in a large introductory psychology course. The experiment involved college students (N = 464) working on an essay examination under 3 conditions: no feedback, detailed feedback that was perceived by participants to be provided by the course instructor, and detailed feedback that was perceived by participants to be computer generated. Additionally, these conditions were crossed with factors of grade (receiving a numerical grade or not) and praise (receiving a statement of praise or not). The task under consideration was a single-question essay examination administered at the beginning of the course. Detailed feedback on the essay, specific to individual’s work, was found to be strongly related to student improvement in essay scores, with the influence of grades and praise being more complex. Generally, receipt of a tentative grade depressed performance, although this effect was ameliorated if accompanied by a statement of praise. Overall, detailed, descriptive feedback was found to be most effective when given alone, unaccompanied by grades or praise. It was also found that the perceived source of the feedback (the computer or the instructor) had little impact on the results. These findings are consistent with the research literature showing that descriptive feedback, which conveys information on how one performs the task and details ways to overcome difficulties, is far more effective than evaluative feedback, which simply informs students about how well they did.

This paper describes an ongoing project to create an online version of a reading programme, a custom-designed English language proficiency course at a university in Japan. Following an interactionist view of second language acquisition, it was hypothesised that comprehension of a reading passage could be enhanced by online materials promoting interaction between students as they completed a multiple-choice reading comprehension exercise. Interaction was promoted: (a) through pair work at a single computer and (b) by providing Elaborative feedback in the form of hints about incorrect answers as a means of stimulating discussion about corrections. Students were randomly selected from upper and lower levels of English proficiency, as determined by the Kanda English Proficiency Test (Bonk & Ockey, 2003), to receive either Elaborative feedback or Knowledge of Correct Response feedback (which supplies the correct answers). Within these groups, some students worked in pairs and some alone. Quantitative results show that the interaction between “Type of feedback and Manner of study” (individual or pair work) was statistically significant; students performed best on a follow-up comprehension exercise when in pairs and having been provided with Elaborative feedback. Furthermore, qualitative analysis of transcribed interactions also shows that Elaborative feedback was conducive to quality interaction.

Despite the fact that the benefits of pair and group work for those espousing an interactionist view of second language learning are well documented (Lightbown & Spada, 1999; Long, 1981; Pica, 1994, 1996; Van Lier, 1996), learning environments exist in which students have no option but to study alone. Of particular interest for this research are learners who, despite studying in contexts supportive of collaborative interaction in the classroom, have little opportunity to interact with partners when trying to participate in collaborative reading comprehension exercises outside school. In an attempt to find a solution to this potentially inhibiting learning context, this research comprises an investigation into (a) whether the introduction of computer-mediated Elaborative feedback before Knowledge of Correct Response (KCR) feedback better promotes quality interaction and comprehension of a web-based reading text and (b) whether computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers a suitable means for generating quality interaction between peers in remote locations. While completing a web-based multiple-choice reading comprehension exercise, students worked in pairs and received either KCR feedback only, or Elaborative feedback before KCR feedback. In contrast to KCR feedback which simply comprises the correct answers, Elaborative feedback was produced in the form of hints to foster interaction and to support dyads in their attempts at self-correcting any incorrect answers. Using a multiple-try methodology, hints became increasingly specific for questions repeatedly answered incorrectly. Upon completing a follow-up comprehension exercise alone, all students were provided with KCR feedback only. Results from a quantitative analysis of the comprehension scores indicate that students who were provided with Elaborative feedback subsequently scored significantly higher on the follow-up exercise. Furthermore, results from a qualitative analysis of interactions suggest that CMC is a suitable way of generating quality interaction between students, particularly when Elaborative feedback is included.

Although the success of automatic speech recognition (ASR)-based Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) systems is increasing, little is known about the pedagogical effectiveness of these systems. This is particularly regrettable because ASR technology still suffers from limitations that may result in the provision of erroneous feedback, possibly leading to learning breakdowns. To study the effectiveness of ASR-based feedback for improving pronunciation, we developed and tested a CAPT system providing automatic feedback on Dutch phonemes that are problematic for adult learners of Dutch. Thirty immigrants who were studying Dutch were assigned to three groups using either the ASR-based CAPT system with automatic feedback, a CAPT system without feedback, or no CAPT system. Pronunciation quality was assessed for each participant before and after the training by human experts who evaluated overall segmental quality and the quality of the phonemes addressed in the training. The participants' impressions of the CAPT system used were also studied through anonymous questionnaires. The results on global segmental quality show that the group receiving ASR-based feedback made the largest mean improvement, but the groups' mean improvements did not differ significantly. The group receiving ASR-based feedback showed a significantly larger improvement than the no-feedback group in the segmental quality of the problematic phonemes targeted.

Background. Previous models of the effects of feedback account for lower-order learning outcomes but do not adequately describe experimental findings for higher-order learning. Aims. Based on a connectionist model of feedback effects, this investigation aims to show that feedback that allows only one learner response facilitates proposition-specific verbatim encoding, while feedback that requires the learner to try again on error facilitates relational fuzzy encoding. Sample and methods. Volunteer high school students were randomly assigned to one of 5 print-based lesson treatments that consisted of four science expository texts with adjunct inference-level questions covering science principles. The five treatments included delayed feedback, single-try immediate feedback, multiple-try immediate feedback, and two control treatments, questions without feedback, and text only. A post-test given 5 days after instruction was designed to measure both verbatim and fuzzy outcomes. Results. Multiple-try immediate feedback was best for paraphrased post-test questions (fuzzy) and worse for verbatim post-test questions. Conclusions. Fuzzy trace theory complements a connectionist model of feedback, and may provide a fruitful approach for describing the effects of feedback on different learning outcomes.

Should computer-based study tasks use multiple-choice or constructed-response question format? It was hypothesized that a constructucted-response study task (CR) with feedback would be superior to multiple-choice study tasks that allowed either single or multiple tries (STF and MTF). Two additional recognition study task treatments were included that required an overt constructed response after feedback (STF+OR and MTF+OR) in order to control for possible confounding caused by response form mismatch between the recognition study task and recall posttest. Graduate students (N=133) were randomly assigned to one of the five computer-delivered treatments. Relative to STF, posttest effect sizes were: STF

Complex skill acquisition by performing authentic learning tasks is constrained by limited working memory capacity [Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255, 556–559]. To prevent cognitive overload, task difficulty and support of each newly selected learning task can be adapted to the learner’s competence level and perceived task load, either by some external agent, the learner herself, or both. Health sciences students (N = 55) participated in a study using a 2 × 2 factorial design with the factors adaptation (present or absent) and control over task-selection (program control or shared control). As hypothesized, adaptation led to more efficient learning; that is, higher learning outcomes combined with less effort invested in performing the learning tasks. Shared control over task-selection led to higher task involvement, that is, higher learning outcomes combined with more effort directly invested in learning. Adaptation also produced greater task involvement.

This study was conducted to investigate the relative effectiveness of different types of visuals (static and animated) and instructional strategies (no strategy, questions, and questions plus feedback) used to complement visualized materials for student learning with different educational objectives in a computer-based instructional (CBI) environment. Specifically, the study was designed to determine (1) which type of visuals (static versus animated) used to complement text material is more effective in facilitating student achievement of different educational objectives; (2) whether the use of questions to focus students’ attention on relevant learning cues and giving feedback to students’ responses to questions are effective instructional variables in improving student achievement of visually illustrated content material; and (3) whether there exists a difference in the amounts of time students in different treatment group spent interacting with their respective treatments. The sample consisted of 582 undergraduate students. In this study, each student completed a demographic survey, took a prior knowledge test on physiology, interacted with assigned treatment material, and received four individual criterion posttests. The study employed a posttest only, a 2 x 3 factorial experimental design. The two independent variables in the study were visual type and instructional strategy. The independent variable, visual type, consisted of two levels: static visuals versus animated visuals. The second independent variable, instructional strategy, consisted of three levels: no strategy, questions, and questions plus feedback. The dependent variables were four criterion posttests and a composite test score. The instructional module used in this study contained a 2,000-word physiology unit focusing on the human heart, its parts, locations, and functions during the diastolic and systolic phases (Dwyer & Lamberski, 1977). The data analysis was composed of two phases. The first phase analyzed data that included all items in the four criterion posttests (80 items) plus a composite score. The second phase analyzed data that included enhanced items only (34 items), plus a composite score that was calculated based on these 34 items. In addition, the amount of time spent on the task (time-on-task) was entered into the analysis as a covariate in both phases of data analysis. The results of the study indicated that there was no interaction between visual type and instructional strategy on all criterion posttests or the composite score across the two phases of analysis. Students who received either the animated or static visual treatments did not score differently for the level of instructional strategy they received. However, the main effect of visual type and instructional strategy was detected on some criterion posttests. For the visual type, students who received the animated visual treatment scored significantly higher on all criterion posttests than those who received the static visual treatment. For the instructional strategy, students who received the "Questions+Feedback" scored significantly higher than those who received "No strategy" on both the terminology and comprehension tests. In addition, students who received the "Questions" treatment scored significantly higher than those who received "No strategy" on the terminology test. All observed differences between the "Questions+Feedback" and "Questions" treatments failed to reach statistical significance at the .05 level. In regard to the second phase of the analysis, the result indicated that students who received animated visuals scored significantly higher than those who received static visuals on the drawing, terminology, and comprehension criterion posttests. Students who received animated visuals also had a significantly better overall performance than those who received the static visual treatment as indicated from the composite score of the 34 enhanced items. In regard to the instructional strategy, students who received the "Questions+Feedback" treatment scored significantly higher than those who received the "No strategy" treatment on the terminology and comprehension criterion posttests in addition to a higher composite score. Students who received the “Questions” treatment scored significantly higher than those who received "No strategy" only in the terminology criterion posttest. All observed differences between "Questions+Feedback" and "Questions" failed to reach significant differences at the .05 level. The data analysis on the time-on-task for each treatment group yielded different results. Students who received the animated visual treatment spent significantly more time on the instruction than those who received the static visual treatment. Students in both the "Questions+Feedback" and "Questions" treatment groups spent significantly more time in studying the material than those who received "No strategy." However, no significant differences on instructional time were found between "Questions" and "Questions+Feedback." Considering that the amount of time needed to engage in the learning task may contribute to the students' learning achievement, a series of follow-up analyses holding the time constant were conducted. The results, when adjusting for the time-on-task, indicated that the relationship observed from the initial analysis, where the time-on-task was not controlled, was inflated.

This paper examines one of the potentialroles that software agents may have inhelping students reduce working memoryload while learning from discovery-basedmultimedia environments: providingexplanatory feedback. Two studiesexamined the guided feedbackhypothesis according to which, discoverylearning environments that use explanatoryfeedback (EF) to guide novice students inthe process of meaning making promotedeeper learning than those that presentidentical materials using correctivefeedback (CF) alone. In both experiments,the EF group produced higher transferscores, rated the computer game as morehelpful, and gave comparable interest andmotivation ratings than the CF group. Mental load rating scales providedevidence in both experiments that EF waseffective due to reductions in cognitiveload. Results support the use of agentguidance in the form of EF for novicestudents who learn with discovery-basedmultimedia games.

The authors investigated whether guidance and reflection would facilitate science learning in an interactive multimedia game. College students learned how to design plants to survive in different weather conditions. In Experiment 1, they learned with an agent that either guided them with corrective and explanatory feedback or corrective feedback alone. Some students were asked to reflect by giving explanations about their problem-solving answers. Guidance in the form of explanatory feedback produced higher transfer scores, fewer incorrect answers, and greater reduction of misconceptions during problem solving. Reflection in the form of having students give explanations for their answers did not affect learning. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that reflection promotes retention and far transfer in noninteractive environments but not in interactive ones unless students are asked to reflect on correct program solutions rather than on their own solutions. Results support the appropriate use of guidance and reflection for interactive multimedia games

The purpose of this study was to examine the instructional effectiveness of different levels ofchunking (simple visual/text and complex visual/text), different forms of feedback (item-by-itemfeedback, end-of-test feedback and no feedback), and use of instructional gaming (game and no game) in complementing animated programmed instruction on a test measuring differenteducational objectives. Previous research suggested that chunking of information helped reduce cognitive load, concentrating on important information. Feedback is an essential part of any type of instructiondesigned to help students learn more effectively. However, no one best type of feedback has been found to be most effective for computer-based education. Games have the potential of facilitatingdifferent types of learning outcomes by motivating students and allowing them to rehearse without cognitive load. This interactive information rich environment could cause cognitive overload if game factors such as clear goals, challenges and immediate feedback are not identified and designed clearly. That is why we need better models in order to understand what kinds of games, what types of feedback and chunking facilitate achievement of different types of learningobjectives. A total of 360 subjects participated in this study. A Posttest-Only 2 x 3 x 2 factorial experimental design was employed. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of twelve treatments (1) simple chunks + item-by-item feedback + game with programmed instruction with animation; (2) simple chunks + item-by-item feedback + no game with programmed instruction with animation; (3) simple chunks + end-of-test feedback + game with programmed instruction with animation; (4) simple chunks + end-of-test feedback + no game with programmed instruction with animation; (5) simple chunks + no feedback + game with programmed instruction with animation; (6) simple chunks + no feedback + no game with programmed instruction with animation; (7) complex chunks + item-by-item feedback + game with programmed instruction with animation; (8) complex chunks + item-by-item + no game with programmed instruction with animation; (9) complex chunks + end-of-test feedback + game with programmed instruction with animation; (10) complex chunks + end-of-test feedback + no game with programmed instruction with animation; (11) complex chunks + nofeedback + game with programmed instruction with animation; and (12) complex chunks + nofeedback + no game with programmed instruction with animation. Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to determine whether the mean post test scoresof the treatment groups differed significantly from one another, whether the factors: A (simple visual/text and complex visual/text chunking); B (item-by-item feedback, end-of-test feedback, nofeedback); C (game, no game) interacted significantly with one another with respect to each of the criterion measures being investigated, and specific items which were enhanced by differentstrategies. The enhanced items were categorized as follows: EIC = Identification questions enhanced with chunking, EIG = Identification questions enhanced with gaming, ETC = Terminology questions enhanced with chunking, ETF = Terminology questions enhanced with feedback, ETG = Terminology questions enhanced with gaming, ECC = Comprehension questions enhanced withchunking, ECF = Comprehension questions enhanced with feedback, ECG = Comprehension questions enhanced with gaming. There were no statistically significant interactions among the different strategies on the differentcriterion measures (identification, terminology, comprehension and total). There were no statistically significant main effects with respect to the use of chunking strategies (simple visual/text and complex visual/text), and different types of feedback (item-by-item, end-of-test, and no feedback)in complementing programmed instruction with animation among the 12 treatment groups. There were statistically significant main effects with respect to the use of gaming among treatment groups on terminology and comprehension tests. There were also statistically significant maineffects when focusing on items enhanced by different strategies when gaming was a factor on the terminology and comprehension tests. The research findings indicated that gaming was an effective and motivational method to rehearse the information without causing cognitive load. Contrary to previous studies, chunking strategieswere not statistically significant in this study. This might be related to the way chunking strategieswere presented and their location in the instructional unit. Presenting chunking strategies along with additional strategies required the participant to process more information in a short amount oftime. This could also cause information overload. In addition, feedback was important but, like inprevious studies, this study did not indicate any statistically significant difference among thedifferent types of feedbacks. Providing different types of feedback without knowing how learners would perceive, process and interpret the information might have caused cognitive load and performance of learners.

The facilitative role of explicit information in second Language acquisition has been supported by a significant body of research (Alanen, 1995; Carroll & Swain, 1993; de Graaff, 1997; DeKeyser, 1995; Ellis, 1993; Robinson, 1996, 1997), but counterevidence is also available (Rosa & O’Neill, 1999; VanPatten & Oikkenon, 1996). This experimental study investigates the effects of computer-delivered, explicit information on the acquisition of Spanish word order by comparing four groups comprised of [+/?Explanation] and [+/?Explicit Feedback]. Results showed that all groups improved significantly and similarly on interpretation and production tests. It is suggested that explicit information may not necessarily facilitate second Language acquisition and that exposing learners to task-essential practice is sufficient to promote acquisition.

This study investigated the effectiveness of three computer-administered feedback methods and how a goal intervention influenced the effectiveness of these methods when learning concepts and rules pertaining to the topic of descriptive statistics. Three methods of feedback: knowledge of correct response feedback, explanatory-implicit feedback, and no-feedback were crossed with two goal conditions (goal and no goal) to form six experimental conditions. Learning was measured as increased correct answers on a 24-item multiple-choice test given on three repeated trials. One hundred and thirty college undergraduates enrolled in a pre-service teacher education program were randomly assigned to the six experimental conditions. Students given feedback (knowledge of correct response and explanatory-implicit) showed significantly greater learning across the three trials in comparison to the no-feedback control, but those in the knowledge of correct response and explanatory-implicit feedbackconditions showed essentially equal performance on the learning measure across the three trials. For individuals given explanatory-implicit feedback, those receiving a goal intervention performed significantly better on the learning measure than those not receiving the goal intervention. This study supports past research showing the benefit of feedback when learning from a computer-assistedinstruction. In addition, this study showed how a goal intervention interacts with various feedbackmethods to enhance learning.

This article is a review of experiments comparing the effectiveness of human tutoring, computer tutoring, and no tutoring. “No tutoring” refers to instruction that teaches the same content without tutoring. The computer tutoring systems were divided by their granularity of the user interface interaction into answer-based, step-based, and substep-based tutoring systems. Most intelligent tutoring systems have step-based or substep-based granularities of interaction, whereas most other tutoring systems (often called CAI, CBT, or CAL systems) have answer-based user interfaces. It is widely believed as the granularity of tutoring decreases, the effectiveness increases. In particular, when compared to No tutoring, the effect sizes of answer-based tutoring systems, intelligent tutoring systems, and adult human tutors are believed to be d = 0.3, 1.0, and 2.0 respectively. This review did not confirm these beliefs. Instead, it found that the effect size of human tutoring was much lower: d = 0.79. Moreover, the effect size of intelligent tutoring systems was 0.76, so they are nearly as effective as human tutoring.

This review describes a meta-analysis of findings from 50 controlled evaluations of intelligent computer tutoring systems. The median effect of intelligent tutoring in the 50 evaluations was to raise test scores 0.66 standard deviations over conventional levels, or from the 50th to the 75th percentile. However, the amount of improvement found in an evaluation depended to a great extent on whether improvement was measured on locally developed or standardized tests, suggesting that alignment of test and instructional objectives is a critical determinant of evaluation results. The review also describes findings from two groups of evaluations that did not meet all of the selection requirements for the meta-analysis: six evaluations with nonconventional control groups and four with flawed implementations of intelligent tutoring systems. Intelligent tutoring effects in these evaluations were small, suggesting that evaluation results are also affected by the nature of control treatments and the adequacy of program implementations.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the effects of different types of online homework feedback on algebra problem solving skills and achievement in a college remedial algebra course. Two types of feedback are verification feedback and task-specific adapted knowledge of response feedback. The participants were students in a remedial algebra course at a university in California. The homework questions with different types of feedback were delivered through online systems, MyMathLab (MyMathLab, 2007) and CourseCompass (CourseCompass, 2007). Fifty voluntary students were randomly assigned into the control group receiving verification feedback (n=21), or the experimental group receiving task-specific adapted knowledge of response feedback (n=29). The study hypothesized that the experimental group would have better content understanding, greater problem solving strategies, higher self-regulation, and better achievement than the control group. However, the results of this study were unexpected. There were no significant differences between two groups in content understanding, problem solving strategies, self-regulation, and achievement. The fact that there were no differences between two groups could be due to either cognitive overload, or limited functionality of MyMathLab's tools, or learner control, or trial-and-error strategy. Results of this study suggest it will be better to improve computer software's design tools and design feedback in both visual and auditory modalities.

Instructional elements remain the foundation of current instructional design practice. Practice is the instructional element provided after learners have been given information required to master an objective and Navigation is the non-instructional element guides the learner on the sequence of instruction. Linear Navigation can be referred to as program control where the learners do not have control over sequence and Non-Linear Navigation can be referred to as Learner control over sequence of instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of practice with feedback, navigation type on achievement, attitude, and time when students use a web-based instructional program and the interaction between practice and navigation type. 240 students from a large south western university participated in four different web based environments. Significant differences were found for practice main effect, but not for navigation main effect. There was no interaction between practice and navigation. There were significant differences for attitude items, I learned a lot from this program and the program gave me enough opportunity to practice between the treatments who received practice and those who did not. This study reinforces on the importance of practice and has implications for the design and development of web-based, multimedia instruction.

Faculty teaching distance courses continuously seek ways to maximize learning for students. Two practice with feedback strategies were examined in this study for their impact on students' achievement and attitudes in an upper-division university level web-based course. One format contained higher structure and dialogue creating lower transactional distance for rehearsals and the other was lower structure and dialogue creating higher transactional distance for learners. Forty-five upper division students enrolled in a web-based distance course were blocked by major and randomly assigned to one of two rehearsal treatments: (1) practice tests with correct answers displayed below the tests for comparison or (2) inter- active practice tests with computer-generated feedback for correct answers and percentage correct test scores. Results indicate that the students taking interactive quizzes in the lower transactional distance format (computer-generated item feedback and test scores) performed significantly better on the final examination (p = .01) and rated the practice and feedback activities as more relevant (p = .03) than students who were free to view the questions and answers on their own.

The emergence of Web 2.0 technology provides more opportunities to foster online communication and sharing in an e-learning environment. The purpose of this study was to develop a Web 2.0 annotation system, MyNote, based on the Web 2.0 core concepts which emphasize ease of access and active sharing and then to gain an understanding about people’s perceptions of MyNote from a usability perspective. MyNote was employed on multimedia learning objects in a Learning Management System (LMS), and out of the LMS as well in this study. The evaluation results showed that, with factor analysis, interactivity, usefulness, helpfulness, and willingness for future use were categorized to represent the perceptions of MyNote. It was also found that the factors of interactivity and helpfulness were statistically significant to predict the future use of MyNote. Lastly, the habit of taking notes also affected learners’ perceptions of using MyNote.

Although the literature has highlighted the use of virtual worlds in teaching–learning, little is known about the concepts associated with this technology in nursing education. Moreover, the application of virtual worlds to education has been underdeveloped theoretically, with much of the work being exploratory. Thus, the aim of this integrative review was to identify the current evidence on the use of virtual worlds in the education of nursing and other health professional students and to describe emerging themes surrounding this phenomenon. We searched seven electronic databases for relevant articles and used Whittemore’s and Knafl’s integrative review method to synthesize the literature. Twelve articles met the selection criteria for this review, from which three overarching themes emerged: (a) critical reasoning skills, (b) student-centered learning, and (c) instructional design considerations. This integrative review extends our understanding of virtual worlds in nursing education and the potential barriers and facilitators of their use.

The present study explored the effectiveness of embedding a guided, learner-generated instructional strategy (query method), designed to support learners’ cognitive and metacognitive processes, within the context of a computer-based complex task training environment (i.e., principles of flight in the aviation domain). Additionally, this study also examined the effect of varying the level of elaboration prompted by the queries. The queries were presented as “stop and think” exercises in an open-ended question format that asked learners to generate either simple (low level elaboration) or complex (high level elaboration) sentences from a list of key training concepts. Overall, results consistently highlighted the beneficial effect of presenting participants with low-level elaboration queries, as compared to the no-query or high-level elaboration queries.

In this work we investigate the importance of emotion awareness in e-learning environments, with emphasis to Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities. Our presented solution involves a new conceptual model of emotions of interest in e-learning context. In the basis of this model, a computational model has been implemented employing self-report of emotions, affective feedback and effective emotion visualizations. Both models have been tested in real education settings, contributing to the research agenda.

The purpose of this research was to manipulate the component of confidence found in Keller's ARCS model to enhance the confidence and performance of undergraduate students enrolled in an online course at a Texas university using SAM 2003 software delivery. This study also tested whether the aforementioned confidence tactics had any unintentional effect on the remaining attention, relevance, and satisfaction subscales of the ARCS model as well as on learners’ overall motivation for the class and the instructional materials. This study was conducted over a 5.5-week period with an initial sample of 81 total students. Two quantitative surveys were used to measure confidence and motivation: (a) the Course Interest Survey (CIS), and (b) the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS). The results indicated that the treatment group showed statistically greater gains than the control group in terms of learner confidence on the CIS but not the IMMS. In terms of performance, the treatment group outperformed the control group on all of the individual posttest measures and on the overall aggregate mean performance score.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of computer game-based instruction on adult students' programming achievement. This quasi-experiment proceeded in 2007. Participants were 146 technology college management information system students enrolled in a Visual Basic programming class. Students in four intact classes were assigned one of two instructional methods and received a ten-week treatment. Experiment groups were taught by computer game-based instruction; the control group received traditional programming instruction. Motivation, creativity, problem-solving questionnaires and programming tests were administered in the first and the tenth weeks to evaluate how instructional methods affected each of these in relation to programming achievement. Demographic and computer experience survey data gathered in the first class became independent variables. Data were analyzed with ANCOVA and step-down multiple regression. Statistically significance was set at p < .05. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that the computer game-based group significantly outperformed the traditional group in motivation, problem-solving ability and programming achievement. Step-down multiple regression revealed that for the experimental group, pretest programming scores and demographic data (gender, hours spent on computer games, motivation change, problem-solving ability change) were positively related to programming achievement change. Conversely, compared to older adulthood, middle adulthood related negatively to programming achievement. The results revealed that computer-game based instruction has a great potential in facilitating student's problem-solving ability and improving programming achievement. These findings provide empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of developmentally appropriate computer game-based instruction on achievement in the technology college Windows Programming classes.

Historical time and chronological sequence are usually conveyed to pupils via the presentation of semantic information on printed worksheets, events being rote-memorised according to date. We explored the use of virtual environments in which successive historical events were depicted as “places” in time–space, encountered sequentially in a fly-through. Testing was via “Which came first, X or Y?” questions and picture-ordering. University undergraduates experiencing the history of an imaginary planet performed better after a VE than after viewing a “washing line” of sequential images, or captions alone, especially for items in intermediate list positions. However, secondary children 11–14 years remembered no more about successive events in feudal England when they were presented virtually compared with either paper picture or 2-D computer graphic conditions. Primary children 7–9 years learned more about historical sequence after studying a series of paper images, compared with either VE or computer graphic conditions, remembering more in early/intermediate list positions. Reasons for the discrepant results are discussed and future possible uses of VEs in the teaching of chronology assessed.

Context Computer-aided instruction is used increasingly in medical education and anatomy instruction with limited research evidence to guide its design and deployment. Objectives To determine the effects of (a) learner control over the e-learning environment and (b) key views of the brain versus multiple views in the learning of brain surface anatomy. Design Randomised trial with 2 phases of study. Participants Volunteer sample of 1st-year psychology students (phase 1, n = 120; phase 2, n = 120). Interventions Phase 1: computer-based instruction in brain surface anatomy with 4 conditions: (1) learner control/multiple views (LMV); (2) learner control/key views (LKV); (3) programme control/multiple views (PMV); (4) programme control/key views (PKV). Phase 2: 2 conditions: low learner control/key views (PKV) versus no learner control/key views (SKV). All participants performed a pre-test, post-test and test of visuospatial ability. Main outcome measures A 30-item post-test of brain surface anatomy structure identification. Results The PKV group attained the best post-test score (57.7%) and the PMV group received the worst (42.2%), with the 2 high learner control groups performing in between. For students with low spatial ability, estimated scores are 20% lower for those who saw multiple views during learning. In phase 2, students with the most static condition and no learner control (SKV) performed similarly to those students in the PKV group. Conclusions Multiple views may impede learning, particularly for those with relatively poor spatial ability. High degrees of learner control may reduce effectiveness of learning.

In randomized clinical trials, children and adolescents improved their self care and reduced their emergency clinical utilization after playing health education and disease management video games. A diabetes game reduced diabetes-related urgent and emergency visits by 77 percent after diabetic youngsters had the game at home for six months, compared to no reduction in clinical utilization in a control group of diabetic youngsters who took home an entertainment video game that had no health content. Positive impacts were also found in clinical trials of games for asthma self-management and smoking prevention.

Serious games have become an important genre of digital media and are often acclaimed for their potential to enhance deeper learning because of their unique technological properties. Yet the discourse has largely remained at a conceptual level. For an empirical evaluation of educational games, extra effort is needed to separate intertwined and confounding factors in order to manipulate and thus attribute the outcome to one property independent of another. This study represents one of the first attempts to empirically test the educational impact of two important properties of serious games, multimodality and interactivity, through a partial 2 × 3 (interactive, noninteractive by high, moderate, low in multimodality) factorial between-participants follow-up experiment. Results indicate that both multimodality and interactivity contribute to educational outcomes individually. Implications for educational strategies and future research directions are discussed.

Serious games sometimes are not as efficacious as they should be when it comes to learning, but the reasons for this are unclear; something that is brought on by a lack of rigorous scientific research into what constitutes good game design. We created a serious game with which players can learn the triage procedure, called Code Red Triage, and found that, at least in the short run, it was less efficacious than a static PowerPoint presentation with the same information. Players also reported higher cognitive load in the game condition, which was negatively correlated with learning gains, and likely due to the player having to actively select and organize the information. Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning states that learning from multimedia involves the selection of relevant from irrelevant information, the organization of this information into coherent knowledge structures, and the integration of these structures with prior knowledge structures. In accordance with this theory, we proposed four experiments that were designed to improve these cognitive processes while playing a serious game. In the first experiment, we contrasted the use of auditory and visual cues with a control group to aid in the selection of relevant from irrelevant material. Players in the auditory cueing condition showed significantly lower learning gains from gameplay than the other two groups. Participants in the visual cueing condition learned more than the auditory cueing condition, but not the control condition. However, a significant effect of prior game experience was found in the visual cueing condition, in favor of those with prior game experience. In the second experiment we investigated the best order in which to present the complexity of the game, on two variables: the presentation of problems and the presentation of options with which to overcome these problems. Problem complexity was operationalized as either spaced or massed presentation of victim cases, and option complexity as either just-in-time presentation or just-in-case presentation. No effect of any of the conditions was found on learning gains, and therefore effectiveness of organization, but the just-in-case option presentation with a massed victim presentation was enjoyed significantly more than other conditions, likely due to the player feeling more autonomous and competent. In the third experiment, we tested whether a serious game can be made more efficient if the game adapts the presentation of victim cases to the performance of the player. In this case, remaining victims belonging to a certain complexity level were deleted if the player scored high enough on a respective victim. This was shown to significantly decrease the amount of time for an equal amount of learning to occur. In the final experiment, surprising events were added around the time an update of the mental model was needed, in order to stimulate the activation of, and integration with a prior mental model. This was shown to lead to superior knowledge structures in the experimental condition compared with the control group.

In a computer-based simulation of a chemical processing plant, the differential effects of three instructional strategies for learning how to troubleshoot the plant’s malfunctions were investigated. In an experiment concerning learners’ transfer performance and mental effort, the simulation presented the three strategies to three groups of learners and measured their performance on the transfer tasks. In this experiment, conventional problem solving was contrasted with two worked example strategies. The results indicated a significant difference between practicing problem solving and using worked examples. Learners who practiced problem solving in an interactive simulation outperformed the learners who studied computer-based worked examples. They also invested lower mental effort in transfer tasks. When accounting for the difference in the learners’ domain knowledge, the strategies were not significantly different among the more experienced learners. For the less experienced learners, those who practiced problem solving significantly outperformed their worked example counterparts. Among all participants and also among less experienced learners the problem solving group invested significantly lower mental effort in the performance of transfer tasks. Based on the results of this study, the authors recommend the use of the conventional problem solving strategy with or without worked examples for learning complex skills.

In this mixed methods study the potential for developmental readers to experience optimal experience (flow) within the multi-user virtual environment, Second Life, was examined. In an educational context, Second Life provided a space for constructivist learning, socialization, exploration, discovery and creativity. The communicative, social nature of virtual learning also allowed students to demonstrate cognitive and affective skills they had acquired through their utilization of social technologies. This applied, situated learning environment has great potential for generating situational interest, the springboard for motivation. The purpose of this study was to determine. (a) the digital literacy skills of college-level developmental readers; (b) the differences in digital literacies between those college-level developmental reading students who used Second Life and those college-level developmental reading students who did not use Second Life; (c) the relationships between optimal experience and reading achievement; (d) the behaviors exhibited by students that indicated the degree to which they were a digital native; and (e) the antecedents of flow as reported by college-level developmental reading students using Second Life. Participants were 80 students enrolled in developmental reading in the fall 2009 semester—38 participants comprised the control group, and 42 students comprised the experimental group. Research findings indicated that the participants were digitally literate. This digital literacy was demonstrated through reading activities in Second Life, where the optimal experience construct, enjoyment, led to increased reading achievement gains among the experimental group over the control group who did not use Second Life. Developmental reading administrators and educators would be well-informed to capitalize on these unique learning environments with activities that require practice in collaboration, self-regulation, time management skills, and most importantly, critical reading skills.

Job requirements for US Navy electronic technicians include extensive knowledge of basic electricity and electronics (BE/E) fundamentals. Historically the BE/E material has proved difficult for trainees to learn and has resulted in high setback and attrition rates. This study evaluates alternative computer-based instructional strategies for teaching complex technical content with 4 instructional conditions: computer-base drill and practice (CBDP), enhanced computer-based instruction (ECBI), a computer-based adventure game (GAME), and the existing classroom instruction (CI). The authors evaluated trainees on completion of the instruction with a schoolhouse comprehensive test, a specially designed cognitive skills test, and a motivation questionnaire In addition, the authors recorded and analyzed the time participants took to complete the instruction. In general, the CBDP and ECBI groups outperformed the CI and GAM groups on all measures. The GAME condition performed no better than the CI condition. When differences existed between the ECBI and CBDP groups, the ECBI group performed better.

Online and computer-based instructional gaming is becoming a viable instructional strategy at all levels of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of (a) gaming, (b) gaming plus embedded questions, and (c) gaming plus questions plus feedback on delayed retention of different types of educational objectives for students identified as field dependent/field independent. Four hundred twenty-two students received the Group Embedded Figures Test, were separated into field dependent and field independent learners, and were randomly assigned to four instructional treatments. Two weeks after receiving their respective instructional presentation they received four criterion tests measuring different educational objectives. ANOVA and follow-up tests indicated that gaming is an important instructional strategy for facilitating delayed achievement of specific types of educational objectives; however, all types of gaming formats were not found to be equally effective. Statistically insignificant interactions were found to exist between level of field dependence and treatment type on all criterion measures; however, field independent students significantly outperformed field dependent students on all criterion measures.

In order to understand whether a 3D virtual learning environment is effective in facilitating students’ application ability, we designed a 3D virtual supermarket (3DVS) to help business students to transform abstract class theory into concrete application ability in the real world. In the 3DVS, a virtual customer poses questions to the participant, and then the participant, as a simulated clerk, has to reply to the questions. All of the questions in the 3DVS were developed from marketing mix theory and given a scenario-based form. To understand the effects of the 3DVS, the participants were randomly divided into control group (CG) and experiment group (EG), and only the EG participants were trained with the 3DVS. After examined by pretest and posttest, the results of posttest indicated that the participants of the EG performed significantly better in terms of knowledge application than did those of the CG.

Background: Virtual reality simulators allow trainees to practice techniques without consequences, reduce potential risk associated with training, minimize animal use, and help to develop standards and optimize procedures. Current intravenous (IV) catheter placement training methods utilize plastic arms, however, the lack of variability can diminish the educational stimulus for the student. This study compares the effectiveness of an interactive, multimedia, virtual reality computer IV catheter simulator with a traditional laboratory experience of teaching IV venipuncture skills to both nursing and medical students. Methods: A randomized, pretest-posttest experimental design was employed. A total of 163 participants, 70 baccalaureate nursing students and 93 third-year medical students beginning their fundamental skills training were recruited. The students ranged in age from 20 to 55 years (mean 25). Fifty-eight percent were female and 68% percent perceived themselves as having average computer skills (25% declaring excellence). The methods of IV catheter education compared included a traditional method of instruction involving a scripted self-study module which involved a 10-minute videotape, instructor demonstration, and hands-on-experience using plastic mannequin arms. The second method involved an interactive multimedia, commercially made computer catheter simulator program utilizing virtual reality (CathSim). Results: The pretest scores were similar between the computer and the traditional laboratory group. There was a significant improvement in cognitive gains, student satisfaction, and documentation of the procedure with the traditional laboratory group compared with the computer catheter simulator group. Both groups were similar in their ability to demonstrate the skill correctly. Conclusions: This evaluation and assessment was an initial effort to assess new teaching methodologies related to intravenous catheter placement and their effects on student learning outcomes and behaviors. Technology alone is not a solution for stand alone IV catheter placement education. A traditional learning method was preferred by students. The combination of these two methods of education may further enhance the trainee’s satisfaction and skill acquisition level.

What is the most effective way to incorporate self-explanation into an educational game? In Experiment 1, students who played a 10-level computer game about electrical circuits performed better on an embedded transfer test (i.e., level 10) if they were required to select the reason for each move from a list on levels 1–9 (selection self-explanation) than if they were not required to engage in self-explanation (d = 1.20). In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was replicated (d = 0.71), but students who were required to type in their reason for each move on levels 1–9 (generation self-explanation) did not perform any better than those who were not required to engage in self-explanation (d = ?0.06). Overall, asking students to select a reason from a list fosters some degree of reflection while not overly disrupting the flow of the game.

College students learned about botany through an agent-based multimedia game. In Experiment 1, students received either spoken or identical on-screen text explanations; in addition, the lesson was presented either via a desktop display (D), a head-mounted display (HMD) used while sitting, or an HMD used while walking (W). In Experiment 2, we examined the effects of presenting explanations as narration (N), text (T), or both (NT) within the D and W conditions. Students scored higher on retention, transfer, and program ratings in N conditions than in T conditions. The NT condition produced results in between. Students gave higher ratings of presence when learning with HMDs, but media did not affect performance on measures of retention, transfer, or program ratings

College students learned how to design the roots, stem, and leaves of plants to survive in five different virtual reality environments through an agent-based multimedia educational game. For each student, the agent used personalized speech (e.g., including I and you) or nonpersonalized speech (e.g., 3rd-person monologue), and the game was presented via desktop computer (low immersion) or head-mounted display (high immersion). Across both levels of immersion, students who received personalized agent messages performed better on retention and problem-solving transfer tests. Although students reported higher levels of physical presence with high rather than low immersion, higher immersion did not lead to better performance on tests of retention or transfer. Students learn more deeply from computer-based simulation games when an on-screen agent speaks to them in a personalized style rather than a nonpersonalized style.

This paper examines whether people benefit more from playing a commercial off-the-shelf game in pairs rather than in solitary mode. The basic idea behind this didactic method is that there is a serious risk that solitary game play yields insufficient articulation and explanation for learning to take place. Participants in the experimental condition played a strategy game in collaborative mode (pairs). Solitary play formed the control condition. During game play data were gathered about engagement (ie, flow). Also, the dialogues of the pairs were recorded. After game completion participants individually completed a knowledge test. For solitary players this ended the session. Collaborating pairs could discuss test answers (without receiving experimenter feedback) and give a final group answer. Collaboration was found not to affect game engagement and also did not affect individual knowledge test scores. The collaboration presumably did not advance the players' individual knowledge because the game dialogues mainly dealt with superficial game features such as move proposals. The collaborating players benefitted significantly from the opportunity to discuss test scores. The discussion revolves around game selection and game didactics (including scripted collaboration and debriefing) as routes for future studies to follow in ways of improving game utilisation in school.

Many strong claims are made for the educational value of computer games, but there is a need for systematic examination of the research evidence that might support such claims. This book fills that need by providing, a comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of what research shows about learning with computer games. Computer Games for Learning describes three genres of game research: the value-added approach, which compares the learning outcomes of students who learn with a base version of a game to those of students who learn with the base version plus an additional feature; the cognitive consequences approach, which compares learning outcomes of students who play an off-the-shelf computer game for extended periods to those of students who do not; and the media comparative approach, which compares the learning outcomes of students who learn material by playing a game to those of students who learn the same material using conventional media. After introductory chapters that describe the rationale and goals of learning game research as well as the relevance of cognitive science to learning with games, the book offers examples of research in all three genres conducted by the author and his colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara; meta-analyses of published research; and suggestions for future research in the field. The book is essential reading for researchers and students of educational games, instructional designers, learning-game developers, and anyone who wants to know what the research has to say about the educational effectiveness of computer games.

It is assumed that serious games influences learning in 2 ways, by changing cognitive processes and by affecting motivation. However, until now research has shown little evidence for these assumptions. We used meta-analytic techniques to investigate whether serious games are more effective in terms of learning and more motivating than conventional instruction methods (learning: k = 77, N 5,547; motivation: k = 31, N 2,216). Consistent with our hypotheses, serious games were found to be more effective in terms of learning (d= 0.29, p < .01) and retention (d = 0.36, p < .01), but they were not more motivating (d = 0.26, p > .05) than conventional instruction methods. Additional moderator analyses on the learning effects revealed that learners in serious games learned more, relative to those taught with conventional instruction methods, when the game was supplemented with other instruction methods, when multiple training sessions were involved, and when players worked in groups

Comparing multiple examples typically supports learning and transfer in laboratory studies and is considered a key feature of high-quality mathematics instruction. This experimental study investigated the importance of prior knowledge in learning from comparison. Seventh- and 8th-grade students (N = 236) learned to solve equations by comparing different solution methods to the same problem, comparing different problem types solved with the same solution method, or studying the examples sequentially. Unlike in past studies, many students did not begin the study with equation-solving skills, and prior knowledge of algebraic methods was an important predictor of learning. Students who did not attempt algebraic methods at pretest benefited most from studying examples sequentially or comparing problem types, rather than from comparing solution methods. Students who attempted algebraic methods at pretest learned more from comparing solution methods. Students may need sufficient prior knowledge in a domain before they benefit from comparing alternative solution methods. These findings are in line with findings on the expertise-reversal effect. 

Earlier research has shown that prior knowledge of psychology is positively associated with course achievement. But are these effects attributable to preexisting differences in general ability or aptitude? The authors administered 2 pretests to 353 students early in an introductory psychology course and obtained measures of general student aptitude (i.e., ACT scores), subsequent course participation, and exam performance. In regression analyses, the pretest of psychological knowledge uniquely predicted significant variance in exam scores even with the influences of ACT scores and course participation controlled. A second pretest judging the accuracy of everyday psychological concepts also positively correlated with exam performance but did not predict unique variance in the regression. Thus, beyond general ability, domain-specific prior knowledge facilitates student learning in introductory psychology. 

This article discusses the importance of studying interest and reviews research on the association between interest and prior knowledge. It is concluded that there is a substantial linear relationship between interest and prior knowledge. Previous findings of minimal interest-knowledge relationships were attributed to one, or more, of the following: (a) Knowledge and interest measures reflecting different content, (b) questionable reliability or validity of the measures, (c) ideographic assignment to high/low groups introducing error into group assignments, (d) use of materials not suited to the sample, and (e) possible confounding of interest and knowledge measures. Research suggests that working on interesting, compared to neutral, materials may engage deeper cognitive processing, arouse a wider, more emotional, and more personal associative network, and employ more imagery. A model of the interest-knowledge relationship is updated, and suggestions for further research are made. Finally, the similarity between interest and curiosity is explored, and the advantages of research on these constructs are discussed.

The effects of 3 task selection methods on test performance and training efficiency in a computer-based flight management system (FMS) training were investigated. A fixed condition was compared to a learner control condition and a condition using the participants' self-rated performance and mental effort. Although the experimental conditions revealed more positive training effects, no differences were found for training efficiency and test performance. A follow-up study did not confirm the alternative hypothesis that these results were caused by the higher amount of tasks in the fixed condition. Extra analyses suggested that the quality of self-rating needs to be considered in future research.

The study explored the effects of students' locus of control and types of control over instruction on their self-efficacy and performance in a web-based language learning environment. A web-based interactive instructional program focusing on the comprehension of news articles for English language learners was developed in two versions: learner- and program-control. Following the web-based learning, the participants completed a content comprehension test and self-report measure of self-efficacy. Results showed that: (1) students with an internal locus of control performed better on the test and the self-efficacy measure than those with an external locus of control; (2) students learning from the learner-control version of the web-based instruction performed better on the test and the measure of self-efficacy than those learning from the program-control version; (3) students with an internal locus of control who learned from the learner-control version got the highest score on the test and the measure of self-efficacy, while students with an external locus of control who learned from the program-control version received the lowest score on the test and the measure of self-efficacy; and (4) students with an external locus of control who learned from the learner-control version outperformed students with an internal locus of control who learned from the program-control version on both academic performance and the measure of self-efficacy.

This paper reports a study, which investigated whether different instructional strategies might interact with individual’s cognitive style in learning. A web-based learning package was designed employing three strategies, Interactive Concept Maps, Illustration with Embedded Text and Text-Only. Group Embedded Figure Test was administered to 178 university students to identify their cognitive style as field dependent or field independent. Findings showed that no significant difference in performance was found between field dependents and field independents in Concept Maps and Illustration with Embedded Text treatment condition. However, a significant difference was found between field dependents and field independents in the Text-Only treatment condition. Also significant interaction was found between cognitive style and treatment type.

The use of cadavers to teach anatomy is well established, but limitations with this approach have led to the introduction of alternative teaching methods. One such method is the use of three-dimensional virtual reality computer models. An interactive, three-dimensional computer model of human forearm anterior compartment musculoskeletal anatomy was produced using the open source 3D imaging program “Blender.” The aim was to evaluate the use of 3D virtual reality when compared with traditional anatomy teaching methods. Three groups were identified from the University of Manchester second year Human Anatomy Research Skills Module class: a “control” group (no prior knowledge of forearm anatomy), a “traditional methods” group (taught using dissection and textbooks), and a “model” group (taught solely using e-resource). The groups were assessed on anatomy of the forearm by a ten question practical examination. ANOVA analysis showed the model group mean test score to be significantly higher than the control group (mean 7.25 vs. 1.46, P < 0.001) and not significantly different to the traditional methods group (mean 6.87, P > 0.5). Feedback from all users of the e-resource was positive. Virtual reality anatomy learning can be used to compliment traditional teaching methods effectively.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the comparative value of performing electricity laboratory by physical, virtual and comprehensive (combination of virtual and physical) methods with respect to changes in students ‘conceptual understanding of DC electric circuits and their skills. To achieve these, a pre–post comparison test (DIRECT V1.2) and final skill test that include coordinated tasks of assembling a real circuit and describing how it worked, were used that involved 100 undergraduate students. At the end of the study by means of statistical tests, we observed considerable changes in comprehensive group's learning and virtual group's skill in comparison with the other groups.

This paper examines the effects of substituting a computer simulation for real laboratory equipment in the second semester of a large-scale introductory physics course. The direct current circuit laboratory was modified to compare the effects of using computer simulations with the effects of using real light bulbs, meters, and wires. Two groups of students, those who used real equipment and those who used a computer simulation that explicitly modeled electron flow, were compared in terms of their mastery of physics concepts and skills with real equipment. Students who used the simulated equipment outperformed their counterparts both on a conceptual survey of the domain and in the coordinated tasks of assembling a real circuit and describing how it worked.

Computer simulations combined with games have been successfully used to teach conceptual physics. However, there is no clear methodology for guiding the design of these types of games. To remedy this, we propose a structured methodology for the design of conceptual physics games that explicitly integrates the principles of the intrinsic integration approach for designing instructional games (Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011) with an atomic analysis of the structure of games (Cook, 2007; Cousins, 2005; Koster, 2005). To test this approach, we redesigned an existing game to teach electrostatics and compared the educational effectiveness of the original and redesigned versions. Our studies also compared an endogenous fantasy version of the game with a non-fantasy version. Our results showed that students who played the game which had been redesigned using the Atomic Intrinsic Integration Approach achieved a statistically significant improvement in results and showed fewer conceptual problems than the students who played the original version. The fantasy and non-fantasy versions, however, did not display any significant differences in outcomes. Based on the analysis and redesign of the game, we defined one possible methodology to assist in the design of games for the conceptual understanding of physics.

This article presents a study that provides insight in the effects of an authentic electronic learning environment on student performance and experiences. It is expected that learning in an authentic learning environment results in higher performance and improves intrinsic motivation of students. The results of this study showed, contrary to what was expected, that student who worked in an authentic environment did not perform better than students who worked in a less authentic environment. Moreover, the reported experiences with the learning environments did not differ between both groups.

This study assessed the effect of design instructional video based on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning by applying segmentation and signaling on the learning outcome of students in an online technology integration course. The study assessed the correlation between students’ personal preferences (preferred learning styles and area of specialization) and their learning outcomes. A three-group pretest–posttest design was employed to assess whether there were significant differences in students’ test scores after they watched an instructional video. The results of the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) analysis indicate that instructional design had a significant effect on students’ learning outcome. This effect was demonstrated by the statistically significant differences in students’ learning outcomes, with the highest scores achieved by students in the segmented and signaled video group and the lowest scores in the no-segmentation and no-signaling group. Moreover, results indicate that students’ learning preferences and area of specialization related significantly and positively to their learning outcomes. These findings suggest that the use of educational video in online courses has the potential to effectively improve students’ learning outcome; however, it requires design manipulation. The results also emphasize the importance of rethinking the one-size-fits-all approach in developing online course content and include consideration of the students’ learning preferences and area of specialization to optimize their learning.

In a series of three experimental studies, the effectiveness of three-dimensional computer simulations to aid the understanding of chemical structures and their properties was investigated. Arguments for the usefulness of three-dimensional simulations were derived from Mayer’s generative theory of multimedia learning. Simulations might lead to a decrease in cognitive load and thus support active learning. In our studies, the learning effectiveness of three-dimensional simulations was compared to two-dimensional illustrations by use of different versions of a computer programme concerning the modifications of carbon. The first and third study with freshman students of chemistry and biochemistry show that no more knowledge was acquired when participants learnt with three-dimensional simulations than with two-dimensional figures. In the second study with 16-year old secondary school students, use of simulations facilitated the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. It was concluded that three-dimensional simulations are more effective for younger students who lack the experience of learning with different visual representation formats in chemistry. In all three studies, a significant relationship between spatial ability and conceptual knowledge about the modifications of carbon was detected.

The purpose of this study was to investigate value of combining Real Experimentation (RE) with Virtual Experimentation (VE) with respect to changes in students' conceptual understanding of electric circuits. To achieve this, a pre–post comparison study design was used that involved 88 undergraduate students. The participants were randomly assigned to an experimental (45 students) and a control group (43 students). Each group attended a one semester course in physics for preservice elementary school teachers. Both groups used the same inquiry-based curriculum materials. Participants in the control group used RE to conduct the study's experiments, whereas, participants in the experimental group used RE in the first part of the curriculum and VE in another part. Conceptual tests were administered to assess students' understanding of electric circuits before, during and after the teaching intervention. Results indicated that the combination of RE and VE enhanced students' conceptual understanding more than the use of RE alone. A further analysis showed that differences between groups on that part of the curriculum in which the experimental group used VE and the control group RE, in favour of VE.

Strong claims are made for the potential educational effectiveness of narrative-based adventure games, but evidence about how to construct effective educational games is needed (Clark, Yates, Early, & Moulton, 2010; O'Neil & Perez, 2008). College students played a computer-based narrative discovery learning game called Crystal Island (Spires et al., 2010), in which they learned about pathogens (in Experiment 1), or one called Cache 17 (Koenig, 2008), in which they learned how electromechanical devices work (in Experiment 2). In media comparison tests, participants who learned by playing the game performed worse than students who learned from a matched slideshow presentation on retention (d = 1.37), transfer (d = 0.57), and difficulty rating (d = 0.93) in Experiment 1 and on posttest score (d = 0.31) and learning time (d = 2.89) in Experiment 2. In value-added tests, taking away the narrative theme concerning a detective story in the Cache 17 game did not significantly affect students' posttest score (d = ?0.16) or learning time (d = ?0.22) in Experiment 2. Overall, these results provide no evidence that computer-based narrative games offer a superior venue for academic learning under short time spans of under 2 hr. Findings contradict the discovery hypothesis that students learn better when they do hands-on activities in engaging scenarios during learning and the narrative hypothesis that students learn better when games have a strong narrative theme, although there is no evidence concerning longer periods of game play.

This study tested whether students who learned with an active orientation would be more intrinsically motivated to learn and would learn more than students who learned with a passive orientation. The active orientation was created by having subjects learn material with the expectation of teaching it to another student; the passive orientation was created by having subjects learn the same material with the expectation of being tested on it. The results indicate that subjects who learned in order to teach were more intrinsically motivated, had higher conceptual learning scores, and perceived themselves to be more actively engaged with the environment than subjects who learned in order to be examined. The two groups were equal, however, in their rote learning scores. The effects of exposure to the material were ruled out as an explanation because the two groups reported spending equal time with the material. The results are discussed in terms of intrinsic motivation theory.

Betty’s Brain is a computer-based learning environment that capitalizes on the social aspects of learning. In Betty’s Brain, students instruct a character called a Teachable Agent (TA) which can reason based on how it is taught. Two studies demonstrate the protégé effect: students make greater effort to learn for their TAs than they do for themselves. The first study involved 8th-grade students learning biology. Although all students worked with the same Betty’s Brain software, students in the TA condition believed they were teaching their TAs, while in another condition, they believed they were learning for themselves. TA students spent more time on learning activities (e.g., reading) and also learned more. These beneficial effects were most pronounced for lower achieving children. The second study used a verbal protocol with 5th-grade students to determine the possible causes of the protégé effect. As before, students learned either for their TAs or for themselves. Like study 1, students in the TA condition spent more time on learning activities. These children treated their TAs socially by attributing mental states and responsibility to them. They were also more likely to acknowledge errors by displaying negative affect and making attributions for the causes of failures. Perhaps having a TA invokes a sense of responsibility that motivates learning, provides an environment in which knowledge can be improved through revision, and protects students’ egos from the psychological ramifications of failure.

The present study focuses on the use of thinking types as a possible way to structure university students' discourse in asynchronous discussion groups and consequently promote their learning. More specifically, the aim of the study is to determine how requiring students to label their contributions by means of De Bono's (1991 De Bono, E. 1991. Six thinking hats for schools, resource book for adult educators, Logan, IA: USA Perfection Learning. ) thinking hats affects the ongoing critical thinking processes reflected in the discussion. The results suggest that tagging thinking types significantly promotes critical thinking in general and the critical thinking processes during problem identification and problem exploration, in particular. More specifically, it appears that requiring students to reflect on the type of thinking in their contributions stimulates more indepth and focused contributions and, more frequent input of new problem-related information and new ideas for discussion.

This paper describes how SWoRD (scaffolded writing and rewriting in the discipline), a web-based reciprocal peer review system, supports writing practice, particularly for large content courses in which writing is considered critical but not feasibly included. To help students gain content knowledge as well as writing and reviewing skills, SWoRD supports the whole cycle of writing, reviews, back-reviews, and rewriting by scaffolding the journal publication process as its authentic practice model. In addition, SWoRD includes algorithms that compute individual reviewer’s review accuracy, which is in turn used to support the various drawbacks of reciprocal peer reviews (e.g., variation in motivation or ability of reviewers). Finally, this paper describes an empirical evaluation showing that the SWoRD approach is effective in improving writing quality in content classes.

Case study learning was integrated into a course designed to improve students' potential for academic success and increase student retention. Case studies related to self-regulation of behavior, motivation, and cognition for academic tasks were used to prompt students' critical thinking and facilitate deep learning of self-regulation topics, linking course theory with practice. This article explores the effectiveness of asynchronous computer-mediated collaborative case study learning as compared to face-to-face case study learning in enhancing the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students enrolled in a learning frameworks course.

The development of collaborative studies in learning has led to a renewed interest in the field of Web-based education. In this experimental study a highly interactive and collaborative virtual teaching environment has been created by supporting Moodle LMS with collaborative learning tool GREWPtool. The aim of this experimental study has been to find out the success rate of students when using an advanced and a standard collaborative tool in teaching programming languages over the Internet. The system has been tested with a total of 58 students whose aim was to learn the programming language Java. Success rate of students have been measured using two different assessments. Our results show a higher success rate when an LMS system is combined with an advanced collaborative tool during the teaching of programming languages in a Web-based environment.

There is considerable evidence that using technology as an instructional tool improves student learning and educational outcomes (Hanna & de Nooy, 2003). In developing countries, pre-university education focuses on memorization, although meting the mission of AUST requires students to manage technology and to think more independently. This study examines the impact of incorporating a discussion forum on the achievement of university students enrolled in a Distance Education course, Educational Technology Department at Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST), United Arab Emirates. The study was conducted with 34 students divided into two sections, one a treatment group and one a control group. Both sections were exposed to the same teaching techniques covering the same course material on Distance Education. Four weeks after the course had commenced they were given the same teacher constructed test. However, after the first test, the treated group was exposed to the use of a World Wide Web (WWW) interactive discussion forum. At the end of the semester-long treatment period, a final test was given to both groups, and student scores were analyzed for any statistically significant difference. Questionnaires and interviews were also conducted to see if students had enjoyed the experience. The results of the study indicated that students in both groups showed learning improvement over the course of one semester, but discussion forums had an obvious impact on student achievement and attitude in distance learning/ educational technology course.

Online discussions provide opportunities for learners to engage in argumentative debate, but learners rarely formulate well-grounded arguments or benefit individually from participating in online discussions. Learners often do not explicitly warrant their arguments and fail to construct counterarguments (incomplete formal argumentation structure), which is hypothesized to impede individual knowledge acquisition. Computer-supported scripts have been found to support learners during online discussions. Such scripts can support specific discourse activities, such as the construction of single arguments, by supporting learners in explicitly warranting their claims or in constructing specific argumentation sequences, e.g., argument–counterargument sequences, during online discussions. Participation in argumentative discourse is seen to promote both knowledge on argumentation and domain-specific knowledge. However, there have been few empirical investigations regarding the extent to which computer-supported collaboration scripts can foster the formal quality of argumentation and thereby facilitate the individual acquisition of knowledge. One hundred and twenty (120) students of Educational Science participated in the study with a 2 × 2-factorial design (with vs. without script for the construction of single arguments and with vs. without script for the construction of argumentation sequences) and were randomly divided into groups of three. Results indicated that the collaboration scripts could improve the formal quality of single arguments and the formal quality of argumentation sequences in online discussions. Scripts also facilitated the acquisition of knowledge on argumentation, without affecting the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge.

The terms "cooperative" and "collaborative" are sometimes used interchangeably in reference to group learning activities in classrooms and in online settings. However, they can be viewed as differing in terms of characteristics such as pre-structure, task structure, and content structure (Strijbos & Martens, 2001; Panitz, 1996). This study attempted to help clarify these differences and the effects of the two types of groups on learner performance in an online debate. The study investigated the effects of a highly structured cooperative learning (HSCP) group, which had pre-assigned debate positions as a pre-structure, argumentation scaffolding as a task structure, and evaluation scaffolding as a content structure, compared to a low structured collaborative learning (LSCL) group, which did not have these structures, in terms of pre-service teachers’ decision changes, critical thinking, and interaction patterns. Results demonstrated that there were greater amounts of critical thinking, and of critical and dynamic interaction patterns in the HSCP than LSCL group.

Using online learning environments in higher education offers innovative possibilities to support collaborative learning. However, online learning creates new kinds of problems for participants who have not previously worked with each other. One of these problems is uncertainty which occurs when participants do not know each other. According to the uncertainty reduction theory, low uncertainty level increases the amount of discourse and decreases the amount of information seeking. Therefore, uncertainty may influence online discourse and learning. This study investigates the effects of an epistemic cooperation script with respect to the amount of discourse, information seeking and learning outcomes in collaborative learning as compared to unscripted collaborative learning. The aim was also to explore how and what kind of information learners seek and receive and how learning partners react to such information exchange. The participants were 48 students who were randomly assigned to groups of three in two conditions, one with and one without an epistemic script. The results indicate that the epistemic script increased the amount of discourse and decreased the amount of information seeking activities. Without an epistemic script, however, learners achieved better learning outcomes. The results of two qualitative case-based analyses on information seeking will also be discussed.

The positive effects of collaborative learning in a face-to-face environment are well known. However, little empirical research exists to determine if such effects transfer to a computer-mediated environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computer-mediated collaboration on solving ill-defined problems. Participants first worked through a Web-based instructional program that taught them a four-step problem-solving process. Then they worked in computer-mediated dyads or alone to apply the steps to solve a realistic problem scenario. Results indicated that participants who worked in computer-mediated collaborative dyads performed significantly better than did participants who worked alone. The results also indicated that dyads spent significantly more time than participants in the individual treatment. Both treatment groups had positive attitudes toward working collaboratively, Internet-based instruction, and transfer of problem-solving skills. Implications for the implementation of computer-mediated collaboration in distance learning are discussed.

The author conducted two experiments to assess effectiveness of interactive e-learning. Students in a fully interactive multimedia-based e-learning environment achieved better performance and higher levels of satisfaction than those in a traditional classroom and those in a less interactive e-learning environment.

This study explores student achievement, sense of social community, and sense of learning community (Rovai, 2002) in two sections of an online course taught concurrently by the same instructor. One section was delivered in a fully asynchronous format; the other incorporated weekly synchronous lectures using an Adobe Connect environment. Students were randomly assigned to one of the two sections but allowed to change sections (before the semester began) if unwilling or unable to participate in weekly Adobe Connect meetings. Data included grades on course assignments, final course grades, end-of-course evaluations, and responses to the Classroom Community Inventory (Rovai, Wighting & Lucking, 2004). No significant differences were found on measures of academic achievement, student satisfaction, social community, or learning community between the two sections.

Students often face process losses when learning together via text-based online environments. Computer-supported collaboration scripts can scaffold collaborative learning processes by distributing roles and activities and thus facilitate acquisition of domain-specific as well as domain-general knowledge, such as knowledge on argumentation. Possibly, individual learners would require less additional support or could equally benefit from computer-supported scripts. In this study with a 2 × 2-factorial design (N = 36) we investigate the effects of a script (with versus without) and the learning arrangement (individual versus collaborative) on how learners distribute content-based roles to accomplish the task and argumentatively elaborate the learning material within groups to acquire domain-specific and argumentative knowledge, in the context of a case-based online environment in an Educational Psychology higher education course. A large multivariate interaction effect of the two factors on learning outcomes could be found, indicating that collaborative learning outperforms individual learning regarding both of these knowledge types if it is structured by a script. In the unstructured form, however, collaborative learning is not superior to individual learning in relation to either knowledge type. We thus conclude that collaborative online learners can benefit greatly from scripts reducing process losses and specifying roles and activities within online groups.

It has been frequently suggested that computer–mediated–communication (CMC) can help learners improve their oral proficiency. This study tested that suggestion by comparing the performance of 3 groups of learners (a control group, a synchronous CMC group, and an asynchronous CMC group) on 3 oral discussions tasks during the course of 1 semester. The number of idea units and words, the lexical richness and diversity, and the syntactic complexity of learner language served as dependent variables. Although this study confirmed a previously reported increase in quantity of language produced by students in the synchronous CMC group compared to the other two groups, the asynchronous CMC group did not outperform the control group. Furthermore, analyses of the quality of language indicated no significant differences among the 3 groups either lexically or syntactically.

The main objective of this study is to integrate mastery and cooperative learning approaches together with an interactive multimedia to enhance students’ high order thinking skills in the learning of Cellular Respiration. A multimedia interactive courseware was developed and applied in three different strategies, namely the Multimedia-assisted Mastery Learning (MML), Multimedia-assisted Cooperative Learning (MCL) and Multimedia-assisted Cooperative Mastery Learning (MCML). The MML used a self-learning approach while MCL and MCML involve learning in groups. This study involved a quasi-experimental design whereby the domain scores of analysing, evaluating and synthesizing were the three dependent variables. The independent variable was the interactive multimedia courseware with the three approaches. Eighty-four, 88 and 90 pre-university students went through the MML, MCL, and MCML respectively. The MANCOVA was applied to analyse the performance scores of each of the three higher order thinking skills based on the three approaches with the implemented courseware. The result revealed that the MML and MCML students performed significantly better in the creating domain score compared to MCL. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that the multimedia interactive courseware with the combination of mastery and cooperative learning approaches brings a positive effect in the learning of Cellular Respiration.

We investigated the effects of feedback and collaboration on undergraduates' transfer performance when using a computer networking training simulation. In Experiment 1, 65 computer science “novices” worked through an instructional protocol individually (control), individually with feedback, or collaboratively with feedback. Unexpectedly, collaboration appeared to inhibit students' transfer performance relative to individual feedback. Experiment 2 was a replication with 62 computer science “experts.” This time, collaboration facilitated transfer performance. Both experiments revealed an interaction between instructional procedures producing an expertise reversal effect: Novices who worked individually with feedback actually outperformed their expert counterparts (Kalyuga, Ayres, Chandler, & Sweller, 2003). When students have low prior knowledge, presenting feedback as they work independently is more effective than collaborating with other novices. On the other hand, when students have high prior knowledge, individual feedback may actually inhibit learning and reverse the benefits of expertise. 

This study examined the role of learners' perceptions in a learner-controlled computer-based learning environment. Computer-based learning environments that offer learner control (LC) to the learners are assumed to enhance motivation and learning outcomes. Recently, the focus of LC research has shifted from measuring the direct effect of LC on learning towards focusing on the underlying mechanisms of effective LC and determining under which conditions LC is most effective (Corbalan, Kester, & van Merriënboer, 2009). There is considerable agreement that learners’ skills, perceptions and the experienced cognitive load interactively affect LC as instructional strategy. For this study, 165 first-year university students participated in an on-line English learning course on verb conjugation. We investigated the effect of learners’ perceptions of LC by comparing the learning outcomes and motivation of learners that received additional instructions on learner control with a group of learners that did not receive additional instruction. Learner characteristics, such as prior knowledge, working memory capacity, self-efficacy and cognitive load, were taken into account. The results indicate that it is not instruction as such, but rather satisfaction with the degree of control that affects learning outcomes and motivation. We suggest that instruction as such does not suffice to enhance perception of control, and that learners’ perceptions play a mere role in the effectiveness of instructional strategies such as learner control.

What is the most effective way to incorporate self-explanation into an educational game? In Experiment 1, students who played a 10-level computer game about electrical circuits performed better on an embedded transfer test (i.e., level 10) if they were required to select the reason for each move from a list on levels 1–9 (selection self-explanation) than if they were not required to engage in self-explanation (d = 1.20). In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was replicated (d = 0.71), but students who were required to type in their reason for each move on levels 1–9 (generation self-explanation) did not perform any better than those who were not required to engage in self-explanation (d = ?0.06). Overall, asking students to select a reason from a list fosters some degree of reflection while not overly disrupting the flow of the game.

Animated graphics are extensively used in multimedia instructions explaining how natural or artificial dynamic systems work. As animation directly depicts spatial changes over time, it is legitimate to believe that animated graphics will improve comprehension over static graphics. However, the research failed to find clear evidence in favour of animation. Animation may also be used to promote interactions in computer-supported collaborative learning. In this setting as well, the empirical studies have not confirmed the benefits that one could intuitively expect from the use of animation. One explanation is that multimedia, including animated graphics, challenges human processing capacities, and in particular imposes a substantial working memory load. We designed an experimental study involving three between-subjects factors: the type of multimedia instruction (with static or animated graphics), the presence of snapshots of critical steps of the system (with or without snapshots) and the learning setting (individual or collaborative). The findings indicate that animation was overall beneficial to retention, while for transfer, only learners studying collaboratively benefited from animated over static graphics. Contrary to our expectations, the snapshots were marginally beneficial to learners studying individually and significantly detrimental to learners studying in dyads. The results are discussed within the multimedia comprehension framework in order to propose the conditions under which animation can benefit to learning.

AutoTutor is a natural language tutoring system that has produced learning gains across multiple domains (e.g., computer literacy, physics, critical thinking). In this paper, we review the development, key research findings, and systems that have evolved from AutoTutor. First, the rationale for developing AutoTutor is outlined and the advantages of natural language tutoring are presented. Next, we review three central themes in AutoTutor’s development: human-inspired tutoring strategies, pedagogical agents, and technologies that support natural-language tutoring. Research on early versions of AutoTutor documented the impact on deep learning by co-constructed explanations, feedback, conversational scaffolding, and subject matter content. Systems that evolved from AutoTutor added additional components that have been evaluated with respect to learning and motivation. The latter findings include the effectiveness of deep reasoning questions for tutoring multiple domains, of adapting to the affect of low-knowledge learners, of content over surface features such as voices and persona of animated agents, and of alternative tutoring strategies such as collaborative lecturing and vicarious tutoring demonstrations. The paper also considers advances in pedagogical agent roles (such as trialogs) and in tutoring technologies, such semantic processing and tutoring delivery platforms. This paper summarizes and integrates significant findings produced by studies using AutoTutor and related systems.

Videogame-based environments are an increasingly popular choice to facilitate training. The purpose of the current research was to investigate the influence of two trainee characteristics, prior videogame experience and computer self-efficacy, on learner outcomes of a videogame-based training environment. In this research, 413 participants played a first-person-perspective videogame that began with a single-player section to introduce game-specific tasks, followed by a multi-player section where participants formed small teams to conduct several collaborative missions. Results indicated that computer self-efficacy and prior videogame experience were predictive of several learner outcomes such that trainees with greater computer self-efficacy and prior videogame experience reported less difficulty using the game interface and greater team cohesion, training satisfaction, and training motivation. Further, a videogame genre-specific effect was demonstrated in that only specific prior game experiences that share similar characteristics with the current training game were significantly predictive of the learner outcomes. These findings have implications for training game developers and instructors utilizing such games.

The cognitive load and learning effects of dual-code and interactivity—two multimedia methods intended to promote meaningful learning—were examined. In Experiment 1, college students learned about the causal chain of events leading to the process of lightning formation with a set of words and corresponding pictures (Group WP), pictures (Group P), or words (Group W). Some students were presented with the organized causal chain of events to study, whereas others were given a self-organization task. Consistent with a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, Condition WP was the highest in instructional efficiency for retention and transfer. However, contrary to our predictions, having students organize the multimedia materials was detrimental to transfer. Two follow-up experiments tested the hypotheses that the negative effects of interactivity were due to students' lack of time control (Experiment 2) and the form of feedback (Experiment 3). The findings showed that interactivity was effective when students were asked to evaluate their answers before receiving corrective feedback from the system.

One of the core courses in the undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum has been completely redesigned. In the new numerical methods course, all assignments and learning experiences are built around a video/computer game. Students are given the task of writing computer programs to race a simulated car around a track. In doing so, students learn and implement numerical methods content. The design of the course, around a video game, is rooted in commonly accepted theories of how people learn. The article describes a study to assess the effectiveness of the video game-based course. Results show that students taking the game-based course, on average, spend roughly twice as much time, outside of class, on their course work. In a concept mapping exercise, students taking the game-based course demonstrate deeper learning compared to their counterparts taking traditional lecture/textbook-based numerical methods courses.

Drawing on game-design principles and an underlying situated theoretical perspective, we developed and researched a 3D game-based curriculum designed to teach water quality concepts. We compared undergraduate student dyads assigned randomly to four different instructional design conditions where the content had increasingly level of contextualization: (a) expository textbook condition, (b) simplistic framing condition, (c) immersive world condition, and (d) a single-user immersive world condition. Results indicated that the immersive-world dyad and immersive-world single user conditions performed significantly better than the electronic textbook group on standardized items. The immersive-world dyad condition also performed significantly better than either the expository textbook or the descriptive framing condition on a performance-based transfer task, and performed significantly better than the expository textbook condition on standardized test items. Implications for science education, and consistent with the goals of this special issue, are that immersive gamebased learning environments provide a powerful new form of curriculum for teaching and learning science.

We assessed the effects of using LearnStar™, an interactive, computer-based teaching tool, as an in-class exam review method. Students with higher LearnStar review scores had higher grades. Furthermore, students' satisfaction ratings indicated that LearnStar reviews were more enjoyable and conducive to participation than traditional reviews. However, students who reviewed using LearnStar did not have significantly higher exam scores or course grades compared to students who had traditional reviews. Future research directions include measuring different aspects of students' engagement in courses and examining the effects of using tools such as LearnStar for other in-class activities such as brief quizzes or polls.

The main research question in this article concerns the added value of a prescriptive model in a simulation/gaming environment: KM Quest. KM Quest is meant to support students in the acquisition of both declarative and procedural knowledge in the domain of Knowledge Management (KM). The prescriptive model (KM model) embedded in the KM Quest environment describes the different steps that need to be taken while solving Knowledge Management problems. The main assumption is that because of the KM model, students more easily acquire knowledge about KM and that they need to use their metacognitive skills to a lesser extent since the KM model partly takes over regulation of learning in a new domain. These hypotheses are investigated in an experiment with two conditions: a no-model versus a model condition. The results of 46 students (23 in each condition) show that students in both conditions acquire declarative and procedural knowledge. Students in the model condition acquire more procedural knowledge and more KM model-specific procedural knowledge than students in the no-model condition. The model condition students also outperform the no-model condition students on a transfer test. However, students in the model condition spent much more time in the learning environment than the students in the no-model condition. Some exploratory evidence is presented that suggests that the inclusion of a prescriptive model changes the nature of the regulation: it appears that students in the model condition spend much time on regulating the use of the KM model, while the regulation activities of the no-model students concerns the domain of KM itself.

It is often assumed that engaging in a one-on-one dialogue with a tutor is more effective than listening to a lecture or reading a text. Although earlier experiments have not always supported this hypothesis, this may be due in part to allowing the tutors to cover different content than the noninteractive instruction. In 7 experiments, we tested the interaction hypothesis under the constraint that (a) all students covered the same content during instruction, (b) the task domain was qualitative physics, (c) the instruction was in natural language as opposed to mathematical or other formal languages, and (d) the instruction conformed with a widely observed pattern in human tutoring: Graesser, Person, and Magliano's 5-step frame. In the experiments, we compared 2 kinds of human tutoring (spoken and computer mediated) with 2 kinds of natural-language-based computer tutoring (Why2-Atlas and Why2-AutoTutor) and 3 control conditions that involved studying texts. The results depended on whether the students' preparation matched the content of the instruction. When novices (students who had not taken college physics) studied content that was written for intermediates (students who had taken college physics), then tutorial dialogue was reliably more beneficial than less interactive instruction, with large effect sizes. When novices studied material written for novices or intermediates studied material written for intermediates, then tutorial dialogue was not reliably more effective than the text-based control conditions.

The study explored the effects of students' locus of control and types of control over instruction on their self-efficacy and performance in a web-based language learning environment. A web-based interactive instructional program focusing on the comprehension of news articles for English language learners was developed in two versions: learner- and program-control. Following the web-based learning, the participants completed a content comprehension test and self-report measure of self-efficacy. Results showed that: (1) students with an internal locus of control performed better on the test and the self-efficacy measure than those with an external locus of control; (2) students learning from the learner-control version of the web-based instruction performed better on the test and the measure of self-efficacy than those learning from the program-control version; (3) students with an internal locus of control who learned from the learner-control version got the highest score on the test and the measure of self-efficacy, while students with an external locus of control who learned from the program-control version received the lowest score on the test and the measure of self-efficacy; and (4) students with an external locus of control who learned from the learner-control version outperformed students with an internal locus of control who learned from the program-control version on both academic performance and the measure of self-efficacy.

Background: Many studies have compared computer assisted learning (CAL) to more traditional learning formats and have shown CAL to be as effective as or superior to the alternative resources. However, there are only scarce attempts to show which style of CAL leads to the best learning outcomes in orthodontics. Aim: To compare the effectiveness of a learner-control (group A) vs. program-control (group B) multimedia learning environment courseware packages regarding knowledge, understanding and transfer of content when applied to teaching principles of orthodontic appliances to undergraduate students. Methods: Pre- and post-test assessments of undergraduate dental students (n = 30) who either studied a learner-control multimedia learning environment courseware package (n = 15) or a program-control version (n = 15) on equivalent material of the orthodontic appliances curriculum. Both groups were evaluated by means of multiple-choice questions covering knowledge, understanding and application. A one-way ANOVA was carried out in order to check for statistical difference between the two groups. The P-value was set at 0.05. Results: There was no difference in prior knowledge between both groups at baseline. Although, both groups significantly improved their scores after having studied the course, no significant difference was found between both groups in relation to answers to questions about knowledge, understanding and application. Conclusions: In this study, the learner-control instructional multimedia program was found to be as effective as the program-control version when teaching principles of the orthodontic appliances to undergraduate students. The focus needs to be on improving the value of CAL. Comparative evaluations of how different CAL approaches compare with or complement one another are certainly needed.

This study examined whether a computer simulation is as effective as physical laboratory activities in teaching college-level electronics engineering education students about the concepts of signal transmission, modulation and demodulation. Eighty undergraduate engineering students participated in the study, which was conducted at a southeastern four-year university. The findings revealed significant differences, in favor of the simulation group, between the two groups on both the conceptual post-test and the follow-up test. The findings also revealed significant correlation between simulation groups’ attitude toward the simulation program and their post-test scores. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the two groups on their attitude toward their laboratory experience in favor of the simulation group, and a significant difference between the two groups on their lab completion time in favor of the simulation group.

In two experiments, the role of spatial ability in learning from an instructional animation versus a series of static pictures was studied. In both experiments, a statistical interaction of spatial ability and type of visualization was obtained: Low-spatial ability students showed poor learning outcome when learning from pictures while high-spatial students did not; when learning from animation, however, learning outcome was independent from spatial ability. The results are in line with an ability-as-compensator hypothesis which states that constructing mental animations from non-dynamic materials needs spatial ability; with animated learning materials, however, spatial ability is not required. No overall differences between static pictures and animation were found.

This study provides experiment results as an educational reference for instructors to help student obtain a better way to learn orthographic views in graphical course. A visual experiment was held to explore the comprehensive differences between 2D static and 3D animation object features; the goal was to reduce the possible misunderstanding factors in the learning process. This empirical study provided one hundred and twenty Taiwanese freshmen four types of visualization, which includes two 2D static depictions (2DT, 2DR), and two 3D animations (3DT, 3DR), to meet five surface styles on orthographic views. The responses to views ability test and interviews illustrated that applying 3D animations shows better performance in understanding the appearances and features of objects constructed by oblique and double-curved surfaces. The application of 3D animations results also demonstrates a better visual comprehension for students, especially when objects are constructed by the complicated features.

During the last decade, learning scientists have developed technologies with animated pedagogical agents that interact with the student in natural language and other communication channels, such as facial expressions and gestures. These pedagogical agents model good learning strategies and coach the students in actively applying their knowledge. This chapter focuses on agent-based learning environments that attempt to facilitate deep comprehension (e.g., causal explanations, plans, logical justifications), reasoning in natural language, and inquiry (i.e., question asking, question answering, hypothesis testing). These agent-based learning environments have targeted high school and college students who learn about topics in science and technology. Tests of these systems have exhibited both successes and failures with respect to learning and generalization. One of these projects on AutoTutor has analyzed transfer at both coursegrain and fine-grain levels. The course-gain assessments have examined whether working on physics problems facilitate the solutions for similar physics problems with different surface characteristics. The fine-grain assessments have tracked the mastery and application of particular principles (e.g., net force equals mass times acceleration) throughout the history of pretest, training, and posttest. In all of these projects with agents, learning and generalization were assessed with multiple tests, tasks, and criteria, as opposed to relying on a single measure or goal standard.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the potential benefits of using animation, visual cueing, and their combination in a multimedia environment designed to support learners' acquisition and retention of scientific concepts and processes. Undergraduate participants (N = 119) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions in a 2 x 2 factorial design with visual presentation format (animated vs. static graphics) and visual cueing (visual cues vs. no cues) as factors. Participants provided with animations retained significantly more concepts than their peers provided with static graphics and those afforded visual cues learned equally well but in significantly less time than their counterparts in uncued conditions. Moreover, taking into consideration both learning outcomes and learning time, cued participants displayed more instructional efficiency than their uncued peers. Implications and future directions are discussed.

In two experiments, we investigated how learners comprehend the functioning of a three-pulley system from a presentation on a computer screen. In the first experiment (N = 62) we tested the effect of static vs. animated presentations on comprehension. In the second experiment (N = 45), we tested the effect of user-control of an animated presentation on comprehension. In both experiments the participants were university students. Comprehension was measured with a test including three comprehension indicators. The first experiment indicated that an animation as well as integrated sequential static frames enhanced comprehension. The second experiment showed that a controllable animation did not have a powerful effect on comprehension, except for learners with low spatial and mechanical reasoning abilities.

Computer games that adaptively adjust difficulty are used to continuously challenge players according to their abilities. The adjustment of difficulty occurs automatically in response to a game's ongoing assessment of a player's performance. This approach to difficulty adjustment is likely to be of value in educational computer games as a means of scaffolding learning for students. However, there is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of educational computer games with adaptive difficulty adjustment when compared to non-adaptive difficulty adjustment. To expand on this research a quasi-experimental study was designed to isolate the impact of the difficulty adjustment game element on motivation and learning. A total of 234 secondary school students were allocated to one of three activities involving learning about Spanish cognates: an adaptive difficulty adjustment game, an incremental difficulty adjustment game that was non-adaptive, and a written activity. The three learning activities were designed following the same learning and motivation theories. The two games were identical apart from the difficulty adjustment mechanism. The results for motivation indicated that all students experienced high levels and there was no significant difference between the three learning activities. The pre- and post-tests results for learning indicated that significantly higher learning outcomes were achieved by students who played the adaptive game. Analysis of a game log recording the correctness of students' responses indicated that the adaptive difficulty adjustment game, in contrast to the non-adaptive incremental difficulty adjustment game, provided a scaffolding structure to enhance student learning.

Previous research of adaptive learning mainly focused on improving student learning achievements based only on single-source of personalization information, such as learning style, cognitive style or learning achievement. In this paper, an innovative adaptive learning approach is proposed by basing upon two main sources of personalization information, that is, learning behavior and personal learning style. To determine the initial learning styles of the students, the [Keefe, J. W. (1987). Learning Styles: Theory and Practice. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.] questionnaire is employed in our approach. To more precisely reflect the learning behaviors of each student, the interactions and learning results of each student are analyzed when adjusting the subject materials. Based on the innovative approach, an adaptive learning system has been developed; moreover, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of our approach. By analyzing the results from three groups of students using different adaptive learning approaches, it can be found that the innovative approach is helpful in improving both the learning achievement and learning efficiency of individual students.

We present AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor as examples of innovative 21st century interactive intelligent systems that promote learning and engagement. AutoTutor is an intelligent tutoring system that helps students compose explanations of difficult concepts in Newtonian physics and enhances computer literacy and critical thinking by interacting with them in natural language with adaptive dialog moves similar to those of human tutors. AutoTutor constructs a cognitive model of students' knowledge levels by analyzing the text of their typed or spoken responses to its questions. The model is used to dynamically tailor the interaction toward individual students' zones of proximal development. Affective AutoTutor takes the individualized instruction and human-like interactivity to a new level by automatically detecting and responding to students' emotional states in addition to their cognitive states. Over 20 controlled experiments comparing AutoTutor with ecological and experimental controls such reading a textbook have consistently yielded learning improvements of approximately one letter grade after brief 30--60-minute interactions. Furthermore, Affective AutoTutor shows even more dramatic improvements in learning than the original AutoTutor system, particularly for struggling students with low domain knowledge. In addition to providing a detailed description of the implementation and evaluation of AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor, we also discuss new and exciting technologies motivated by AutoTutor such as AutoTutor-Lite, Operation ARIES, GuruTutor, DeepTutor, MetaTutor, and AutoMentor. We conclude this article with our vision for future work on interactive and engaging intelligent tutoring systems.

Research addressing the issue of instructional control in computer-assisted instruction has revealed mixed results. Prior knowledge level seems to play a mediating role in the student’s ability to effectively use given instructional control. This study examined the effects of three types of instructional control (non-adaptive program control, learner control, adaptive program control) and prior knowledge (high school, 1st year and 2nd year college students) on effectiveness and efficiency of learning in a genetics training program. The results revealed that adaptive program control led to highest training performance but not to superior post-test or far-transfer performance. Furthermore, adaptive program control proved to be more efficient in terms of learning outcomes of the test phase than the other two instructional control types. College students outperformed the high school students on all aspects of the study thereby strengthening the importance of prior knowledge in learning effectiveness and efficiency. Lastly, the interaction effects showed that for each prior knowledge level different levels of support were beneficial to learning.

Theories and technologies are needed to understand and integrate the knowledge of student affect (e.g., frustration, motivation and self-confidence) into learning models. Our goals are to redress the cognitive versus affective imbalance in teaching systems, develop tools that model student affect and build tutors that elicit, measure and respond to student affect. This article describes our broad approach towards this goal and our three main objectives: develop tools for affect recognition, interventions in response to student affect, and emotionally animated agents.

The results of well-designed studies show extremely positive student learning outcomes and teacher variables. More studies are needed on several questions, including long-term consequences and effects on classroom interactions and climate.

The goal of the Atlas project is to increase the opportunities for students to construct their own knowledge by conversing (in typed form) with a natural language­ based ITS. In this paper we present the results of a comparative evaluation between a model tracing tutor, the Andes system [9], with the otherwise equivalent dialogue en­ hanced Atlas-Andes [6]. Andes is a model tracing tutor (MIT) that presents quantita­ tive physics problems to students. The focus of Andes is to help students develop good physics problem solving skills. While Andes has been successful at this task, neverthe­ less, there is ample evidence to suggest that teaching students to solve physics prob­ lems is not all that is required to provide them with a solid grounding in physics. While students in elementary mechanics courses have demonstrated an ability to master the skills required to solve quantitative physics problems, a number of studies have re­ vealed that the same students perform very poorly when faced with qualitative physics problems [13, 12, 11). Atlas provides Andes with the capability of leading students through directed lines of reasoning that teach basic physics conceptual knowledge, such as Newton's Laws. The purpose of these directed lines of reasoning is to provide a solid foundation in conceptual physics to promote meaningful learning and to enable students to develop meaningful problem solving strategies. In this study students using the dialogue enhanced version performed significantly better on a conceptual post-test than students using the standard version of Andes.

A meta-analysis of findings from 108 controlled evaluations showed that mastery learning programs have positive effects on the examination performance of students in colleges, high schools, and the upper grades in elementary schools. The effects appear to be stronger on the weaker students in a class, and they also vary as a function of mastery procedures used, experimental designs of studies, and course content. Mastery programs have positive effects on student attitudes toward course content and instruction but may increase student time on instructional tasks. In addition, self-paced mastery programs often reduce the completion rates in college classes.

The Andes physics tutoring system allows students to solve a physics problem in virtually any legal way. This means that Andes must recognize an extremely large number of possible steps occurring in an extraordinarily large number of possible orders. Such freedom raises several research questions. (1) How can Andes solve the technical challenge of understanding student’s behavior in such a wide-open context? (2) How can Andes give pedagogically useful help and guidance? In particular, how can it guide students who are floundering without curtailing the freedom of students who are not floundering? (3) Will Andes be effective in getting students in real class- rooms to learn physics? (4) What does it take to scale up Andes and disseminate it widely? The Andes project has achieved workable solutions to the first three goals: Andes can understand student behavior; It provides pedagogical help similar to that of human experts; Most importantly, Andes causes large, reliable learning gains compared to control classes taught with convention, paper-based instruction.

This study addresses the potential of using an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) to tutor on off-the-shelf (OTS) software. ITSs have been successfully used to tutor on a variety of learning domains, but there has been little research comparing ITS-based training on an OTS application with traditional software training approaches such as books or interactive software simulations. The work presented here includes procedures and results for training and evaluation using three methods: book-based, interactive simulation, and an ITS. We found that there were some associations between the training method and training experiences. Book-based training exhibited higher scores on both task performance and system usability perception, while better times were recorded for the simulation approach. Concept acquisition score was not found to significantly correlate with training method. We concluded that if an ITS is to be a tutor on OTS applications then further refinements are needed.

In this paper, we report on the learning benefits of the system INCOM, a constraint-based tutoring system which assists students doing their homework assignments in logic programming. The system has been evaluated with 35 students as part of a logic programming course. The evaluation indicated that the students using INCOM have improved their programming skills significantly after using the system (p<0.01, ? = 0.05) and the students who used INCOM outperformed students in a control condition with an effect size of Cohen’s d=0.23.

The DARPA Digital Tutor effort serves two broad purposes—meeting a Navy operational need and advancing the technology of computer applications in instruction. This report summarizes results from the first four assessments. Assessment One compared the IT knowledge of students who had learned primarily from human tutoring with those of students who had completed the existing “A” school IT training. Assessment Two (IWAR 1) compared both the knowledge and skills of the human tutored students with sailors who had an average 7.2 years of IT experience in the Fleet. Both assessments showed substantial differences in favor of the tutored students in IT troubleshooting and IT knowledge, with some effect sizes in excess of 2.00.Assessment Three compared the IT knowledge of students who had completed the 4 weeks of the digitized tutor (DT) then available with that of graduates of the standard IT “A” school and their instructors. The DT students outscored the “A” school students with an effect size of 2.81 and the instructors with an effect size of 1.26.Assessment Four compared both the knowledge and practical exercise skills of DT students who had completed the 7 weeks of the Digital Tutor then available with those of graduates who had completed 19 weeks of revised, primarily classroom “A” school IT training. The DT students outscored the “A” school graduates in both practical exercises (e.g., troubleshooting) and knowledge, with most effect sizes well in excess of 1.10.