Using Sentiment Analytics to Understand Learner Experiences in Serious Games

A serious game has been introduced as an alternative tool to support teaching and learning. It integrates entertainment and non-entertainment elements to encourage the voluntary learning of knowledge and skills. One of the essential entertainment elements in the serious game to motivate learning is the enjoyment element. However, studies on models to analyze this enjoyment element are still limited. Most models present isolated and specific approaches for specific games that cannot scale to other games. In this chapter, a generic enjoyment analytics framework is proposed. The framework aims to capture learners' enjoyment experience using open-ended feedback, analyze the feedback using sentiment analytics models, and visualize the results in an interactive dashboard. Using this framework, the lecturers would interpret the learners' experience towards the topic and the game and capture difficulties the learners may encounter during the game. It would help the lecturers to decide follow-up actions required for the learners to improve the learning.

Authenticity, Interactivity, and Collaboration in Virtual Reality Games: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Virtual reality has become an increasingly important topic in the field of education research, going from a tool of interest to a tool of practice. In this paper, we document and summarize the studies associated with our 4-year design project, Collaborative Learning Environments in Virtual Reality (CLEVR). Our goal is to share the lessons we gleaned from the design and development of the game so that others may learn from our experiences as they are designing, developing, and testing VR for learning. We translate “lessons learned” from our user studies into “best practices” when developing authentic, interactive, and collaborative experiences in VR. We learned that authentic representations can enhance learning in virtual environments but come at a cost of increased time and resources in development. Interactive experiences can motivate learning and enable users to understand spatial relationships in ways that two dimensional representations cannot. Collaboration in VR can be used to alleviate some of the cognitive load inherent in VR environments, and VR can serve as a context for collaborative problem solving with the appropriate distribution of roles and resources. The paper concludes with a summation of best practices intended to inform future VR designers and researchers.

When does daily job performance motivate learning behavior? The stimulation of high turnover rate

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether and how a high turnover rate stimulates employees to engage more in learning behavior. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on self-regulation theory, the authors suggest that the motive for employees to engage in learning behavior is to improve themselves. Such a need can be activated when they reflect on themselves and realize the discrepancy between their current selves and desired future selves. The authors argue that the employees’ perceived poor performance at daily work may induce their desire for self-improvement via making the future work selves salient, and in turn engage more in learning behavior. This is particularly so when turnover rate is high because employees may be alert of and concerned more about their own poor performance. In an experience sampling study, the authors obtained evidence for these hypotheses. Findings When turnover rate was high, employees’ poor performance increased salience of future work selves, which in turn facilitated their learning behavior. This relationship was not significant when turnover rate was low. Originality/value Contrary to the typical view that high turnover rate leads to knowledge loss for the companies, the present study findings suggest that it could also serve as a motivational factor facilitating employees’ learning behavior, which is an important way to increase knowledge pool of the companies.

AUGMENTED REALITY IN FACILITATING LEARNING: A REVIEW

The present study reviews the augmented reality application in the education area. Justification of the use is to improve the learning motivation and outcome of students through the use of a deep learning approach. A deep learning approach is associated with better academic performances. Augmented reality provides a tool to motivate learning and understanding in the student. In the medical domain, augmented reality may serve as replacement of cadavers especially during online learning. The main aim of the current review is to reflect the use of augmented reality as a teaching and learning tool to motivate and promote the deep learning approach process which includes life-long learning and possible research areas that warrant and assess the impact of augmented reality on academic performance. Augmented reality may be a tool in complementing the learning aids of the conventional methods of teaching and learning.

Teaching and Learning English as a Second Language in Nigeria: Examining Evolving Approaches and Methods

This paper examines language teaching and learning theories in a bid to consider evolving and appropriate approaches and methods for efficient teaching and learning English as a second language in Nigeria. While traditional approaches do provide a solid foundation for effective language teaching, they do not always address students' situational and current needs. Hence, the study reveals that strategies and methods are evolving especially, in this hi-tech age, to meet such additional needs. Since no one theory or method is the best, the study recommends a principled eclectic approach for the effective and functional teaching and learning of English in Nigeria. It also suggests processes that could enhance teaching and motivate learning in the ESL classroom.

INQUIRY AS A KEY TO DEEPER LEARNING

In spite of the fact that critical thinking is a vital skill not only during studying at university but in everyday life either, students are often unprepared for critically thinking when they start their studies. That is why it is so necessary to explain how to use practical strategies for developing these skills for a successful academic life. First of all, teachers should always bear in mind Bloom’s Taxonomy as it helps them to find the correct way for teaching showing the nearest and the furthest goals in their work. The levels start from the simplest and go to the most complicated ones showing that no one can acquire a higher level without mastering the lower ones and that their acquiring is necessary for bringing up critically thinking students. Creating a culture of inquiry is constant work which grows problem-solving learners with deeper understanding of important knowledge. Being convinced that a significant tool for creating a culture of inquiry is essential questions that drive and motivate learning, the authors have designed some recommendations that can encourage inquiry-based learning process and involve students in it. As inquiry-based learning elevates students’ autonomy and collaboration, and helps to create a culture focused on researching rather than reproducing information, the authors consider that teachers should focus on question formulation technique. Besides, four phases of inquiry-based learning have been distinguished and described in details.

The use of a wiki to boost open and collaborative learning in a Spanish university

Spanish universities are attempting to offer a more flexible and higher- quality education that is adapted to new social demands. As a result, they are offering a series of technological resources in both university management, as well as, in teaching and research - developments which are encouraged by the educational convergence process, occurring within the European Higher Education Area. In this article, we analyze how a group of university teachers seeks to promote an experience of active collaboration and open education amongst their students through the creation of a Wikipedia site. The goal was to promote a different, more flexible teaching system, where both the teacher and the students break away from their classic roles. This experience was started in order to achieve the following results: 1) motivate learning, 2) encourage active-collaborative learning 3) create a dictionary of the terms related to political science that helps to explain key concepts to students and the public, and 3) improve the quality of education. Despite facing certain obstacles, the results were positive: the students became committed to this practice, learned to collaborate in groups, and solved problems by interacting with their classes; their interest in subjects was increased, and useful tools for other people were created. Moreover, the teachers introduced new pedagogical methods in their classes and made learning relate to their students in a different way. In short, the results show that the use of wiki is effective in improving university teaching.

Strategi Komunikasi Guru Terhadap Siswa Berprestasi

Basically, humans want to get recognition from others. One way is to score achievements so that they can be recognized by others. For high school students, the teacher's role in helping them score achievements is very important, because the teacher will be the first to introduce, teach and guide their students to understand, understand and score achievements. The method used in this study is the interpersonal communication approach that is centered on interpersonal attraction, strung carrot strategy and sword depending on the teacher's strategy to support student achievement. This research uses a qualitative approach. While the technique of collecting data using interviews, observation and documentation. The results showed that interpersonal attraction between teacher and students and the provision of rewards as an implementation of the strung carrot strategy can provide more motivation for students in teaching and learning activities to score achievements, while punishment can motivate learning to avoid punishment and not to score achievements. Pada dasarnya manusia ingin mendapatkan pengakuan dari orang lain. Salah satu caranya adalah dengan mencetak prestasi agar dapat diakui oleh orang lain. Bagi siswa SMA, peran guru dalam membantu mereka mencetak prestasi sangatlah penting, karena guru akan menjadi orang pertama yang memperkenalkan, mengajar dan membimbing siswanya untuk mengerti, memahami dan mencetak prestasi. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah dengan pendekatan komunikasi interpersonal yang berpusat pada atraksi interpersonal, strategi wortel teruntai dan pedang tergantung dalam strategi guru untuk menunjang prestasi siswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif. Sementara teknik pengumpulan data dengan menggunakan wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan dengan adanya atraksi interpersonal antara guru dan murid serta pemberian reward sebagai implementasi dari strategi wortel teruntai dapat memberikan motivasi yang lebih bagi siswa dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar untuk mencetak prestasi, sedangkan punishment dapat memberi motivasi belajar untuk menghindari hukuman dan bukan untuk mencetak prestasi.