Factors That Enable or Hinder the Implementation of Game Development Activity in Learning Environments

This study aims to investigate the factors that enable or hinder the implementation of game development activity in the instructional process. One instructor and 15 gifted students between the ages of 11 and 15 took part in the study. The students developed computer games related to science topics using MS Kodu game engine within the implementation process. According to the findings, it is seen that instructional practices have great importance, and the instructor plays a key role in the activity. Making and playing games have been the greatest motivation resource for students. In addition, the social environment can be an important tool in sustaining students' motivation levels. The students' negative attitudes toward educational game topics and non-computer activities hinder the successful implementation of the activity. The MS Kodu game engine might be appropriate for novice designers but not be enough for teaching programming concepts. Team-based game development activity is believed to be useful for developing advanced games and increasing the level of interaction between students.

Modeling Interactive Behaviors While Learning With Digitized Objects in Virtual Reality Environments

This chapter outlines a framework for automated detection of student behaviors in the context of virtual learning environments. The components of the framework establish several parameters for data acquisition, preprocessing, and processing as a means to classify different types of behaviors. The authors illustrate these steps in training and evaluating a detector that differentiates between students' observations and functional behaviors while students interact with three-dimensional (3D) virtual models of dinosaur fossils. Synthetic data were generated in controlled conditions to obtain time series data from different channels (i.e., orientation from the virtual model and remote controllers) and modalities (i.e., orientation in the form of Euler angles and quaternions). Results suggest that accurate detection of interaction behaviors with 3D virtual models requires smaller moving windows to segment the log trace data as well as features that characterize orientation of virtual models in the form of quaternions. They discuss the implications for personalized instruction in virtual learning environments.

New Technologies Shaping Learning?

Jean Piaget described that intelligence is shaped by experience. In augmented reality (AR) learning environments, the learner may have an immersive experience, from a sensor-motoric opportunity as a person to 3D experience. Few studies in the academic literature directly evaluate and analyze learning technology with regard to immersive experience in training. This chapter seeks to examine learning experiences when playing with AR learning technologies and suggests an alternative implementation model for the integration of immersive learning content to adult training. Specifically, this study examines a learning tool and a game targeted for the professionals working in security and peacebuilding context. This study points out a relevance of cognitive and constructive learning processes with a special attention to experience and reflection, and that technological immersive tools can positively support training when designed properly. Moreover, case study findings led to proposing an implementation model to integrate immersive content, AR tools, and games into adult training.

From Visual Culture in the Immersive Metaverse to Visual Cognition in Education

This chapter discusses visual culture in the immersive metaverse through the visual cognition lens. Visual cognition pertains to how we learn through visual means. As educators, we should be aware of how our students learn consciously and unconsciously through the visual sense so that we can help them navigate the immersive metaverse they encounter. Culture and visual culture are discussed. Visual perception, specifically schema and Gestalt, are explained. Learning in the immersive metaverse is as concrete as in the physical world; therefore, teaching students to decode images, perceive the metaverse, and think about images from multiple cultural backgrounds becomes an issue of special importance when education occurs in the visualized immersive metaverse.

Immersive Technology

This chapter presents a conceptual discussion on the roles of immersive technology relating to its past, present, and future. The underlying theories and assumptions pertinent to each stage of immersive technology are discussed by emphasizing the influences on pedagogical practices and assessment. An important focus of the chapter is to look at the function of present immersive technology in learning from the perspective of a technology taxonomy. Discussions on future immersive technologies are made by making a connection between immersive technology and other new technologies like artificial intelligence. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research in immersive technology.

Authentic Leadership in Immersive Learning Environments

Immersive learning environments require effective facilitators to enable student learning. In current literature on immersive learning, there is limited insight on the role that teacher behaviors have on fostering learning. Despite this, there is considerable literature on the role of the teacher as a leader in contemporary classrooms. This chapter focuses on the authentic leader behaviors in teachers and how this may affect student success. While student learning can be viewed from many perspectives, this chapter focuses on three perspectives: affective, cognitive, and pedagogical. The literature enables the establishment of the belief that teachers who embody authentic leader behaviors are likely to be more successful in facilitating student learning within an immersive learning environment. Implications and future research opportunities are also highlighted as a result of the theory generation in this chapter.

The Use of Mobile Learning Technologies in Primary Education

This research explains the rationale behind the utilization of mobile learning technologies. It involves a qualitative study among children to better understand their opinions and perceptions toward the use of educational applications (apps) that are available on their mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The researchers organized semi-structured, face-to-face interview sessions with primary school students who were using mobile technologies at their primary school. The students reported that their engagement with the educational apps has improved their competencies. They acquired relational and communicative skills as they collaborated in teams. On the other hand, there were a few students who were not perceiving the usefulness and the ease of use of the educational apps on their mobile device. This study indicates that the research participants had different skillsets as they exhibited different learning abilities. In conclusion, this contribution opens avenues for future research in this promising field of study.

User Experience of Public Speaking Practice in Virtual Reality

This study investigated how the sense of presence and the plausibility illusion of high-immersion virtual reality (VR) impacted students' public speaking anxiety when presenting in a foreign language. In the study, the students gave eight presentations in a VR classroom while using a high-immersion VR headset. The students' virtual audience resembled classmates who were programmed to show nonverbal behavior, such as gestures, mimicry, and body motion. Analysis of subsequent individual semi-structured interviews with the students showed that they experienced a sense of presence and plausibility illusion about the virtual audience and the virtual space. The participants also saw VR as an effective tool for practicing public speaking and reducing any attendant anxiety.

Designing Virtual Agents for Simulation-Based Learning in Virtual Reality

In this chapter, the authors review and explore propositions, approaches, and core elements of designing virtual agents that contextualize and scaffold simulation-based learning. They start the chapter by reviewing the literature and prior research on the nature, role, design claims, and evidence of virtual agents in digital and multimedia learning environments. They then analyze the educational affordances of virtual reality (VR) for agent-supported, simulation-based learning as well as the design challenges for creating interactive virtual agents. Through an empirical design case, they describe a conceptual and design framework of creating and using virtual agents for VR simulation-based teaching training. Specifically, they provide an analytical and contextualized synthesis of core design elements, including specific design problems associated with virtual agents, the design solutions, and the patterns of transferring or scaling these design solutions to other cases of virtual agent development.

Measuring Electrodermal Activity in an Afterschool Maker Program to Detect Youth Engagement

In this chapter, the authors describe a new approach for exploring individual participants' engagement in immersive youth maker activities. Participants were outfitted with wearable first-person point-of-view still-image cameras and wrist-based electrodermal sensors. The researchers analyzed the recorded electrodermal data stream for surges in skin conductivity and compared them with the corresponding photographs based on their timestamp. In following with prior work, these surges were interpreted as moments of engagement. A comparison sample was created to look at moments that lacked this psychophysiological marker. Results suggested that the two participants had both shared and divergent engagements with the afterschool program's activities. While the group project of building a high altitude balloon had been established prior to the youth's participation, the girls were able to choose what aspect of the project they wanted to be responsible for. This range of activities provided opportunities for youth to sample a variety of practices typically associated with making.