Evaluating system usability of mobile augmented reality application for teaching Karnaugh-Maps

The education system evolves and transforms towards interactive and immersive learning tools in this digital age. Augmented reality has also evolved as a ubiquitous, robust, and effective technology for providing innovative educational tools. In engineering education, many abstract concepts require technological intervention for conceptual understanding and better instructional content. While learning through the immersive tools, system usability has great importance in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Effectiveness refers to users' accuracy and completeness in achieving defined goals; efficiency relates to expended resources about the precision and completeness with which users achieve their objectives; satisfaction deals with a positive attitude towards using the product. If the system fails to provide good usability, it may cause adverse effects such as increasing stress, lacking necessary features, increasing the users' cognitive load, and negatively impacting the student's motivation. In this study, two mobile augmented reality (MAR) applications were developed as an instructional tool to teach the students about Karnaugh maps in the digital electronics course. The first application is a Keypad-based MAR application that uses a keypad matrix for user interaction and the second application is a Marker-based MAR application that uses multiple markers to solve K-Map for producing an optimum solution of the given problem. An experimental study was conducted to determine the student's opinion of the developed MAR applications. The study was designed to determine the system usability of the two MAR applications using the System Usability Score (SUS) and Handheld Augmented Reality Usability Score (HARUS) models. 90 engineering students participated in the study, and they were randomly divided into two different groups: keypad-based group and Marker-based group. The keypad-based group included 47 students who had hands-on experience with a keypad-based MAR application, whereas the marker-based group included 43 students who had hands-on experience with multiple marker-based MAR applications. The experimental outcomes indicated that the keypad-based MAR application has better SUS and HARUS scores than the marker-based MAR application which suggests that the keypad-based MAR application has provided better user interaction.

Anthropomorphizing malware, bots, and servers with human-like images and dialogues: the emotional design effects in a multimedia learning environment

Emotional design refers to imbuing a multimedia learning environment with design attributes that promote learners’ positive affect and motivation to enhance learning. One such feature is anthropomorphism, in which human-like attributes are infused into learning elements in a multimedia learning environment. This study examines the affective, motivational, and cognitive effects of incorporating cute and funny human-like images and dialogues into learning objects depicting malware, bots, and servers in an animation conveying a lesson on how a distributed denial-of-service attack occurs. A between-subjects online experiment was conducted in which undergraduates from a large Asian university (n = 70) engaged with either the anthropomorphized or non-anthropomorphized multimedia lesson. The findings partially supported the anthropomorphism effects on learners’ affective-motivational states insofar as the anthropomorphized multimedia lesson evoked a significantly greater change of positive affect but did not differently affect intrinsic motivation and learning outcome than the non-anthropomorphized version. Concerning cognitive load, anthropomorphism led to significantly lower perceived difficulty regarding the learning topic (intrinsic load), which conforms with most emotional design findings. There was a marginal trend in which learners engaged longer with the anthropomorphized than the non-anthropomorphized multimedia lesson. This study offers insights on anthropomorphism in multimedia learning that extends to cultural factors unique to Asian learners and information technology subject domain. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed through the lens of cognitive-affective theory of learning with media, integrated cognitive affective model of learning with multimedia, and cognitive load theory. Future directions concerning anthropomorphism research in the multimedia learning context are addressed in this paper.

Teaching through urban sensorium: urban spatiality as a smart learning environment

This paper qualitatively analyses the implication of urban sensorium as a pedagogic mode in the teaching of Urban Studies. Underpinned by the frames of smart learning environments, the paper reiterates experiencing urban ontologies as spatial learning environments. By drawing from a range of transdisciplinary and experiential modes of learning, this paper maps how an undergraduate course on Bangalore city in India served learners to critically engage with and experience spatial urban ontologies both digitally, and in real-world experiences of learning, furthering learner autonomy and reflection. The methodological prisms of this paper are autoethnography and critical reflection. It is organised around enabling learners recognize the experiential, embodied urban spaces through the urban sensorium via real-life engagements with urban spaces, and creation of digital portfolios that map this learning. Findings from the learners’ knowledge of sensory learning, the city’s intersectional aspects, and the student’s embodied and emplaced self in built environments and digital spaces are analysed via cognitive and affective-reflection levels; the course instructor's reflection is analysed via a process-reflection level. These reflections hold implications for the pedagogy of urban studies in undergraduate classrooms by foregrounding spatiality and urban sensorium as significant critical and affective pedagogic tools. The paper has also accommodated critical engagement with an external faculty member as a co-author, in order to manage any bias or researcher subjectivity in the design.

Self-regulated learning, self-determination theory and teacher candidates’ development of competency-based teaching practices

Self-regulated promoting practices foster students’ development of metacognition, motivation and strategic action. These underlying learning competencies improve students' academic, social, emotional and career outcomes. Although beneficial, the development of self-regulated promoting practices is challenging, particularly for teacher candidates. This article describes self-regulated learning practices and how motivational supports for teacher candidates' self-determined motivation creates contextual conditions that foster teacher candidates’ development of these practices. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.

Exploring jump back behavior patterns and reasons in e-book system

With the increasing use of digital learning materials in higher education, the accumulated operational log data provide a unique opportunity to analyzing student learning behaviors and their effects on student learning performance to understand how students learn with e-books. Among the students’ reading behaviors interacting with e-book systems, we find that jump-back is a frequent and informative behavior type. In this paper, we aim to understand the student’s intention for a jump-back using user learning log data on the e-book materials of a course in our university. We at first formally define the “jump-back” behaviors that can be detected from the click event stream of slide reading and then systematically study the behaviors from different perspectives on the e-book event stream data. Finally, by sampling 22 learning materials, we identify six reading activity patterns that can explain jump backs. Our analysis provides an approach to enriching the understanding of e-book learning behaviors and informs design implications for e-book systems.

Unsung voices of technology in school education-findings using the constructivist grounded theory approach

Technology adoption for school education further gained momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the challenges and strategies of children belonging to the less privileged (we use ‘privileged’ in the article to identify those enjoying a standard of living or rights as majority of people in the society) families are different from those of the children who come from socio-economically better-off (privileged) backgrounds. The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of children with school education and using technology for learning. Past studies have highlighted the use of internet and communication technologies as a promising solution to provide quality school education in the remotest parts of the country. Previous research has also ascertained that the socio-economic status divide has no significant impact on the students’ ability to learn using technology. Children can use technology to learn irrespective of their socio-economic status and background. We conducted this exploratory qualitative study from a constructivist grounded theory perspective. A purposive sample of 14 students (9 from underprivileged and 5 from privileged family backgrounds) in the age group of 6–14 years, was used and unstructured interviews were conducted. We analysed the data using constructivist grounded theory methodology. We found that the experiences of privileged and underprivileged children differed with respect to access to internet, affordability of ICT device, quality teachers, parental support, and financial sponsorship. However, the experiences and perspectives of the children were found to be similar with respect to personal ownership of mobile phone device for unlimited time at own disposal, self-directed learning and having a trusted study advisor. The findings may be useful to policy makers and EdTech firms to build strategies and solutions for effective implementation of universal school education in the country.

Do our children learn enough in Sky Class? A case study: online learning in Chinese primary schools in the COVID era March to May 2020

All human being’s ways of living, working and studying were significantly impacted by the Covid-19 in 2020. In China, the Ministry of Education reacted fast in ensuring that primary school students could learn online at home by promoting the Sky Class program from February 2020. Educators, parents, and students all faced the challenges of adapting to new online teaching and learning environments. In this small-scale case study, Sky Class’s content and the participants’ experiences, will be presented. Four primary school teachers and five primary school students and their parents participated in three-rounds of interviews sharing their perspectives and experiences of online learning. The study showed that the students gained more parental support and that they benefited from using multimedia functions, like replay, in their Sky Classes. However, the majority of participants reported that the students learnt less. By mapping the learning activities and themes from Sky Class against Cope and Kalantzis’ e-learning ecologies, our study found that only ubiquitous learning and multimodal meaning were achieved. We suggest the reason may be that high cognitive learning was not achieved due to less teachers’ supervision, lack of interaction, delayed feedback, shorter learning times and communication. In conclusion, innovative pedagogies, which can foster different types of learning from the e-learning ecologies may overcome the negative aspects reported about Sky Class. Further research is required for implementing online technology as a catalyst for educational change.

Teachers’ adoption of an open and interactive e-book for teaching K-12 students Artificial Intelligence: a mixed methods inquiry

With the rapid development of information technology, e-books have become convenient for students to improve their learning performance, especially when learning complicated concepts. However, research showed that acceptance of e-books by teachers is fragmented, due to several factors including the e-book design. Therefore, this study combined the potential positive impacts of openness and interaction on learning to design an open and interactive e-book for teaching K-12 students AI. It then applied a mixed method to investigate the factors that affect teachers’ acceptance of this open and interactive e-book based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and interviews. The obtained results showed that teachers’ intention to continue using this e-book is significantly influenced by their perceived usefulness and attitude towards this e-book. Additionally, both the interactive and openness features were very helpful for teachers in using this e-book in their teaching plans. However, some of them raised several concerns like the interactive coding platform should be personalized based on students’ age. The findings of this study could help different stakeholders (e.g., instructional designers, teachers, policymakers) in facilitating the design and adoption of open and interactive e-books.

Designing gamification for geometry in elementary schools: insights from the designers

Popularly used in marketing and business, gamification has been gaining interest in educational contexts for its potential to invigorate otherwise mundane or difficult processes. A gamified environment transfers motivational elements of games to learning activities thereby engaging learners in the learning task thus transforming dull classroom environments to smart ones. This paper presents the design process of a gamification intervention in geometry at elementary level, based upon Huang and Soman (Gamification of education. Research report series: behavioural economics in action, 29. Rothman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, 2013) model. We describe how insights from various sources helped us to refine an intervention previously used in one school. The design focuses on gamifying the tangram, an unplugged resource, through incorporating game-based elements of leader boards, points/stars and challenge levels to motivate young learners individually and in teams. Cognitive and motivational scaffolding undergird five challenge levels to bring affordances to self and social elements for learner participation in increasingly complex geometry tasks. There are limited theoretical models to guide educational researchers, especially ones that do not require digital resources. This paper presents our insights and recommendations to support scaffolded learning in student-centred gamified learning environments.

Culture learning in a daily space of kitchen: the case of Korean digital kitchen

The rapid advancement of technology has allowed computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to have made inroads in the area of pedagogy for language and culture learning. While the majority of studies have used online and virtual environments for culture learning, very little attention has been paid to a real world environment. This study is based on a digital kitchen where students can learn foreign language, culture and cuisine at the same time through cooking tasks. Learning cultural aspects can be properly realised via cooking because the daily activity provides a window into culture, and the digital kitchen provides users with opportunities to directly encounter the target culture themselves via cooking and tasting. 48 international participants conducted two cooking sessions, one in a digital kitchen using real objects and the other in a classroom by looking at typical pictures/photos in a textbook. A range of data sources were employed, such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and video-observations to answer the research question. It was found that students learned foreign cultural aspects better when in direct engagement in a digital kitchen by handling actual items than when in a classroom by simply using photos. This study contributes to the development of the real world learning environment for culture learning via innovative technology.