While gamification is gaining ground in business, marketing, corporate management, and wellness initiatives, its application in education is still an emerging trend. This article presents a study of the published empirical research on the application of gamification to education. The study is limited to papers that discuss explicitly the effects…

This article argues for the establishment of a usability process that incorporates the study of "words" and "word phrases." It demonstrates how semantically mapping a navigational taxonomy can help the developers of digital environments establish a more focused sense of functional meaning for the users of their digital designs.

This article reviews the research and evidence about multi-touch tables to provide an analysis of their key design features and capabilities and how these might relate to their use in educational settings to support collaborative learning. A typology of design features is proposed as a synthesis of the hardware and physical characteristics of the…

National communications systems (NCS) are critical elements of a government's infrastructure. Limited improvements to the non-functional requirements (NFR) of NCS have caused issues during national emergencies such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The literature indicates that these issues result from a deficiency in understanding the roles NFRs and…

Instructional designers and educators recognize the potential of mobile technologies as a learning tool for students and have incorporated them into the distance learning environment. However, little research has been done to categorize the numerous examples of mobile learning in the context of distance education, and few instructional design…

The serious games community is moving toward research focusing on direct comparisons between learning outcomes of serious games and those of more traditional training methods. Such comparisons are difficult, however, due to the lack of a consistent taxonomy of game attributes for serious games. Without a clear understanding of what truly…

Problem-based learning focuses on small groups using authentic problems as a means to help participants obtain knowledge and problem-solving skills. This approach makes problem-based learning ideal for teaching lean manufacturing, which is driven by a culture of problem solving that values learning as one key output of manufacturing production.…

In many practical settings, essentially the same differential item functioning (DIF) procedures have been in use since the late 1980s. Since then, examinee populations have become more heterogeneous, and tests have included more polytomously scored items. This paper summarizes and classifies new DIF methods and procedures that have appeared since…