COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the conventional education landscape to online remote learning. However, this transition has brought about certain challenges such as low levels of student engagement and motivation, which raises the question of whether students are actually learning. Using Virtual Reality (VR) in teaching and learning (T&L)…

Food waste is an important issue in the global warming debate. In this study, a virtual reality (VR) application was built from the insights and requirements of a focus group. The VR prototype was then validated using A/B-testing in an online experiment due to COVID-19 restrictions. VR is considered suitable for transferring information and…

Research on pre-service teachers' discussion practices has focused on decompositions of practice into subskills, while acknowledging the importance of the role of context, identity, and relationships between interactive moves. We focused on 66 elementary preservice teachers' (PSTs') framing-launching moves in discussions after problem-solving in a…

Knowledge tracing algorithms are embedded in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to keep track of students' learning process. While knowledge tracing models have been extensively studied in offline settings, very little work has explored their use in online settings. This is primarily because conducting experiments to evaluate and select knowledge…

Simulated testing has become more prevalent in higher education, especially as competency-based institutions begin to incorporate micro-credentials and skills certificates into their curriculum. Competency-based assessment falls outside traditional norm-based testing practices used in K-12 education, and is largely focused on criterion referenced…

Constructing effective and well-balanced learning groups is important for collaborative learning. Past research explored how group formation policies affect learners' behaviors and performance. With the different classroom contexts, many group formation policies work in theory, yet their feasibility is rarely investigated in authentic class…

This paper attempts to quantify the accuracy limit of "nextitem-correct" prediction by using numerical optimization to estimate the student's probability of getting each question correct given a complete sequence of item responses. This optimization is performed without an explicit parameterized model of student behavior, but with the…

In this paper we explored whether engaging in two inquiry skills associated with data collection, designing controlled experiments and testing stated hypotheses, within microworlds for one physical science domain (density) impacted the acquisition of inquiry skills in another domain (phase change). To do so, we leveraged educational data mining…

Student modeling--the task of building dynamic models of student ability--is fraught with uncertainty, caused by such factors as multiple sources of student errors, careless errors and lucky guesses, learning and forgetting. Within the context of the Sherlock intelligent tutoring systems project, we have been experimenting with various ways of…

A hypermedia simulation, Sickle Cell Counselor, has been developed to anchor instruction for museum visitors using the task of advising couples about the decision to have children when there is a substantial genetic risk of sickle cell disease. A visitor can perform simulated laboratory tests and ask questions via interactive video. The anchored…

Electronic troubleshooting expertise was explored in the three contexts (design, production, and repair) that reflect distinct problem solving task environments. The purpose of the effort was to provide a more precise definition of the boundaries of expertise in electronics troubleshooting and the relationship of context to the development of…

Previous studies established that 6 hours of instruction focusing on cognitively demanding aspects of computer use were sufficient to reduce computer anxiety significantly among teacher education students. This paper reports on a study of whether or not it is possible to reduce anxiety at least as efficiently by providing a similar length computer…

Two graphic computer simulations have been prepared for teaching high school and middle school students about how business organizations and financial systems work: "Parkside," which simulates managing a hotel; and "Guestwear," which simulates managing a clothing manufacturer. Both simulations are based on six principles of…