Agency, or the capacity to take intentional actions, is considered one of the primary affordances of virtual reality (VR) for learning. VR is expected to increase learners' agency because it allows for full-body interactivity from a first-person perspective, giving them novel ways of interacting with the digital environment. Yet, agency in…

This paper focuses on student attitudes about using a virtual world (VW) learning platform. VWs allow students to meet via avatars and experience events that simulate real social experiences. It can also enhance student motivation, learning and collaboration. However, studies have reported that many students and teachers find VW difficult to use,…

Video lectures (VL), considered an effective means for delivering course content and infusing teaching presence in the virtual environment, have become very popular in education. The purpose of this study was to investigate online student experiences with VL focusing on their opinion of usefulness of VL, their satisfaction with them and their…

Game-like learning systems such as simulation games and digital toys are increasingly being applied to foster higher-level abilities in educational contexts, as they may facilitate an active learning experience. However, the effect of such game-like learning systems is not guaranteed because students may only be interested in the fantasy…

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a study conducted to investigate how the attributes of 3-D technology such as avatars, 3-D space, and comic style bubble dialogue boxes affect participants' social, cognitive, and teaching presences in a blended problem-based learning environment. The community of inquiry model was adopted…