Immersive virtual reality (IVR) offers possibilities of creating a learner-centric environment that can provide more presence and engagement for students leading to an enhanced learning experience compared to conventional classroom practices. However, the potential of IVR in vocational education and training (VET) has not yet been explored…

The development of games for people with learning disabilities is one way to enhance the quality of learning and respond to the need for inclusive special educational support. Recently, game researchers have highlighted the need for paying more attention to identifying the game design choices that can strengthen learning. This paper reviews recent…

Teaching and learning in universities have shifted towards online education, and there is not enough scientific knowledge about suitable pedagogical design principles to guide the construction of hybrid learning spaces for today's university students. In this design-based research, we studied the benefits and challenges in reaching the expected…

Extending teaching beyond the classroom walls has been known for its potential to promote inquiry learning in various disciplinary domains. Current technologies can enhance these benefits, especially by enabling supports for seamless learning between contexts. But even without technology, teachers tend to refrain from implementing outdoor inquiry…

Serious Games (SGs), defined as a game in which education (in its various forms) is the primary goal rather than entertainment, have been proven as an effective educational tool for engaging and motivating students. However, more research is needed to sustain the suitability of these games to train users with cognitive impairments. This empirical…

The theory of spatial thinking is relevant to the learning and teaching of many academic domains. One promising method to facilitate learners' higher-order thinking is to utilize a web map mind tool to assist learners in applying spatial thinking to cooperative problem solving. In this study, an environment is designed based on the theory of…

Audiovisual design might impact emotional responses, as studies from the 1970s and 1980s on movie and television content show. Given today's abundant presence of web-based videos, this study investigates whether audiovisual design will impact web-video content in a similar way. The study is motivated by the potential influence of video-evoked…

Most boys and girls interact differently with educational software and have different preferences for the design of educational software. The question is whether the usage of educational software has the same consequences for both genders. This paper investigates the characteristics of drill-and-practice programmes or drills that are efficient for…

In order to get a better understanding of subject design and delivery using a hybrid approach, we have studied a hybrid learning postgraduate programme offered by the University of the Andes, Bogota, Colombia. The study analyses students' perceptions of subject design and delivery, with particular reference to learning activities and the roles of…

Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) have the potential to provide one-on-one, just-in-time instruction, guidance or mentoring in classrooms where such individualized human interactions may be infeasible. Much current APA research focuses on a wide range of design variables tested with small samples or in laboratory settings, while overlooking…

The purpose of this paper was to provide information about the virtual learning environment known as PGDnet (the Spanish acronym for "Plataforma de Gestion Docente" or Educational Management Platform in English), which was developed by the innovative education group at the Technical University of Madrid known as "Nuevas metodologias…

This paper reported on the findings of research into innovation in e-learning design and assessment through the development and implementation of online learning activities (e-tivities). The focus of the study was on Carpe Diem as a process to enable academic course teams to seize 2 days to design and embed pedagogically appropriate e-tivities…

In the digital age, instructional designers must possess both a sound instructional design knowledge base and solid project management skills that will enable them to complete courseware projects on time, on budget and in conformance with client expectations. Project management skills include the ability to apply repeatable processes, along with…

This paper reports the effects of game technology on student learning in mathematics as investigated in two data sets collected from slightly different subjects. In the first, 41 second graders (7 or 8 years old) from two classes used either a technology-based game or a paper-based game for 5 weeks. For the next 13 weeks, both classes used a…

This case study explores how a constructivist-based instructional design helped adult learners learn in an online learning environment. Two classes of adult learners pursuing professional development and registered in a web-based course were studied. The data consisted of course documents, submitted artefacts, surveys, interviews, in-class…