Taking into account the profound impact of technology on modern education, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing academic interest has focused towards the design and application of such tools on different learning contexts. A specific area of Human-Computer Interaction, called affordance theory, focuses on the perception, design and…

Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) engages students in solving ill-structured problems, creating group knowledge, and developing self-regulation and collaboration skills. Different scaffoldings, such as minimal-guided, task-oriented, and idea-oriented, can be used to facilitate students' CPS activities, but their effects have not been…

This paper draws on a series of studies of design teams working on the creation and evaluation of novel complex learning spaces: spaces in which students' activity is situated and supported by rich mixtures of material and digital tools and resources. In most of the cases observed, students also played a substantial role in co-configuring the…

Online courses on different platforms provide thousands of students with the knowledge and skills they need. This paper presents the results of a survey of students, during which they expressed their opinion on the use of electronic resources in teaching. The survey showed that students are more motivated to study when they understand how their…

Task interpretation is a critical first step for students in the process of self-regulated learning, and a key determinant when they set goals in their learning and select strategies in assigned work. This paper focuses on the explicit and implicit aspects of task interpretation based on Hadwin's model. Laboratory activities improve students'…

Actively encouraging foreign language learners to establish a meaningful connection with the target language culture--by engaging in authentic activities with other learners and native speakers in real-world communicative contexts--is a critical goal of foreign language education. This paper describes a design-based research study that…

Early prediction of student difficulty during long-duration learning activities allows a tutoring system to intervene by providing needed support, such as a hint, or by alerting an instructor. To be effective, these predictions must come early and be highly accurate, but such predictions are difficult for open-ended programming problems. In this…

This study investigates the ways in which synchronous and asynchronous activities create an online language laboratory that mediates second language (L2) learning for 188 L2 university participants over a 6-week period. Completion of tasks and pre-, post-, and weekly surveys were analyzed. Statistical analyses were run on self-rated questions…

Needs analysis plays a vital role in developing speaking material and results in a powerful tool that helps teachers to design materials in line with the learners' target needs and learning needs. The aims of this research are to analyse the types of learners' target needs and learning needs for material development in the academic…

Evaluating the relation between evidence and theory should be a central activity for science learners. Evaluation comprises both hypothetico-deductive analysis, where theory precedes evidence, and inductive synthesis, where theory emerges from evidence. There is mounting evidence that induction is an especially good way to help learners grasp the…

Academia has traditionally valued cognition and intellectual processes, eschewing the significance of other bodily domains involved in teaching, learning, and theorizing. Grounding the analysis in our experiences as diversely positioned academics, we argue that embodied teaching and theorizing provide a unique means of delivering material…

Evaluating the relation between evidence and theory should be a central activity for science learners. Evaluation comprises both hypothetico-deductive analysis, where theory precedes evidence, and inductive synthesis, where theory emerges from evidence. There is mounting evidence that induction is an especially good way to help learners grasp the…

Literacy, and particularly reading, is critical to success in schooling and full participation in contemporary societies. As one of the primary skills needed to develop proficiency in a language, the study of reading in additional languages has attracted significant research attention. Focusing on behaviourally visible and locally occasioned…

A survey (N = 524) examined how frequently college students engage in multitasking with social media, texting/instant messaging (IM), and music while studying/working and what motivates them to multitask with each medium. Four out of five participants multitasked with Facebook and texting/IM, and two out of three multitasked with music. Habit was…

There is widespread agreement that collaboration, teamwork and intercultural competence, among others, are essential 21st century skills. Higher education teaching and learning initiatives tend to have a significant focus on developing these skills through assessments and other in-class activities, and yet often do not take advantage of…