Modern evolutionary theory is both a central theory and an integrative framework of the life sciences. This is reflected in the common references to evolution in modern science education curricula and contexts. In fact, evolution is a core idea that is supposed to support biology learning by facilitating the organization of relevant knowledge. In…

The technology works as a catalyst through which many changes occur in the learning approaches, teaching methodologies, research arena, in the work environment and in the use of information and knowledge. Helping students to learn using technological tools rather than using conventional techniques has become more popular in the 21st century in…

Chat conversations and other types of online communication environments are widely used within CSCL educational scenarios. However, there is a lack of theoretical and methodological background for the analysis of collaboration. Manual assessing of non-moderated chat discussions is difficult and time-consuming, having as a consequence that learning…

Information and communication technology (ICT) is a natural part of most people's everyday life, and has also been introduced in schools. Previous studies have tended to focus on issues related to competency of teachers and lack of computer technology in schools. Focus now seems to be moving towards studies that help us understand how ICT may be…

Research has shown that the tools provided by dynamic geometry systems (DGSs) impact students' approach to investigating open problems in Euclidean geometry. We particularly focus on cognitive processes that might be induced by certain ways of dragging in Cabri. Building on the work of Arzarello, Olivero and other researchers, we have conceived a…

Animated pedagogical agents with characteristics such as facial expressions, gestures, and human emotions, under an interactive user interface are attractive to students and have high potential to promote students' learning. This study proposes a convenient method to add an embodied empathic avatar into a computer-aided learning program; learners…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative effectiveness of different types of visuals (static and animated) and instructional strategies (no strategy, questions, and questions plus feedback) used to complement visualized materials on students' learning of different educational objectives in a computer-based instructional (CBI)…

In this study, the effect of animation enhanced conceptual change texts (CCT-CA) on grade 6 students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) and transformation during the phase changes was investigated. A quasi-experimental design and one control group (CG, N = 25) and one experimental group (EG, N = 26) were used. While the…

This article describes the design decisions, technical approach, and evaluation of the animation and interface components for an agent-based system that allows learners to learn by teaching. Students learn by teaching an animated agent using a visual representation. The agent can answer questions about what she has been taught and take quizzes.…

The article discusses problems that arise from comparing different kinds of presentation modes such as texts, pictures or animations with regard to learning outcome. These comparisons are confounded with or depend on other variables like quality of the instructional design, learning content, familiarity with the presentation mode as well as…

The most effective teachers use a diversity of methods and approaches to assist their students in the learning process. Multiple technical resources (commonly referred to as multimedia) are currently used by many instructors to communicate difficult topics and concepts to their students in meaningful ways. The issue that arises is not only how to…

This article reviews successful educational experiences in using program and algorithm visualizations (PAVs). First, we survey a total of 18 PAV systems that were subject to 33 evaluations. We found that half of the systems have only been tested for usability, and those were shallow inspections. The rest were evaluated with respect to their…

This study reports research findings on the use of animated cartoons in a multimedia application meant to evaluate their effectiveness in supporting teaching and learning in science. The researchers have developed a cartoon-style multimedia application whereas animated cartoons where designed from scratch using appropriate programs. The study was…

This paper reviews research on learning from dynamic visual representations and offers principles for the design of animations and simulations that assure their educational effectiveness. In addition to established principles, new and revised design principle are presented that have been derived from recent research. Our review focuses on the…

Students' understanding of object-oriented (OO) program execution was studied by asking students to draw a picture of a program state at a specific moment. Students were given minimal instructions on what to include in their drawings in order to see what they considered to be central concepts and relationships in program execution. Three drawing…