The present study compares the highly interactive cloud-classroom (HIC) system with traditional methods of teaching materials science that utilize crystal structure picture or real crystal structure model, in order to examine its learning effectiveness across three dimensions: knowledge, comprehension and application. The aim of this study was to…

In this paper we present our experiences of teaching an annually organized virtual reality (VR) capstone course. We review three iterations of the course, during which a total of 45 students completed the course and 16 VR applications were implemented. Our comparative analysis describes the students' evaluation of the course, the applications…

The flipped-classroom format offers students opportunities for engagement and ownership of learning by enabling them to make sense of their views and perspectives and connect their personal and professional experiences. Student engagement and the infusion of active learning are core concepts of the educational process; given the present generation…

Education policy in the United States centers K-12 assessment efforts primarily on standardized tests. However, such tests may not provide an accurate and reliable representation of what students understand about the complexity of science. Research indicates that students tend to pass science tests, even if they do not understand the concepts…

The present paper describes a case study on the effects of telecollaborative games on learners' motivation. 12 learners from a Dutch and a British secondary school participated in the study. Different games, which included gamification elements, were developed on OpenSim. The overall educational goals of the games were to enhance cultural…

Mobile and in particular pervasive games are a strong component of future scenarios for teaching and learning. Based on results from a previous review of practical papers, this work explores the educational potential of pervasive games for learning by analysing underlying game mechanisms. In order to determine and classify cognitive and affective…

The paper presents a discussion on the different approaches that the authors have found in learning settings respect to ICT platforms that support the educational activities. The authors discuss three different approaches in pursuing learning activities in real educational contexts. The considered approaches are different in the sense of the…

Social work programs increasingly are engaged in deploying distance education models, yet questions remain about how to teach direct practice skills within this context. As field agency changes have limited practice opportunities for social work students, methods for helping interns develop direct practice skills in diverse field practicum…

The various tools available on Web 2.0 enable the interactions in a Community of Practice (CoP) to be optimized and may discourage the participation of members. Thus, the choice of the tools is fundamental for the growth and maintenance of a CoP. With a focus on this and, from the analysis of the characteristics of the group and the activities…

This current study aimed at creating a 3D virtual environment on Second Life particularly for special education students to enhance their first language, Mandarin, learning in vocabulary and sentence structures. Four students aged between 8 and 9 participated in this research. In addition to their inherent disabilities (mild autism spectrum…

Opening with the history, recent advances, and emerging ways to use avatar-based virtual reality, an instructor who has used virtual environments since 2007 shares how these environments bring more options to community building, teaching, and education. With the open-source movement, where the source code for virtual environments was made…

This project work addresses the crucial need to encourage undergraduate civil and environmental engineering students to gain employment skills and training right from the start of their studies so that their overall employability increases; their confidence level in networking with industry and within the workplace increases; and so that they are…

This research examines the "Tree Investigators" project to support science learning with mobile devices during family public programmes in an arboretum. Using a case study methodology, researchers analysed video records of 10 families (25 people) using mobile technologies with naturalists at an arboretum to understand how mobile devices…

Virtual humans are becoming an easily available and popular component of multimedia learning that are often used in online learning environments. There is still a need for systematic research into their effectiveness. The current study investigates the positioning of a virtual human's gestures when guiding the learner through a multimedia…

Purpose: This study aims to deepen understanding of the use of stereoscopic 3D technology (stereo3D) in facilitating organizational learning. The emergence of advanced virtual technologies, in particular to the stereo3D virtual reality, has fundamentally changed the ways in which organizations train their employees. However, in academic or…