This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2020, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.), that this year had to be transformed into a fully Virtual Conference as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Modern…

United Nations of Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (UNESCO's) founding statements about environmental education (EE) in the 1970s positioned it as a multidisciplinary field of inquiry. When enacted as such, it challenges traditional ways of organising secondary school education by academic subject areas. Equally,…

This paper presents the longitudinal learning journey of two educators who participated in the Virtual Professional Learning and Development programme (VPLD) between 2010 and 2013. Each participant's story of change describes the process and outcomes of their involvement in a future-focused environment of virtual mentorship supported by a tailored…

High school students have had some difficulties in understanding chemistry due to traditional ways of teaching this specific science. It is important to improve teaching methods that increase student motivation, not only to enhance their capacity for understanding, but also to generate a greater level of interest in the study of chemistry for…

This article puts forward a three related case study series, using a Virtual Reality Learning Environment (VRLE) with a view to supporting the development of students' ideation skills in conventional primary and secondary education. This learning environment is fairly new and therefore it is necessary to examine its educational uses and determine…

Professor Ricardo Torres Kompen is a leading proponent for, and researcher in, personal learning environments (PLEs). During his interview, Torres Kompen clarified his research on PLEs, particularly the digital toolbox within PLEs. He elaborated on experiences with implementing PLE initiatives, personal insights on using social media and Web 2.0…

An understanding of the impact of user avatar alteration in relation to social presence is needed to fully realize the potential of Second Life for higher education usages, which the research literature reveals as an environment that provides increased social presence. Prior studies focused primarily on the impact of system design attributes on…

This paper describes the author's experience with a pilot course of Italian in SL[R]. The course is part of a PhD research on "Exploring the potential of virtual worlds to promote Intercultural Awareness in students learning Italian as a Foreign Language." In the paper the author will justify her choice of virtual worlds for the…

Blended learning--the mix of virtual education and face-to-face instruction--is evolving quickly in schools across the country, generating a variety of different models. This special report, the second in a three-part 2012-13 series on virtual education, examines several of those approaches and aims to identify what is working and where…

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) are often used to support learning in formal and informal educational contexts. A technology-based educational experience consists of several elements: content, syllabus, roles, sequence of activities, assignments, assessment procedures, etc. that must be aligned with the affordances of the technologies to…

Lab practices are an essential part of teaching in Engineering. However, traditional laboratory lessons developed in classroom labs (CL) must be adapted to teaching and learning strategies that go far beyond the common concept of e-learning, in the sense that completely virtualized distance education disconnects teachers and students from the real…

This paper describes a study of success factors in the introductory semester of liberal studies blended courses offered at the bachelor of science level. The influence of student participation in the online course environment was examined, as measured by the number of times students logged into the learning management system (LMS) and average…

Conventional taught learning practices often experience difficulties in keeping students motivated and engaged. Video games, however, are very successful at sustaining high levels of motivation and engagement through a set of tasks for hours without apparent loss of focus. In addition, gamers solve complex problems within a gaming environment…

This paper describes an observational study of the introduction of Sakai's Learning Management System (LMS) into several liberal arts courses at a women's college in the Middle East. Student participation in the CLE was tracked over the course of the semester and summarized by their number of logins and average session length. These measures were…

Technology facilitated teaching and learning can now influence the way both lecturers and students collaborate. The problem is that many of these interventions are conducted in a non-systematic ad-hoc way. There are concerns that merely adopting a traditional lecturing approach to a technology based environment provides little if any advantage to…