This article presents our experience of testing the OpenSim platform as a tool in teaching French to 108 tourism students at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain). The article begins with some theoretical reflections on the behaviour of the student when using a virtual platform by means of an avatar, and with our observations of how this…

The flipped classroom is an instructional model that leverages technology-enhanced instruction outside of class time in order to maximize student engagement and learning during class time. As part of an action research study, the authors synthesize reflections about how the flipped classroom model can support teaching, learning and assessment…

The learning sciences community has made significant progress in understanding how people think and learn about complex systems. But less is known about how people make sense of the quantitative patterns and mathematical formalisms often used to study these systems. In this article, we make a case for attending to and supporting connections…

Developing solutions for complex issues such as global climate change requires an understanding of the mechanisms involved. This study reports on the impact of a technology-enhanced unit designed to improve understanding of global climate change, its mechanisms, and their relationship to everyday energy use. Global Climate Change, implemented in…

We studied how students engaged with an interactive simulation in a classroom setting and how that engagement was affected by the design of a guiding activity. Students (n = 210) completed a written activity using an interactive simulation in second semester undergraduate general chemistry recitations. The same simulation--PhET Interactive…

Visits to museums and city tours have been part of higher and secondary education curriculum activities for many years. However these activities are typically considered "less formal" when compared to those carried out in the classroom, mainly because they take place in informal or non-formal settings. Augmented Reality (AR) technologies…

This study uses theory-based design principles to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional simulation, simSchool. It begins by examining the simulation and evaluation literature, followed by an evaluation of the simSchool software. It is a Web-based simulation designed to emulate various students (reactions) in order to provide practice for…

For several years, we used Intel's flash-based game "IT Manager 3: Unseen Forces" as an experiential learning tool, where students had to act as a manager making real-time prioritization decisions about repairing computer problems, training and upgrading systems with better technologies as well as managing increasing numbers of technical…

This study investigates the classroom integration of an innovative technology, augmented reality. Although the process of adding new technologies into a classroom setting can be daunting, the concept of augmented reality has demonstrated the ability to educate students and to assist with their comprehension of a procedural task. One half of the…

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in applying Augmented Reality (AR) to create unique educational settings. So far, however, there is a lack of review studies with focus on investigating factors such as: the uses, advantages, limitations, effectiveness, challenges and features of augmented reality in educational settings.…

In this study, an augmented reality-based mobile learning system is proposed for conducting inquiry-based learning activities. An experiment has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of learning achievements and motivations. The subjects were 57 fourth graders from two classes taught by the same teacher in…

This paper contributes to the discourse in stochastic education of how young students deal with learning settings that allow a data-based approach to probability. By using the micro-structure of arguments by Toulmin (1958), it explores which arguments students use and which role they play in the learning process. The data stems from design…

Localist models of spreading activation (SA) and models assuming distributed representations offer very different takes on semantic priming, a widely investigated paradigm in word recognition and semantic memory research. In this study, we implemented SA in an attractor neural network model with distributed representations and created a unified…

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) enables efficient and flexible measurement of latent constructs. The majority of educational and cognitive measurement constructs are based on dichotomous item response theory (IRT) models. An integral part of developing various components of a CAT system is conducting simulations using both known and empirical…

The likelihood for generalized linear models with covariate measurement error cannot in general be expressed in closed form, which makes maximum likelihood estimation taxing. A popular alternative is regression calibration which is computationally efficient at the cost of inconsistent estimation. We propose an improved regression calibration…