Investigating the Learning Impact of Game-based Learning when Teaching Science to Children with Special Learning Needs

International audienceIn an attempt to find solutions to the current challenges faced by children with special needs, new teaching and learning methodologies that make us of various technologies such as 3D computer based games, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality enhanced learning have been proposed to be used in the classroom. The technology can enhance the lives of children with learning disabilities and gives then options of intervening in their various educational and cognitive problems. The paper presents a research study on learner experience when a new interactive educational 3D video game called Final Frontier, was used in a secondary school from Romania by children with hearing impairment. Pre-and Post-tests results analysis has shown that the game helped the children to acquire knowledge on the Solar system. It was also noticed that an interactive game-based learning approach is more suitable for children with disabilities than an interactive exploratory based digital library method

A systematic literature review on the quality of moocs

This paper presents the findings from a systematic literature review on the quality of massive open online courses (MOOCs). The main research question was “How can the quality criteria for MOOCs identified in the analysed studies from the systematic literature review be best organ-ised in a categorisation scheme?” The systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA procedures. After conducting the screening and eligibility analysis according the pre-defined crite-ria, 103 studies were finally selected. The analysis was done in iterative cycles for continuous im-provements of the assignments and clustering of the quality criteria. The final version was validated in consensus through the categorisation and assignment of all 103 studies in a consistent way to four dimensions (pedagogical, organisational, technological, and social) and their sub-categories. This quality framework can be re-used in future MOOC research and the discussion of the analysed studies provides a current literature overview on the quality of MOOCs

A study of learning satisfaction with a multi-sensory media delivery system

This paper describes research conducted part of the EU Horizon 2020-funded project NEWTON. The project focuses on devising diverse new technologies which improve students’ quality of learning when used in their technology-enhanced education. The NEWTON multi-sensory media (Mulsemedia) delivery solution enables students to access learning materials while adjusting the transmission of content according to user operational environment. A pilot was run in Slovak Technical University in Bratislava involving 48 undergraduate students with the aim of investigating how mulsemedia can affect their learning satisfaction

Multimodal teaching, learning and training in virtual reality: a review and case study

It is becoming increasingly prevalent in digital learning research to encompass an array of different meanings, spaces, processes, and teaching strategies for discerning a global perspective on constructing the student learning experience. Multimodality is an emergent phenomenon that may influence how digital learning is designed, especially when employed in highly interactive and immersive learning environments such as Virtual Reality (VR). VR environments may aid students' efforts to be active learners through consciously attending to, and reflecting on, critique leveraging reflexivity and novel meaning-making most likely to lead to a conceptual change. This paper employs eleven industrial case-studies to highlight the application of multimodal VR-based teaching and training as a pedagogically rich strategy that may be designed, mapped and visualized through distinct VR-design elements and features. The outcomes of the use cases contribute to discern in-VR multimodal teaching as an emerging discourse that couples system design-based paradigms with embodied, situated and reflective praxis in spatial, emotional and temporal VR learning environments

The potential of blockchain technology in higher education as perceived by students in Serbia, Romania, and Portugal

Lifelong learning approaches that include digital, transversal, and practical skills (i.e., critical thinking, communication, collaboration, information literacy, analytical, metacognitive, reflection, and other research skills) are required in order to be equitable and inclusive and stimulate personal development. Realtime interaction between teachers and students and the ability for students to choose courses from curricula are guaranteed by decentralized online learning. Moreover, through blockchain, it is possible to acquire skills regarding the structure and content while also implementing learning tools. Additionally, documentation validation should be equally crucial to speeding up the process and reducing costs and paperwork. Finally, blockchains are open and inclusive processes that include people and cultures from all walks of life. Learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) is facilitated by new technologies, connecting blockchain to sustainability, which helps understand the relationship between technologies and sustainability. Besides serving as a secure transaction system, blockchain technology can help decentralize, provide security and integrity, and offer anonymity and encryption, therefore, promoting a transaction rate increase. This study investigates an alternative in which HEI includes a blockchain network to provide the best sustainable education system. Students’ opinions were analyzed, and they considered that blockchain technology had a very positive influence on learning performance.This work was financially supported by Information Technology School, ITS—Belgrade, Serbia, project ITS/M-TT-DH-UM-01122021. This work was financially supported by the research unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy (UIDB/04058/2020) + (UIDP/04058/2020), funded by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Course evaluation for low pass rate improvement in Engineering education

Abstract : A course evaluation is a process that includes evaluations of lecturers’ teaching performances and their course material moderations. These two procedures are usually implemented, whether officially by the faculty of engineering or by lecturers’ own initiatives, to help identify lecturers’ strengths and weaknesses and the ways forward to improve their performances and their qualities of teaching. This paper presents different ways of implementing these two criteria from students’ and professionals’ perspectives. Official questionnaires from the faculty of engineering, personal questionnaires using Google surveys, Moodle and special designed forms have been used for moderation and evaluations. The process of evaluation is the core of a feedback procedure followed by universities in order for them to monitor the teaching quality of their staff. Satisfactory results show that such a process can improve the lecturers’ teaching performances, courses material quality, students’ satisfaction and performances, and finally the pass rate of the class

Using design-based research to develop a Mobile Learning Framework for Assessment Feedback

Students’ lack of engagement with their assessment feedback and the lack of dialogue and communication for feedback are some of the issues that affect educational institutions. Despite the affordance that mobile technologies could bring in terms of assessment feedback, research in this area is scarce. The main obstacle for research on mobile learning assessment feedback is the lack of a cohesive and unified mobile learning framework. This paper thus presents a Mobile Learning Framework for Assessment Feedback (MLFAF), developed using a design-based research approach. The framework emerged from the observation of, and reflection upon, the different stages of a research project that investigated the use of a mobile web application for summative and formative assessment feedback. MLFAF can be used as a foundation to study the requirements when developing and implementing wide-scale mobile learning initiatives that underpin longitudinal practices, as opposed to short-term practices. The paper also provides design considerations and implementation guidelines for the use of mobile technology in assessment feedback to increase student engagement and foster dialogic feedback communication channels

Transversal Competences in Engineering Degrees: Integrating Content and Foreign Language Teaching

[EN] There has been a constant advance of the labour markets and permanent reorientation towards digital Industry 4.0. Yet, the environments for learning remain unchallenged when it comes to the provision of new professionals across the globe. Therefore, this has created a gap in transversal competences, which has compelled students of higher learning institutions to pursue them. The majority of higher learning institutions have emphasised transversal skills among learners and developed curriculums to accomplish these demands. The primary focus of the study was to attain integration and fusion of transversal skills into the development of specialised curriculum training for foreign language proficiency. The study applied mixed methodology techniques, which combined qualitative and quantitative methods in the study. To guarantee cohesion of the study, four research and monitoring techniques such as course dossiers, needs analysis, task-based activities and adapted competences scales were used. The outcome of the research shows findings provided by the piloting stage of the teaching experience and emphasises the need for student-based skill training.The described experience was carried out as part of the work in the Innovation and Quality Education Teaching (EICE DESMAHIA) Development of active methodologies and evaluation strategies applied to the field of Hydraulic Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València.Polyakova, O.; Galstyan-Sargsyan, R.; López Jiménez, PA.; Pérez-Sánchez, M. (2020). Transversal Competences in Engineering Degrees: Integrating Content and Foreign Language Teaching. Education Sciences. 10(11):1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10110296S1131011Laguna-Sánchez, P., Abad, P., de la Fuente-Cabrero, C., & Calero, R. (2020). A University Training Programme for Acquiring Entrepreneurial and Transversal Employability Skills, a Students’ Assessment. Sustainability, 12(3), 796. doi:10.3390/su12030796Moldovan, L. (2020). A Reference Framework for Continuous Improvement of Employability Assessment. Procedia Manufacturing, 46, 271-278. doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2020.03.040Succi, C., & Canovi, M. (2019). Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions. Studies in Higher Education, 45(9), 1834-1847. doi:10.1080/03075079.2019.1585420Competency Framework. OECDhttps://www.oecd.org/careers/competency_framework_en.pdfSerrano, R. M., Romero, J. A., Bello, M. J., & Pérez, J. D. (2011). Student Training in Transversal Competences at the University of Cordoba. European Educational Research Journal, 10(1), 34-52. doi:10.2304/eerj.2011.10.1.34Graczyk-Kucharska, M., Özmen, A., Szafrański, M., Weber, G. W., Golińśki, M., & Spychała, M. (2019). Knowledge accelerator by transversal competences and multivariate adaptive regression splines. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 28(2), 645-669. doi:10.1007/s10100-019-00636-xHortigüela Alcalá, D., Palacios Picos, A., & López Pastor, V. (2018). The impact of formative and shared or co-assessment on the acquisition of transversal competences in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(6), 933-945. doi:10.1080/02602938.2018.1530341Vasconcelos, S., & Balula, A. (2019). DO YOU SPEAK DIGITAL? – A LITERATURE REVIEW ON LANGUAGE AND DIGITAL COMPETENCES IN TOURISM EDUCATION. doi:10.20867/tosee.05.32Villardón-Gallego, L., Flores-Moncada, L., Yáñez-Marquina, L., & García-Montero, R. (2020). Best Practices in the Development of Transversal Competences among Youths in Vulnerable Situations. Education Sciences, 10(9), 230. doi:10.3390/educsci10090230Sá, M., & Serpa, S. (2018). Transversal Competences: Their Importance and Learning Processes by Higher Education Students. Education Sciences, 8(3), 126. doi:10.3390/educsci8030126Cepic, R., Vorkapic, S. T., Loncaric, D., Andic, D., & Mihic, S. S. (2015). Considering Transversal Competences, Personality and Reputation in the Context of the Teachers’ Professional Development. International Education Studies, 8(2). doi:10.5539/ies.v8n2p8Developing key competences at school in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy; Eurydice Report 2012/11https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/developing-key-competences-school-europe-challenges-and-opportunities-policy_enCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment. Companion Volume with New Descriptors. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishinghttps://rm.coe.int/cefr-companion-volume-with-new-descriptors-2018/168078798Zamora-Polo, F., Martínez Sánchez-Cortés, M., Reyes-Rodríguez, A. M., & García Sanz-Calcedo, J. (2019). Developing Project Managers’ Transversal Competences Using Building Information Modeling. Applied Sciences, 9(19), 4006. doi:10.3390/app9194006Smit, U., & Dafouz, E. (2012). Integrating content and language in higher education. Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education, 25, 1-12. doi:10.1075/aila.25.01sm

Investigating the Usability of a Head-Mounted Display Augmented Reality Device in Elementary School Children

Augmenting reality via head-mounted displays (HMD-AR) is an emerging technology in education. The interactivity provided by HMD-AR devices is particularly promising for learning, but presents a challenge to human activity recognition, especially with children. Recent technological advances regarding speech and gesture recognition concerning Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 may address this prevailing issue. In a within-subjects study with 47 elementary school children (2nd to 6th grade), we examined the usability of the HoloLens 2 using a standardized tutorial on multimodal interaction in AR. The overall system usability was rated “good”. However, several behavioral metrics indicated that specific interaction modes differed in their efficiency. The results are of major importance for the development of learning applications in HMD-AR as they partially deviate from previous findings. In particular, the well-functioning recognition of children’s voice commands that we observed represents a novelty. Furthermore, we found different interaction preferences in HMD-AR among the children. We also found the use of HMD-AR to have a positive effect on children’s activity-related achievement emotions. Overall, our findings can serve as a basis for determining general requirements, possibilities, and limitations of the implementation of educational HMD-AR environments in elementary school classrooms