‘The Chaotic Science Lab’: Supporting trainee science teachers – a cross departmental project

This project supports science teachers in developing health and safety skills through the use of a virtual laboratory. In the laboratory they can carry out health and safety audits, develop their awareness of potential hazards and assess the possible risks involved. The students can visit the virtual world either individually or in groups, and then discuss the issues they have found to be a risk ‘in-world’ or later in the ‘real’ classroom. A web interface enables user registration and a user record for each session. Each session is recorded with time, date, location and scores for the user as they work through pre-programmed activities which enable the tracking and analysis of site usage. Early findings suggest that this is an intriguing and unexpected addition to the science teacher training curriculum, and that students are keen to develop the scenarios further. There are clear benefits for staff and students alike

The Augmented Library: Motivating STEM Students

Review of first-year Computing and Gaming Technology students undertaking Personal Development Planning as part of a key year one module showed a lack of engagement (and submission of work). Research shows STEM students traditionally spend little time in formal library settings, and thus lack knowledge of the process of research. This work is focused on encouraging students’ transition from their online ‘persona’ in multiple contexts to ‘becoming’ a student. Taking a radically different approach to the sessions, the students, in small groups, were tasked with cocreating library artefacts through the medium of Augmented Reality. Weekly classes were ‘flipped’ and used for feedback, discussion, and exposure to research in action, where they became part of, and embodied within the research process. Our findings show significant and enhanced engagement with the learning process, and higher coursework submission rates

Augmented, Assessed, Addressed: Reframing the Curricula for First Year STEM Students.

There is a particular challenge with engaging technically motivated STEM students with ‘softer skill’ development, despite clear evidence from employers that these skills are highly desirable. In the UK, Higher Education Institutes response has been to require undergraduate courses to contain an element of Personal Development Planning (PDP)[1]. Our paper directly addresses the issue of trying to engage students from Computer and Gaming courses with their PDP. Previous experiences of teaching these cohorts traditionally report low attendance and poor completion rates, impacting on first year/second year progression. This study reports on work reframing the curricula for this essential aspect of the student learning experience, by offering the students realistic and authentic tasks by ‘flipping’ the classroom. This requires them to work in small groups, selecting, designing and then creating an augmented reality artefact using ‘Aurasma’[2], a free software tool for developing augmented reality objects. We note that the co-design process of curriculum development has enhanced student engagement; student completion rates have significantly increased, and class attendance improved

Using Augmented Reality to Engage STEM Students with an Authentic Curriculum

This paper reports on the introduction of a set of 'Augmented Reality' (AR) tasks, offering an innovative, real world and problem based set of activities for a group of first year University Gaming and Computer Science students. Our initial research identifies a gap in the perceptions of STEM students between the usefulness of discipline based modules and a compulsory 'Professional Development' module where more ‘employability’ based skills were delivered. It had a history of poor student engagement and attendance, and failed to provide a compelling narrative/links to the outside world. The AR tasks were designed to facilitate group-working and multi-channel communication, and to engage students through the use of a more creative technology. Framed as a rich case study, insights are captured through student blogs, video interviews and a questionnaire. Initial findings indicate higher levels of satisfaction, enhanced student engagement and a greater awareness of the value of transferable skills

An alternative (to) reality

This paper proposes that the generation of successful virtual environments relies on better understanding of how we conceive virtual and physical realities in our consciousness. In particular, to recognise that our conception of these realities is more importance than our perception of them. The failure and success of certain virtual environments are explained as the failure and success of the application of these phenomena. Firstly, making use of philosophical phenomenology, our understanding of physical reality is considered in terms of phenomenal conception and it is shown that objective perception is only one part of our relationship to physical environments. Secondly, the other point of view is considered and virtual environments are argued to be just as valid phenomenal conceptions as their physical counterparts. Finally, the translation of phenomenal conceptions between realities is considered, providing a different way of considering how we think about and design all types of reality. Several interesting potential avenues of investigation are identified and examples of the emergence of this approach are presented

Proposing the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) to Explain and Predict the Influence of High- and Low-Affect Infusion on Web Vendor Trust

Trust is just as essential to online business as it is to offline transactions but can be more difficult to achieve-especially for newer websites with unknown web vendors. Research on web-based trust development explains that web vendor trust can be created by both cognitive and affective (e.g., emotion-based) influences. But under what circumstances will emotion or cognition be more dominate in trust establishment? Theory-based answers to these questions can help online web vendors design better websites that account for unleveraged factors that will increase trust in the web vendor. To this end, we use the Affect Infusion Model and trust transference to propose the Affect-Trust Infusion Model (ATIM) that explains and predicts how and when cognition, through perceived website performance (PwP), and positive emotion (PEmo) each influence web vendor trust. ATIM explains the underlying causal mechanisms that determine the degree of affect infusion and the subsequent processing strategy that a user adopts when interacting with a new website. Under high-affect infusion, PEmo acts as a mediator between PwP and vendor trust; under low-affect infusion, PwP primarily impacts trust and PEmo is dis-intermediated. We review two distinct, rigorously validated experiments that empirically support ATIM. To further extend the contributions of ATIM, we demonstrate how use of specific contextual features-rooted in theory and that drive one\u27s choice of affect infusion and cognitive processing-can be leveraged into a methodology that we propose to further enhance user-centered design (UCD). We further detail several exciting research opportunities that can leverage ATIM

A Three-Step Model for Designing Initial Second Life-Based Foreign Language Learning Activities

Abstract The use of three-dimensional virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL) to support foreign language learning and teaching has been receiving increasing attention over the last decade. A review of the literature revealed a lack of activity design models for SL-based foreign language learning. This paper proposes a model that may be used by foreign language educators to design initial SL-based learning activities for their students. The suggested model integrates three language-learning features to contribute to effective language learning, to satisfy students' preference for working in groups, and to reduce SL's chances of crashing. The model also provides a mechanism for moderating SL's steep learning curve

Proposing the Multimotive Information Systems Continuance Model (MISC) to Better Explain End-User System Evaluations and Continuance Intentions

To ensure that users want to continue using a system, information system designers must consider the influence of users’ intrinsic motivations in addition to commonly studied extrinsic motivations. In an attempt to address this need, several studies have extended models of extrinsic motivation to include intrinsic variables. However, these studies largely downplay the role of users’ intrinsic motivations in predicting system use and how this role differs from that of extrinsic motivation. The role of met and unmet expectations related to system use is often excluded from extant models, and their function as cocreators in user evaluations has not been sufficiently explained. Even though expectations are a firmly established consequence of motivations and an antecedent of interaction evaluations, this area remains understudied. Our paper addresses these gaps by developing and testing a comprehensive model—the multimotive information systems continuance model (MISC)—that (1) explains more accurately and thoroughly the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, (2) explains how the fulfillment of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations affects systems-use outcome variables differently through met expectations, and (3) accounts for the effects of key design constructs