Perception of teaching performance in the virtual learning environment

This article aims to analyze the perception of the students of the professional school of business administration about the teaching performance in the virtual learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. When developing the research, it was determined that there is a good teaching performance, according to the perception of the students. However, it was identified that the factors of domain of the topic and class session management, present a better perception in this context of virtual learning; while the didactic strategies factor is the one that presents a not so favorable perception. In addition, through a comparative analysis, it was determined that the didactic strategies and planning factors have suffered a negative variation with respect to the perception per teacher, when moving from face-to-face to virtual learning, since, of the total of 17 specialty teachers, seven of them one negative variation. These results are validated by the linear regression test, where an R2 value of 0.965 is calculated, with respect to the didactic strategies factor. It means that this factor influences 96.5% on the perception of students with the global factor and an R2 value of 0.921 for the planning factor, which indicates an influence of 92.1%

Exploring the virtual classroom: What students need to know (and teachers should consider)

Technological improvements in many countries have meant that institutions offering distance education programmes now have more options available to them to communicate and interact with their students, and increasingly, attention is being turned to the potential of Web2 technologies to facilitate synchronous interaction. This study explores the affordances and limitations of an online virtual classroom, Adobe Connect Pro, when used in the learning programmes of two groups of undergraduate and postgraduate education students. Results indicate that while both groups gained value from using the classroom, they also found it a completely new environment, and one to which many had trouble transferring the interaction and communication skills developed in other contexts. The reasons for this related to three specific areas of knowledge – technical, procedural and operational, that were identified as being critical to student performance in this environment. The study suggests that educators and course designers need to embed strategies into their online offerings to enable students to develop these, if they are to gain substantial benefit from the availability of virtual classrooms. Additionally, the study identified that when making design decisions about online learning environments, it is very much a matter of horses for courses when selecting tools for specific purposes. While the virtual classroom proved useful for developing social connection and a sense of community, it may not be so beneficial for supporting deeper learning

But a walking shadow: designing, performing and learning on the virtual stage

Representing elements of reality within a medium, or taking aspects from one medium and placing them in another is an act of remediation. The process of this act, however, is largely taken for granted. Despite the fact that available information enables a qualitative assessment of the history of multimedia and their influences on different fields of knowledge, there are still some areas that require more focused research attention. For example, the relationship between media evolution and new developments in scenographic practice is currently under investigation. This article explores the issue of immediacy as a condition of modern theatre in the context of digital reality. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that recent technologies present to contemporary practitioners and theatre design educators, creating a lot of scope to break with conventions. Here, we present two case studies that look into technology-mediated learning about scenography through the employment of novel computer visualization techniques. The first case study is concerned with new ways of researching and learning about theatre through creative exploration of design artefacts. The second case study investigates the role of the Immersive Virtual World Second Life™ (SL) in effective teaching of scenography, and in creating and experiencing theatrical performances

Adoption of augmented reality technology by university students

In recent times, Augmented Reality has gained more relevance in the field of education. This relevance has been enhanced due to its ease of use, as well as the availability of the technical devices for the students. The present study was conducted with students enrolled in the Pedagogy Degree in the Faculty of Education at the University of Seville. The objective was to understand the degree of technological acceptance of students during their interaction with the AR objects produced, the performance achieved by the students, and if their gender affected their acquisition of knowledge. For this, three data collection instruments were utilized: a multiple choice test for the analysis of the student's performance after the interaction, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) diagnostic instrument, created by Davis (1989), and an “ad hoc” instrument created so that the students could evaluate the class notes enriched with the AR objects created. The study has allowed us to broaden the scientific knowledge of the TAM by Davis, to understand that AR objects can be utilized in university teaching, and to know that the student's gender does not influence learning.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain EDU-5746-

An evaluation of scaffolding for virtual interactive tutorials

Scaffolding refers to a temporary support framework used during construction. Applied to teaching and learning it describes measures to support a learner to become confident and self-reliant in a subject. In a Web environment scaffolding features need to replace the instructor. We discuss our approach to Web-based scaffolding based on the cognitive apprenticeship and activity theories. We suggest a set of four scaffold types that have made our scaffolding-supported virtual interactive tutorial successful. We present a novel evaluation approach for virtual tutorials that is embedded into an iterative, evolutionary instructional design

Educational Uses of Augmented Reality (AR): Experiences in Educational Science

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology that is gaining greater influence on teaching every day. AR, together with mobile technology, is defined as one of the most efficient pairs for supporting significant and ubiquitous learning. Purpose of the study: the Instructional Material Motivational Survey (IMMS), by Keller, was used to determine the degree of motivation possessed by the Pedagogy students on the utilization of the notes enriched with AR in the classroom, available for their didactic use through mobile devices. Methods: through an app designed for the courses Education Technology (ET) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Applied to Education, the motivation gained when participating in this experience, and how it influences the improvement of academic performance, was evaluated. Results and conclusions: the most notable main result was finding a strong relationship between the motivation of the students when using the enriched notes and the increase of performance in the academic subject where it was used. Likewise, it was proved that the use of Augmented Reality benefited the learning process itself

The Virtual University and Avatar Technology: E-learning Through Future Technology

E-learning gains increasingly importance in academic education. Beyond present distance learning technologies a new opportunity emerges by the use of advanced avatar technology. Virtual robots acting in an environment of a virtual campus offer opportunities of advanced learning experiences. Human Machine Interaction (HMI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bridge time zones and ease professional constraints of mature students. Undergraduate students may use such technology to build up topics of their studies beyond taught lectures. Objectives of the paper are to research the options, extent and limitations of avatar technology for academic studies in under- and postgraduate courses and to discuss students' potential acceptance or rejection of interaction with AI. The research method is a case study based on Sir Tony Dyson's avatar technology iBot2000. Sir Tony is a worldwide acknowledged robot specialist, creator of Star Wars' R2D2, who developed in recent years the iBot2000 technology, intelligent avatars adaptable to different environments with the availability to speak up to eight different languages and capable to provide logic answers to questions asked. This technology underwent many prototypes with the latest specific goal to offer blended E-learning entering the field of the virtual 3-D university extending Web2.0 to Web3.0 (Dyson. 2009). Sir Tony included his vast experiences gained in his personal (teaching) work with children for which he received his knighthood. The data was mainly collected through interviews with Sir Tony Dyson, which helps discover the inventor’s view on why such technology is of advantage for academic studies. Based on interviews with Sir Tony, this research critically analyses the options, richness and restrictions, which avatar (iBot2000) technology may add to academic studies. The conclusion will discuss the opportunities, which avatar technology may be able to bring to learning and teaching activities, and the foreseeable limitations – the amount of resources required and the complexity to build a fully integrated virtual 3-D campus. Key Words: virtual learning, avatar technology, iBot2000, virtual universit