The effect of gamification in user satisfaction, the approval rate and academic performance

Ponencia de la conferencia "4th International Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Education, SETE 2019, was held in conjunction with the 18th International Conference on Web-based Learning, ICWL 2019; Magdeburg; Germany; 23 September 2019 through 25 September 2019"Continuous Education Centre from the National Polytechnic School of Ecuador (CEC-EPN) develops online education courses under a constructivist academic approach, following the ADDIE instructional approach, reaching more than 10,000 students per year. These courses implementation suffers common problems related to low student participation, low academic performance, low approval rate and low student satisfaction. The current trends of virtual education are influenced by new strategies such as the use of gamification in the design of virtual content; this is due to the good results it has had on motivation, academic performance and student participation. This document describes the implementation of a strategy of gamification based on role-play in a MOOC course on Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse in the CEC-EPN. The strategy was validated through an experimental design involving a control group (receiving a traditional course) and an experimental group (receiving the gamified course). The evaluation focuses on the analysis of the following variables: User Satisfaction, Approval Rate and Academic Performance. The results show the implemented strategy contributes to the improvement of the aforementioned variables

Accessibility evaluation of web content that support the mathematics, geometry and physics's teaching and learning

Ponencia de la conferencia "19th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, ICALT 2019; Maceio; Brazil; 15 July 2019 through 18 July 2019"The use of ICT in the classroom has allowed new teaching strategies, including the use of interactive software. However, during the design and implementation of this type of software, existing standards or recommendations for the creation of accessible Web content are not taken into account. This is why the accessibility in Web content, specifically in educational context, has been the subject of much discussion regarding the need to make Web educational content accessible to all students, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. The present study makes a literature review to identify those Authoring Tools that are being used by teachers in the areas of exact sciences, emphasizing mathematics, physics and geometry. Subsequently, the Web content generated by the identified Authoring Tools is evaluated in compliance with WCAG 2.1 recommendations, with the purpose of enunciating some conclusions and next issues to research

Framework for designing motivational augmented reality applications in vocational education and training

One of the greatest advantages of augmented reality (AR) in education is that AR increases student motivation. Nevertheless, there is a gap between the research on student motivation in AR and the definition of frameworks to inform and guide the design and development of AR applications that effectively support student motivation. In this paper. we attempt to bridge that gap as we introduce and evaluate a framework for designing motivational AR applications. Our framework has been built upon three theoretical foundations: motivational design, universal design for learning and co-creation. The evaluation study was conducted with 58 chemistry students enrolled in the vocational education and training (VET) program for Laboratory Operations, and we found that the framework not only effectively supports the four dimensions of Keller's (2010) ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction) model of motivation, but also demonstrates exceptional results in the Attention and Confidence dimensions of motivation

Implementation of the framework to heritage education supported in augmented reality

Heritage education is a process that traditionally has been implemented in a similar way to how schools work, a teacher transmits certain knowledge to a student. Nevertheless, lately, there have been new experiences that integrate Augmented Reality into the processes of heritage education. This paper describes an experience of an Augmented Reality application called 'Social Heritage' that supports heritage education processes, and is based on a framework called 'Framework to Heritage Education supported in Augmented Reality'. This work presents the results of the application of the framework in the city of Cartagena - Colombia, where positive results were obtained with citizens and visitors. These Results are related to positive experiences and motivation when users use Augmented Reality technologies to develop heritage education processes

Augmented reality-based application to foster sustainable agriculture in the context of aquaponics

Population growth implies the need to produce more food. This increases pressure on the planet's resources, which drives climate change and challenges environmental sustainability. Hence, it is important to promote sustainable agriculture strategies that contribute to global food and nutrition security while protecting natural resources. These strategies should be guided from an educational perspective that motivates people to develop positive bonds with nature. In this regard, augmented reality has emerged as a technology with the potential to improve environmental education programs. This paper presents the development and evaluation of an augmented reality-based educational application, whose purpose is to foster sustainable agriculture in the context of aquaponics. The application was developed using Unity and Vuforia following the principles of instructional design. To evaluate the effectiveness of the application, we designed a pilot study with 10 volunteers. The results indicate that the application has the potential to motivate users to learn, which suggests that it is appropriate to foster sustainable agriculture strategies in the context of aquaponics

How do pedagogical approaches affect the impact of augmented reality on education? A meta-analysis and research synthesis

Augmented Reality (AR) is gaining popularity in educational processes due to its recognized efficacy for teaching and learning. Many studies have identified the trends, advantages, opportunities, challenges, and impact of this technology on education. However, most of the previous studies failed to analyze the pedagogical approaches, somehow ignoring that the success of an intervention depends not only on the technical characteristics of the technology but also on the pedagogical strategies to implement them. This study presents a quantitative meta-analysis of 46 empirical studies to identify, in the light of the learning theories, how pedagogical approaches affect the impact of AR on education. In addition, we analyzed the impact of moderating variables on students' learning outcomes in AR interventions. The results indicate that the highest impact was obtained when interventions employed the collaborative pedagogical approach. Based on the findings of this study, we provide insights for researchers and practitioners on what characteristics of AR interventions seem to benefit students’ learning outcomes and how pedagogical approaches can be applied in various educational contexts, to guide the design of future AR interventions

Augmented reality in educational inclusion. A systematic review on the last decade

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) to achieve educational inclusion has been not deeply explored. This systematic review describes the current state of using AR as an educational technology that takes into consideration the needs of all students including those with a disability. It is done through the analysis of factors, such as the advantages of AR, its limitations, uses, challenges, its scope in the educational field, the attended population and the positive or negative effects of its use in learning scenarios that involve students with diverse educational needs. A total of 50 studies between 2008 and 2018 were analyzed through searching in three interdisciplinary databases: Scopus, Web of Science, and Springer link. For this, the methodological stages considered were planning the review, search, analysis of literature and results report. After analyzing the results, it was possible to demonstrate that the use of AR for inclusive education in the field of sciences is where more studies have been conducted. In regard to the population with disabilities, among the most representative advantages reported were the motivation, interaction and generating interest on the part of the student. At the same time, an important methodological limitation identified was the size of the sample; some investigations were done with two or three subjects, some studies Single Subject Designs were found. In terms of the population attended, the studies generally included students with different impairments (hearing, visual, motor or cognitive), minorities (ethnic, vulnerable), leaving aside other groups excluded as exceptional talents and immigrants, which could be explored in the future. Despite different problems to be addressed, few frameworks to the diversity attention in education were reported, and there was no model and methodology in inclusive education considered in the studies. Finally, from this review we have identified open issues that could give rise to new research in the subject of using AR to favor the creation of inclusive learning scenarios

Determinants of student performance with mobile-based assessment systems for English as a foreign language courses

Background Mobile-based assessment has been an active area of research in the field of mobile learning. Prior research has demonstrated that mobile-based assessment systems positively affect student performance. However, it is still unclear why and how these systems positively affect student performance. Objectives This study aims to identify the determinants of student performance during students' use of a mobile-based assessment application in a formative assessment activity as part of English as a Foreign Language courses in higher education. Methods A structural model based on hypotheses will be validated using partial least squares-structural equation modelling with data from the interaction of around 100 students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses from the A1 and A2 levels of English that used a mobile-based assessment system for a period of 4 weeks. Results and Conclusions This registered report describes the related work, hypotheses development, methodology, and proposed analysis to validate the structural model based on hypotheses. No results or conclusions have been obtained yet