Investigando o senso de presença na educação a distância

Embora esteja em grande ascensão, observa-se que a modalidade Educação a Distância (EAD) ainda possui uma percepção popular de qualidade de ensino inferior em comparação com o Ensino Presencial. Estima-se que carências como as de relações interpessoais entre estudantes, do uso de tecnologias mais interativas e dinâmicas, e da realização de práticas profissionais contribuam para essa percepção. Buscando atuar nestas potenciais fragilidades, esta tese apresenta o desenvolvimento de um suporte midiático composto por Mundos Virtuais (MVs) e Non-Player Characteres (NPCs), com um destes NPCs integrado à tecnologia de Agente Conversacional, atuando na função de Companheiro Virtual. Como aspecto principal, investiga-se o senso de presença, um construto da dimensão afetiva definido como a sensação de “estar lá” (no virtual). A pesquisa é aplicada, explicativa, de caráter misto e de abordagem quase-experimental, e divide-se em duas fases. Na primeira, foi desenvolvido o ambiente Simulação sobre Matemática Financeira, à luz do modelo pedagógico da Aprendizagem Experiencial e no formato role-playing, sendo realizados três estudos preliminares. Na segunda fase foram conduzidos três estudos finais. Destes seis estudos, cinco abrangeram contextos reais de educação formal ofertada na modalidade EAD. Um total de 132 estudantes realizou uma atividade extracurricular em um de três diferentes grupos (condições): Controle, que utilizou o Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem web tradicional; Experimental, que utilizou o MV; e Real Experimental, que utilizou o MV com o Companheiro Virtual. A pesquisa Como resultado, foram detectados problemas de inclusão digital, dificuldades e resistência ao uso de novas tecnologias pelos estudantes. Por outro lado, descobriu-se que a confiança no uso da tecnologia e o suporte do Companheiro Virtual foram fatores positivos para o senso de presença; que o Companheiro Virtual foi um fator positivo para o engajamento; e que o senso de presença foi um aspecto positivo para o processo de aprendizagem e para a satisfação dos estudantes. Com base nos achados e para responder à questão de pesquisa “Como promover o senso de presença de forma a contribuir com o processo de aprendizagem na EAD?” foi organizada uma estrutura com sete diretrizes de apoio às decisões para o uso de MVs.Although it is on the rise, it is observed that the Distance Education (DE) modality still has a popular perception of lower quality in comparison with on-site or face-to-face teaching. It is estimated that lacks such as interpersonal relationships between students, the use of more interactive and dynamic technologies, and the realization of professional practices contribute to this perception. Seeking to act on these potential weaknesses, this thesis presents the development of a media support composed of Virtual Worlds (VWs) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs), with one of these NPCs integrated to the technology of Conversational Agents, acting in the role of Virtual Companion. As main aspect, the sense of presence is investigated, a construct from the affective dimension defined as the feeling of “being there” (in the virtual). The research is applied, explanatory, of mixed character and quasi-experimental approach, and is divided into two phases. In the first, the Simulation on Financial Mathematics environment was developed, in the light of the pedagogical model of Experiential Learning and in the role-playing format, with three preliminary studies being carried out. In the second phase, three final studies were conducted. From these six studies, five took place in real contexts of formal education offered in DE. A total of 132 students performed an extracurricular activity in one of three different groups (conditions): Control, which used the traditional web Virtual Learning Environment; Experimental, which used the VW; and Real Experimental, which used the VW with the Virtual Companion. As a result, problems of digital inclusion, difficulties and resistance in the use of new technologies by students were detected. On the other hand, it was found that the confidence in the use of technology and the support of the Virtual Companion were positive factors for the sense of presence; that the Virtual Companion was a positive factor for engagement; and that the sense of presence was a positive aspect for the learning process and for student satisfaction. Based on the findings and to answer the research question “How to promote the sense of presence in order to contribute to the learning process in DE?” a structure was organized with seven guidelines to support decisions for the use of VWs

Analyzing trends in academic papers about ubiquitous virtual worlds in education using text mining

Contemporary teaching and learning processes increasingly require exploration and discovery activities, rather than the organized sequence of methods used in the twentieth century. This paper aims to describe a research that uses text mining techniques on a corpus composed of 10 current academic papers about educational ubiquitous’ Virtual Worlds, aiming to obtain indications about the main trends in terms of development and applications in the area. As a result, some directions have been extracted and analyzed, which revealed research opportunities in the educational field

Molecular Modeling with Augmented Reality (MMAR): An Educational Web System for the Learning of Molecular Structures

Learning about molecular structures often becomes abstruse, due to its complex compositions, being aggravated by the restricted interactivity provided by the software commonly used. This difficulty can also be attached to the fact that most of the students do not present the necessary knowledge to work with biomolecular systems, affecting also the motivation in the object of study. In this context, the objective of this work is to analyze the influences related to interactivity, usability and motivation, provided by a web system called MMAR (Molecular Modeling with Augmented Reality), designed to support the learning of three-dimensional (3D) molecular structures. The system was applied to twenty-five students in the Chemistry discipline, from a technical course in a public school from basic education in Brazil. The results show that it was possible to assist students in the gain of knowledge, while simultaneously allowing them to enjoy themselves, providing unconventional learning, by increasing attractiveness, curiosity, attention, enthusiasm and relevance of such a complex subject in Chemistry

Initial Perception of Virtual World Users: A Study about Impacts of Learning Styles and Digital Experience

Virtual Worlds emerge as three-dimensional environments that have the potential to stimulate advances in the educational field by promoting interactivity, freedom and autonomy for students. However, its effective adoption in educational institutions is still considered very limited, and few studies have so far sought to identify more specific causes for such limitation. This research aims to contribute to the theme through a preliminary study about the impact of individual characteristics of learning styles and digital experience on users’ initial perception about 3D Virtual Worlds. An experiment was conducted with a sample consisting of potential influencers in the decision making process for adoption of this type of approach, being composed by professionals from educational area that experimented a 3D virtual laboratory for the first time. As a result, some insights about the mentioned characteristics’ influence on user first impression are identified and some potential adjustments necessary to better fit different profiles are suggested, envisioning to disseminate theuse of Virtual Worlds in Education

An OWL-Based Ontology to Represent Interactions of Students in Educational Virtual Worlds

While several studies in the last decade explore the potential benefits of virtual worlds in education settings, less attention has been given to the research of solutions to help overcome implementation barriers. One of the existing areas of concern is related to the difficulties on the exploitation of data obtained from educational virtual worlds. This paper proposes an OWL-based ontology to address a solution to the problem of inconsistency of databases that record information about student interactions with learning objects within these environments. The steps that have been followed for the development of the ontology are described, guided by Stanford’s 101 model. To discuss the feasibility and exemplify the ontology, an instance of an existing virtual world interaction is presented. The conclusion is that the proposed ontology can be helpful to researchers and development groups as it delivers a reusable model to gather data in a uniform way

Analysis of the “Student Vision” model for the evaluation of digital serious games

Este artigo apresenta uma análise do modelo de avaliação de jogos sérios digitais “Visão do Estudante”, que conta com a combinação de dois instrumentos, sendo o primeiro a adaptação de um questionário proposto por Savi (2011) e o segundo composto por itens de interação com base em princípios mencionados por Aarseth (2003). De forma a explorar o modelo, dados de sua aplicação com uma amostra de 18 estudantes foram analisados, complementando-os com o uso de testes estatísticos. Como resultado, foram encontradas evidências da relação entre as percepções do estudante sobre aspectos motivacionais e sua opinião sobre a experiência de usuário, e observou-se diferenças significativas entre grupos em alguns aspectos avaliados, demonstrando a utilidade do modelo para analisar a aplicação de um jogo educacional.This article presents an analysis of the “Student Vision” evaluation model of digital serious games, which counts with the combination of two instruments, the first being the adaptation of a questionnaire proposed by Savi (2011) and the second being composed of interaction items based on principles mentioned by Aarseth (2003). In order to explore the model, data from its application with a sample of 18 students were analyzed, complementing them with the use of statistical tests. As a result, it was found evidence of the relationship between the student’s perceptions of motivational aspects and its opinion regarding the user experience, and it was observed significant differences among groups in some aspects evaluated, demonstrating the utility of the model to analyze the application of an educational game

Augmented Reality in the Teaching and Learning Process of Chemistry: A Systematic Literature Review

Chemistry Education has been progressively complemented by pedagogical strategies involving the use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology. In this context, a systematic literature review was carried out in order to present the particularities of this scenario, such as those related to the technological scope, target audience profile, research methods, data collection instruments, number of students involved, and duration of the instruction. Forty-nine articles were analyzed, recovered from five databases, between the years 2011 to 2020. Among the main results found is the increase number of publications in the last three years, with the target audience of the studies being generally Secondary and Tertiary Education students (97.96%). Regarding technological aspects, the mobile platform and the marker-based system were predominant. In terms of methodology, the quantitative approach prevailed, together with the use of questionnaires as instruments for data collection. As for the number of participants, the experiments reported usually involved between 31 and 100 students, who had up to 60 minutes of instruction time. The article ends by revealing gaps in current research, presenting suggestions and directions for future work

Análise do modelo “Visão do Estudante” de avaliação de jogos sérios digitais

Este artigo apresenta uma análise do modelo de avaliação de jogos sérios digitais “Visão do Estudante”, que conta com a combinação de dois instrumentos, sendo o primeiro a adaptação de um questionário proposto por Savi (2011) e o segundo composto por itens de interação com base em princípios mencionados por Aarseth (2003). De forma a explorar o modelo, dados de sua aplicação com uma amostra de 18 estudantes foram analisados, complementando-os com o uso de testes estatísticos. Como resultado, foram encontradas evidências da relação entre as percepções do estudante sobre aspectos motivacionais e sua opinião sobre a experiência de usuário, e observou-se diferenças significativas entre grupos em alguns aspectos avaliados, demonstrando a utilidade do modelo para analisar a aplicação de um jogo educacional

Perspectivas tecnológicas para o aprimoramento de chatbots educacionais em AIML

Agentes conversacionais ou chatbots vêm sendo cada vez mais explorados na educação por trazerem inúmeros benefícios, como permitir que estudantes interajam e se relacionem de forma mais humana com Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA). Entretanto, desde o surgimento do projeto A.L.I.C.E. (1995) e da linguagem AIML poucas soluções open source emergiram para a criação de chatbots. Apesar de sua facilidade de uso, a AIML tem limitações inerentes a uma lógica baseada em regras. Nesse sentido, este artigo traz uma discussão sobre possibilidades open source existentes para o desenvolvimento chatbots, apresentando sugestões de formas de aprimoramento do uso da AIML com o uso da linguagem de programação JavaScript e o acesso a Bancos de Dados (BD) externos. Resultados do estudo apontam algumas soluções envolvendo as técnicas mencionadas, proporcionando ao chatbot maiores possibilidades de busca e respostas.Conversational agents or chatbots have been increasingly exploited in education because they bring numerous benefits, as allowing students to interact and relate more humanly to virtual learning environments. Since the emergence of A.L.I.C.E. Project (1995) and the AIML language few open source solutions have emerged for the creation of chatbots. Despite ease of use, AIML has limitations inherent in rule-based logic about input and output patterns. This article discusses open source possibilities for the development of conversational agents, presenting suggesting ways of improving the use of AIML by adding the use of the JavaScript programming language and the access to external databases. Results of the study point to some solutions the mentioned techniques, providing the chatbot to have greater possibilities of search and answers.Facultad de Informátic

Revisão de Literatura Sobre o Uso da Realidade Aumentada no Ensino de Química

Nos últimos anos a Realidade Aumentada (RA) tem atraído a atenção depesquisadores de diversas áreas. Por sua especial capacidade de criar ambientes que facilitam a compreensão de conceitos abstratos, esta tecnologia tem sido amplamente utilizada no ensino de Química. Neste contexto, este trabalho apresenta uma revisão sistemática de literatura, buscando revelar as tendências científicas, o público-alvo e os principais tópicos em que essa tecnologia é aplicada. Foram revisados artigos publicados em periódicos e conferências internacionais no período de 2011 a 2020. Entre os principais resultados encontrados, está o constante aumento de estudos nos últimos três anos, o público-alvo sendo formado majoritariamente por estudantes do ensino superior, e estruturas moleculares como o principal tópico da Química em que a RA é utilizada