Collaborative Robotics: More Than Just Working in Groups

The purpose of this study was to determine what collaborative interventions produce positive effects for students working on collaborative robotics projects for science process skills, collaborative problem solving, and learning motivation. In addition, the study examined the impact students’ prior robotics experience had on science process skills, collaborative problem solving, and learning motivation. The results indicated experience level and collaboration interventions can have impacts on students. Assigned Group Roles had positive effects on students’ motivation and collaborative problem solving. Experience level also had effects upon student learning motivation and collaborative problem solving with the Novice status associated with higher levels as compared with students who had more experience. A collaboration intervention was identified that has the potential to produce positive effects for students in collaborative robotics projects as well as assist classroom educators in the purposeful design of collaborative robotics projects with scientifically based strategies to improve the attitudinal outcomes for students of various robotics experience

Exploring Factors of Media Characteristic Influencing Flow in Learning Through Virtual Worlds

This study aims to find out factors of media characteristic which are considered to influence flow in learning through virtual worlds. One hundred ninety eight elementary students who are eleven to twelve years old participated in this study. After the exploratory factor analysis, to extract media characteristics of virtual worlds, seventy-eight elementary students who are eleven years old were used in the analysis of exploring relationships between factors influencing flow. The results of this study show that distinct media characteristics of virtual worlds affecting engagement were labeled \u27interactivity\u27, \u27representational fidelity\u27, \u27immediacy of communication\u27, \u27consistency\u27, and \u27persistence\u27 after the exploratory factor analysis. Another result of this study is that the media characteristics are positively correlated: when students effectively recognize media characteristics, the level of flow is also high. In addition, virtual worlds\u27 characteristics have a significantly consistent predictability on learners’ flow, which is consistent with previous research that demonstrated media characteristics were a critical factor for influencing engagement. Lastly, factors of media characteristics such as \u27immediacy of communication\u27, \u27consistency\u27 and \u27persistence\u27 are related to flow, but don\u27t have an influence on causality, so it is difficult to assert that these factors predict learner’s engagement. However, other factors such as \u27interactivity\u27 and \u27representational fidelity\u27 are significant factors that predict flow in learning through virtual worlds

Rethinking Fantasy as a Contributor to Intrinsic Motivation in Digital Gameplay

Playing digital games is a part of life for current natives. Games make people engrossed, and are optimized environments where fun prevails. Of making people motivated in gameplay, fantasy is a paramount element. Research has discovered that fantasy plays a critical role in enhancing intrinsic motivation. This chapter thus revisits the role of fantasy while playing digital games, focusing on what brings a state of fantasy in a gaming world. Specifically, the purpose of this chapter is to probe factors creating fantasy state while gameplay. To this end, 153 junior high students aged from 11 to 13 were participated in this study, and 35 commercial off-the-shelf games including most game genres were utilized. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to extract the factors making fantasy state while gameplay. As a result, four factors were extracted as fantasy components, and labeled as identification, imagination, analogy, and satisfaction. By thinking about such subcomponents, fantasy in gaming can be understood as the individualized psychological state, which is satisfied with certain gaming situation and/or events being evoked by identifying in the game world from both extrinsic and intrinsic stimul

Exploring How Individual Traits Influence Enjoyment in a Mobile Learning Game

This study investigated individual traits as predictors of game enjoyment by including learning style, intrinsic motivation, collaboration skills, and computer game attitude as key parts of a model that also included achievement. Results of correlation and regression analyses revealed that intrinsic motivation was the only variable to predict game enjoyment. This supports the conceptualization of enjoyment as need satisfaction of intrinsic needs. Enjoyment was also found to be positively correlated with achievement. Other significant relations emerged, particularly how a player’s attitude toward games predicted intrinsic motivation. The present study examined children’s enjoyment experiences in the mobile version of the Minecraft game. It also highlights the complexity of game enjoyment as it relates to mobile learning games

What Leads to Player\u27s Enjoyment and Achievement in a Mobile Learning Game?

This study investigated students’ perceptions of competence and enjoyment of a mobile game within the context of mobile game-based learning. The proposed model showed that perceived competence and game attitude were the main predictors of enjoyment, while no direct relationship was found between perceived competence and achievement. The model simultaneously considered other factors such as prior game experience and intensity of use, and final analysis revealed that these two variables were directly related. Another important finding was the strong impact of prior game experience on perceived competence. Results are interpreted with reference to implications for possible means of improving learning outcomes when using mobile learning games in the academic context

Understanding Second Grader’s Computational Thinking Skills in Robotics Through Their Individual Traits

This study investigated the relationship between the personal traits and computational thinking skills of second graders within the context of robotics activities. The hypothesized model showed that learning preference, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy were the main predictors of coding achievement and computational thinking skills, while no direct relationship was found between learning preference, intrinsic, or extrinsic motivation. The final path analysis revealed that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation predict self-efficacy, self-efficacy predicts coding achievement, and coding achievement predicts computational thinking skills. Another important finding was the strong impact of self-efficacy on coding achievement as well as computational thinking skills. Results are interpreted with reference to implications for potential methods of improving computational thinking skills when using robotics in the lower grades in elementary schools

Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Mobile Learning in Korea

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous, and their uses are various. In schools, many discussions about mobile devices are ongoing as more and more teachers are adopting the technology for use in their classrooms. Teachers’ attitudes toward mobile learning takes an important role in initiating its usage in schools. This study aims to investigate the attitudes toward mobile learning among Korean teachers. The authors’ primary focus lies on the teachers’ attitudes toward mobile learning in view of their differences in gender, school level, teaching experience, and subjects taught. In order to find out teachers’ attitudes toward mobile learning, the Mobile Learning Perception Scale (MLPS) developed by Uzunboylu and Özdamlı was utilized. The results of this study showed Korean teachers’ mobile learning attitudes was low in general. Female teachers were more positive than male teachers in their attitudes. Secondary school teachers’ attitudes on the Forms of Mobile Learning Application and Tools’ Sufficient Adequacy of Communication (FMA&TSAC) was significantly higher than elementary school teachers. The group with more than 15 years of teaching experience showed higher attitudes toward mobile learning than those groups that were less experienced. Language teachers showed higher attitudes toward FMA&TSAC domain than all other subjects’ teachers

How Debriefing Strategies Can Improve Student Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Game-Based Learning

Debriefing is an important step in game-based learning environments. In the present study, the effect of different debriefing strategies in terms of two factors, grouping (self vs. team) and timing (in-game vs. post-game), was investigated on the motivation and self-efficacy levels of students. In a 2x2 ANOVA design, 62 sixth grade students were randomly assigned into two debriefing groups: self-debriefing and team debriefing. About half of members in each group performed either one of the two debriefing: in-game debriefing or post-game debriefing. Students in the self-debriefing as well as in the team-briefing group played the game three days a week over nine weeks. As students finished the task, motivation and self-efficacy scales were administered and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings indicate that students showed higher motivation and self-efficacy scores in the team debriefing than in the self-debriefing. Moreover, the in-game debriefing group outperformed the post-game debriefing group in terms of self-efficacy and motivation levels. Semi-structured interviews supported the quantitative results that students benefited more from collaborative debriefing sessions

Development of a Scale for Fantasy State in Digital Games

Digital games appear to motivate players intrinsically. Of various game features, fantasy in particularly plays a crucial role in enhancing motivation and is a key factor in immersion in gameplay. As with its inherent value, fantasy also plays a vital role in distinguishing digital games itself from other media. Despite its significance, fantasy has received little attention, and this concept is still ambiguous to define with any certainty. This study thus aims to create a framework to explore a dimension of fantasy and to develop a scale to measure a state of fantasy in digital games. As a result, four factors were extracted, which were ‘identification’, ‘imagination’, ‘analogy’, and ‘satisfaction’, to account for fantasy state in digital gameplay. Based on these factors, a fantasy scale in digital games (FSDGs) included 16 items was developed

Exploring Effects of Intrinsic Motivation and Prior Knowledge on Student Achievements in Game-Based Learning

This study investigates the effects of students’ intrinsic motivation and prior knowledge on student achievement in learning Chinese in a game-based learning environment. A total of 140 fourth-grade students from an elementary school in South Korea participated in this study. An instructional game called “Hanjamaru,” which is designed to teach Chinese characters, was implemented for four weeks. During the experiment, students’ prior knowledge, intrinsic motivation in gaming, and achievements learning Chinese were quantitatively measured. Findings from this study demonstrate that both students’ prior knowledge and intrinsic motivation affect their achievements in learning Chinese. Also, there students’ prior knowledge and intrinsic motivation affected each other; that is, a group low in intrinsic motivation but with higher prior knowledge showed comparatively higher student achievements. These findings suggest that students’ prior knowledge should also be considered while designing and adopting game-based learning in order to engage students with different levels of intrinsic motivation