Search

In traditional instruction, teachers generally deliver the content of textbooks to students via lectures, making teaching activities lack vibrancy. Moreover, in such a one-to-many teaching mode, the teacher is usually unable to check on individual students' learning status or to provide immediate feedback to resolve their learning problems. Chatbots provide an opportunity to address this problem. However, conventional chatbots generally serve as information providers (i.e., providing relevant information by matching keywords in a conversation) rather than as decision-making advisors (i.e., using a knowledge-base with a decision-making mechanism to help users solve problems). Thus, this study proposes an expert decision-making-based chatbot to facilitate individual students' construction of knowledge during the learning process. A quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the differences in the performances and perceptions of students using the expert decision-making-based chatbot (EDM-chatbot) and the conventional chatbot (C-chatbot) in the activities of a geography course. One class of 35 students was the experimental group, using the EDM-chatbot. The other class of 35 students was the control group, using the C-chatbot. The results of the study showed that the EDM-chatbot combined with expert decision-making knowledge significantly improved students' learning achievement and learning enjoyment as well as reducing their learning anxiety, showing the value of the proposed approach.

Educational data mining and learning analytics have become a very important topic in the field of education technology. Many frameworks have been proposed for learning analytics which make it possible to identify learning behavior patterns or strategies. However, it is difficult to understand the reason why behavior patterns occur and why certain strategies are used. In other words, all of the existing frameworks lack an important step, that is, result confirmation. In this paper, we propose a Result Confirmation-based Learning Behavior Analysis (ReCoLBA) framework, which adds a result confirmation step for exploring the hidden reasons underlying the learning patterns and strategies. Using this ReCoLBA framework, a case study was conducted which analyzed e-book reading data. In the case study, we found that the students had a tendency to delete markers after adding them. Through an investigation, we found that the students did this because they could not grasp the learning emphasis. To apply this finding, we proposed a learning strategy whereby the teacher highlights the learning emphasis before students read the learning materials. An experiment was conducted to examine the effectiveness of this strategy, and we found that it could indeed help students achieve better results, reduce repetitive behaviors and save time. The framework was therefore shown to be effective.

Precision medicine has become an essential issue in the medical community as the quality of medical care is being emphasized nowadays. The technological data analysis and predictions made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have assisted medical staff in designing personalized medicine for patients, making AI technologies an important path to precision medicine. During the implementation of the new emerging technology, medical staff's learning intentions will have a great influence on its effectiveness. With reference to the Technology Acceptance Model, this study explored medical staff's attitudes, intentions, and relevant influencing factors in relation to AI application learning. A total of 285 valid questionnaires were collected. Five major factors, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), subjective norms (SN), attitude towards AI use (ATU), and behavioral intention (BI), were used for analyzing the AI learning of medical staff in a hospital. Based on the SEM analytical results and the research model, the four endogenous constructs of PU, PEU, SN, and ATU explained 37.4% of the changes in BI. In this model, SN and PEU were the determining factors of BI. The total effects of SN and PEU were 0.448 and 0.408 respectively, followed by PU, with a total effect of 0.244. As a result, the intentions of medical staff to learn to use AI applications to support precision medicine can be predicted by SN, PEU, PU, and ATU. Among them, subjective norms considering the influences of both supervisors and peers, such as encouragement, communication, and sharing, may assist precision education in supporting the learning attitudes and behavior regarding precision medicine. The research results can provide recommendations for examining medical staff's intention to use AI applications.

In various case-based training courses, such as engineering, science and medical courses, students need to learn not only the skills to deal with problems, but also the knowledge to identify problems and make correct decisions. Such educational objectives have been recognized by educators as being important but challenging. In this study, an RSI (Recognize, Summarize, Inquire)-based flipped classroom is proposed to achieve this aim. Moreover, an explorative study was designed to probe the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a nursing case-based training course. The case-handling performances of the students trained with the RSI-based flipped classroom and those trained with the conventional flipped classroom were compared. The findings reveal that the RSI-based flipped classroom promoted the students' learning achievement, self-efficacy, critical thinking, and satisfaction more than the conventional case-based training did.

Vocabulary mastery is critical to English as Foreign Language students. Mobile technologies enable students to learn vocabulary without space and time limitations. However, existing mobile-assisted vocabulary learning research often employed teacher-directed activities that increased instructors' workload, undermined student motivation or targeted individual cognitive outcomes only. In this study, a Contribution-oriented Self-Directed Mobile Learning Ecology (CSDMLE) model is proposed for developing student-directed and motivational vocabulary learning activities in groups. Through a mixed-method design, we administered a survey and a vocabulary test to 55 freshmen students in a Chinese university, and conducted follow-up interviews. We found that students in the CSDMLE group outperformed those not in the group in the post-test vocabulary test, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups' delayed vocabulary test or L2 motivation. However, the treatment group displayed a highly favorable attitude toward the learning approach and a strong intention to use it continuously. The findings have implications for technology-supported vocabulary learning activities.

Educating inpatients and their family members regarding patient safety and protection is an important and challenging task for nursing staff. However, the effects of the conventional patient instruction with printed materials are usually not as good as expected owing to the learners' low learning engagement. In this study, a learning engagement-promoting model is proposed for developing interactive e-book systems for patient education. To evaluate the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted to explore the effects of the system on the learning outcomes and perceptions of inpatients' family members. The results show that the proposed approach significantly improved their learning performance as well as their learning attitudes, motivation, and satisfaction when compared to the conventional paper-based instruction. On the other hand, it was found that their state anxiety was not significantly affected by the approach. It is concluded that the interactive e-book-based learning approach can facilitate the inpatients' family members to well prepare for taking care of the patients without affecting their state anxiety.

This study explores the effects of integrated concept maps and classroom polling systems on students' learning performance, attentional behavior, and brainwaves associated with attention. Twenty-nine students from an Educational Research Methodology course were recruited as participants. For data collection, inclass quizzes, attentional behavior analysis, and a 20-minute structured interview were applied, and the attention-associated brainwaves of the participants were measured. In the first week, a group-polling method was introduced in class; in the second week, participants were asked to draw concept maps using pen and paper (PnP concept mapping); and in the third week, the polling system and concept maps were integrated (votable concept mapping) and applied. The results showed that the PnP concept mapping approach improved the quiz results of students with lower learning motivation prior to the course, while the votable concept mapping method was effective in stimulating students' attention during class. It was therefore suggested that instructors adopt methods integrating concept maps and polling tools to stimulate students' attention and thereby promote a positive cycle of attentional behavior in the classroom. For example, students' attentional behavior during an activity facilitated their attentional behavior after the activity, and this behavior continued until the next activity.

English business writing is an important and challenging course for English as Foreign Language (EFL) students since it is not only related to English writing skills, but also to business knowledge. Context-game based learning seems to be a good approach to situating students in a meaningful and interesting practicing environment, which could improve their learning motivation and interest. However, without interacting with the teacher and peers, the effectiveness of game-based learning could be limited. In this study, a flipped contextual game-based learning approach was proposed to cope with this problem; moreover, a mixed methods research approach was used to analyze the writing performance, writing errors, and reflective content of the students who learned with the proposed approach and those learning with conventional contextual game-based learning. The experimental results revealed that the flipped contextual game-based instruction was able to enhance the students' English writing performance. It was also found that those students with the flipped learning approach had fewer writing errors than those learning with the conventional approach. Moreover, by analyzing the students' reflective content, the benefits and challenges of flipping the classroom are reported. These findings could be valuable references for those who intend to conduct effective flipped contextual game-based learning with learning management systems to motivate students' game-based learning and to improve their language learning performance.

Flipped classrooms have been widely adopted and discussed by school teachers and researchers in the past decade. However, few studies have been conducted to formally evaluate the effectiveness of flipped classrooms in terms of improving EFL students' English oral presentation, not to mention investigating factors affecting their flipped learning outcomes. In this study, an online community-based flipped learning approach was proposed for an EFL oral presentation course; moreover, a learning analytics approach was used to analyze factors affecting the students' oral presentation outcomes. An 18-week research design was implemented with the online community-based flipped classroom using Facebook as the platform for facilitating and recording peer-to-peer interactions during the flipped learning process. In addition, the students' learning performance and perceptions were collected in 3 learning stages during the 18 weeks. The experimental results reveal positive effects of the online community-based flipped instruction over the conventional video-based instruction. That is, first, the online community-based flipped instruction using mobile devices can enhance students' English oral performance. Moreover, it was found that the high improvers had a significantly higher frequency of online participation, as well as more interactive behaviors and greater satisfaction with the flipped classroom than the low improvers. These results imply that the online community flipped classroom could not only provide learning materials and out-of-class learning for students, but could also help them become more responsible and autonomous in their learning and communication. These findings could be valuable references for those who intend to conduct effective flipped classrooms with an online community to facilitate students' before-class learning participation and to improve their in-class learning performance.

With the rapid progress of technology, the popularity of tablet computers and the development of e-book applications have brought the use of e-books as a learning tool under the spotlight. In the meantime, the aim of school education lies not only in providing students with knowledge but also in encouraging them to construct knowledge actively. Consequently, in this study, an approach of integrating the guided peerfeedback strategy into e-book design was proposed. An experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course to explore its effectiveness in comparison with the conventional e-book development activity. It was expected that the guided peer-feedback approach could engage students in knowledge organizing and in-depth thinking while stimulating more innovative ideas. To assess the impacts of this approach, a quasi-experimental design method was adopted. The students were divided into two groups: the experimental group, in which the students learned with the guided peer-feedback strategy together with the e-book development approach, and the control group, in which the students learned with the conventional ebook development approach. The experimental results indicated that the integrated guided peer-feedback and e-book development strategy had significant impacts on the students' learning achievements and ebook project outcomes while reducing their cognitive load and increasing their innovative thinking tendency in the design process.

It has become an important and challenging issue to foster students' concepts and skills of computer programming. Scholars believe that programming training could promote students' higher order thinking performance; however, many school teachers have reported the difficulty of teaching programming courses. Although several previous studies have attempted to develop friendly user interfaces to ease students' loads, teaching programming courses remains a big challenge for most school teachers. In this study, an online peer assessment-based system was developed to cope with this problem. The students could use the peer-assessment function to provide comments to peers, and review the feedback and scores from peers during the learning activity. A quasi experiment was conducted on four classes of 166 ninth graders of a junior high school located in southern Taiwan to examine the impacts of the developed system. Two classes of students were assigned to the experimental group, learning with an online peer assessment-based teaching strategy, while the other two classes were the control group, learning with the conventional teaching strategy. The experimental results showed that the students in the experimental group had better programming knowledge and skills as well as more positive learning attitudes and critical thinking awareness than those in the control group, revealing the benefits of the proposed approach.

Flipped learning is a well-recognized learning mode that reverses the traditional in-class instruction arrangement by delivering learning content outside of the classroom and engaging students in more activities in class. However, it remains a challenge for students to comprehend the learning material by themselves, particularly when learning abstract concepts such as in mathematics. In this study, an interactive e-book approach is proposed to support flipped learning. It facilitates and bridges out-of-class and in-class learning by providing support for interactive learning contents presented on mobile devices. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experiment was conducted in an elementary school math course. The experimental group students learned with the interactive e-book approach in the flipped learning activity, while the control group students learned with the conventional video-based flipped learning approach. The experimental results indicated that the proposed approach not only promoted the students' self-efficacy for learning mathematics, but also improved their learning achievement; moreover, it was found that the approach benefited the lower self-efficacy more than the higher self-efficacy students. The learning record analysis further confirmed that the lower self-efficacy students spent more time reading the e-books before and in class than the higher self-efficacy students did.

Previous research has illustrated the importance of acquiring knowledge from authentic contexts; however, without full engagement, students' learning performance might not be as good as expected. In this study, a Team Competition-based Ubiquitous Gaming approach was proposed for improving students' learning effectiveness in authentic learning activities. An experiment on a natural science course was carried out in an elementary school to evaluate the effects of the approach on students' awareness of collaboration, communication and collective efficacy. Moreover, the students' learning behavioral patterns were explored by analyzing their interactive logs in the discussion forum. The experimental results indicated that, in addition to learning achievements, the proposed approach significantly enhanced the students' collective efficacy as well as their awareness of collaboration and communication; moreover, the students who learned with the proposed approach showed more effective behavioral patterns than those who learned with conventional team-based ubiquitous learning.

Programming concepts are important and challenging to novices who are beginning to study computer programming skills. In addition to the textbook content, students usually learn the concepts of programming from the web; however, it could be difficult for novice learners to effectively derive helpful information from such non-structured open resources. Few studies have addressed this issue by proposing different web issue-quest approaches and investigating the effects of learning with different web resources on students' learning performances in computer programming courses, not to mention the use of statistical methods for analyzing the factors affecting students' learning outcomes. Therefore, in this study, a structured-resource issue-quest approach is proposed to support structured programming learning activities. An issue-quest learning environment was developed, and an experiment was conducted to compare the learning achievement of the students who learned with the proposed approach (experimental group) with that of the students who learned with the conventional open-resource-based issue quest approach (control group). The participants were 418 tenth graders (214 in the experimental group and 204 in the control group) who were 16 years old on average. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to investigate and compare the effects of the Web Issue-Quest approaches (i.e., open resource-based issue quest and structured resource-based issue quest) on the students' learning perceptions based on an extended technology acceptance model (ETAM). The experimental results showed that the structured resource-based issue quest approach benefited the novices more in terms of their learning achievements related to the computer programming concepts. Meanwhile, the SEM analysis showed that the two groups of students had equivalent perceptions of the usefulness, ease-of-use and enjoyment of learning with the two issue quest modes. This implies that the structured resource-based issue quest approach was helpful to the students in terms of improving their learning performance, while the limitation of access to open resources did not affect their learning perceptions.

Concept mapping has been widely used in various fields to facilitate students' organization of knowledge. Previous studies have, however, pointed out that it is difficult for students to construct concept maps from the abundant searched data without appropriate scaffolding. Thus, researchers have suggested that students could produce high quality concept maps when they construct them with appropriate guidance. Accordingly, this study proposes a question prompt-based concept mapping approach, which was conducted in a computer course with a duration of 14 weeks on the research issue of global warming. There were 176 senior high school students from four classes who participated in the experiment. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design for the investigation of the effectiveness of the proposed approach; two classes were randomly assigned to be the experimental group, learning with the question prompt-based concept mapping approach, while the other two groups were the control group, who used the conventional concept mapping approach. The results indicated that the students in the experimental group had better performance than those in the control group in terms of their learning achievement, 5C competences, and learning attitudes. In addition, the results also showed that students with a reflective style had better learning achievement than those with an active style. Thus, it is worth investigating, for such an issue, how to propose more effective learning models for diverse student learning styles in the future. This can provide useful guidance for educators, practitioners and researchers in the areas of science education and computer-assisted education.

The purpose of this study is to quantitatively measure the level of knowledge elaboration and explore the relationships between prior knowledge of a group, group performance, and knowledge elaboration in collaborative learning. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the level of knowledge elaboration. The collaborative learning objective in the first experiment concerned the understanding of curriculum objectives, and that of the second experiment was related to the theory and application of consumer behaviour in microeconomics. A total of 91 undergraduate students participated in the first experiment and 94 participated in the second experiment. Students were randomly divided into 30 groups of three or four in each experiment. Students' interactions were analysed based on the computer-assisted knowledge map analytical approach to measuring the level of knowledge elaboration. Empirical evidence from 60 groups demonstrates that the network structure entropy, degree distribution index, depth, and weighted path length of the activation spanning tree of the target knowledge map can be used for the precise measurement of knowledge elaboration. The results also reveal that knowledge elaboration is positively related to both prior knowledge of a group and group performance.

Computer programming is an important skill for engineering and computer science students. However, teaching and learning programming concepts and skills has been recognized as a great challenge to both teachers and students. Therefore, the development of effective learning strategies and environments for programming courses has become an important issue. To address this issue, this study proposes a two-tier test-based learning system to enhance students' learning outcomes in computer-programming courses. We conducted an experiment on a college computer-programming course to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed method not only improves the students' attitude toward learning the programming language, but also enhances their programming skills.

Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is an effective approach for promoting active learning. When inquiry-based learning is incorporated into instruction, teachers provide guiding questions for students to actively explore the required knowledge in order to solve the problems. Although the World Wide Web (WWW) is a rich knowledge resource for students to explore using search engines, it is hard for students to filter out required knowledge from the unorganized web pages and the huge number of search results. In this paper, an inquiry-based learning support system with two advanced knowledge exploration modules, namely the Q&A module and the Segmented Supplemental Material (SSM) module, is proposed and developed to assist students' inquiry-based learning. This study also evaluates the effects of the proposed system on students' learning achievement and learning efficiency with the various supports provided by the proposed system. Experiments were undertaken on a "Computer Science" course for first year undergraduate students. The experimental results show that with the support of the two advanced modules, both the students' learning achievement and their learning efficiency were enhanced.

In the era of computer and communication technologies, fostering students' high-level thinking abilities has become an important educational objective. Engaging students in web information searching to answer a series of questions related to a target issue has been recognized as a helpful approach for promoting students' thinking processes. In this study, a contextual learning approach is employed in web information searching activities to improve students' learning achievement, attitudes and critical thinking ability. The participants were divided into an experimental group, which was guided to use Internet resources to complete problem-based learning tasks with the contextual learning approach, and a control group, which learned with the conventional web information searching approach that situated students in a pure web information searching environment to answer questions for the issue to be investigated. From the experimental results, it was found that the experimental group exhibited significantly better learning attitudes, learning achievement, and better critical thinking than the control group, suggesting the effectiveness of the integrated contextual and web information searching approach in terms of helping students use Internet resources to investigate the target issue in depth.

Fostering the listening comprehension of English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners has been recognized as an important and challenging issue. Videos have been used as one of the English listening learning resources; however, without effective learning supports, EFL students are likely to encounter difficulties in comprehending the video content, leading to frustration and reducing learning interest. In this study, a learning system with an automatic caption filtering and partial hiding mechanism was developed to improve the English listening comprehension of EFL students. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach on students' learning achievements and perceptions. The participants were 76 freshmen from two classes of a non-language-related department of a university. Each class contained 38 students. The two classes of students were situated in the proposed learning context and the conventional technology-enhanced learning context with a counterbalanced experimental design. The experimental results verified that the proposed caption filtering approach effectively improved the listening comprehension of the students in comparison with the conventional approach which provides full captions and an e-dictionary. Moreover, from the data collected by the eye movement tracking device, it was found that more than 76% of the students relied on the captions during the learning activity, reflecting the importance of developing effective caption filtering mechanisms for supporting EFL learners.

Scholars have identified that learning in an authentic environment with quality contextual and procedural supports can engage students in thorough observations and knowledge construction. Moreover, the target is that students are able to experience and make sense of all of the learning activities in the real-world environment with meaningful supports, such that their learning motivation can be promoted, knowledge can be sensibly constructed, and skills can be fully developed. To develop potential tutoring strategies and learning activity models using mobile, wireless, and sensing information and communication technologies (ICT) in a real-world learning environment, a four-year national e-learning research project entitled "Mindtool-Assisted In-field Learning (MAIL)" has been funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan since 2008 in an effort to lead the development and innovation of Learning Technology. The integrated project aimed to develop Mindtool-assisted knowledge construction models, assessment models, guidance models, and reflection strategies for cutting-edge context-aware ubiquitous learning. Moreover, a series of learning activities has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed learning strategies and models. Each year, more than 1,500 students have participated in the in-field learning activities with the designed approaches. Based on the results of a series of experiments, it was found that the students' learning performance as well as their in-field inquiry ability was significantly improved, showing the effectiveness of the Mindtool-assisted ubiquitous learning approach and the success of the MAIL project. In this paper, the background, objectives, theoretical foundations, systems, research issues, applications, and findings of the MAIL project are presented. Finally, the scaling-up plan for applying these research-proven learning models to all levels of educational settings in Taiwan is also addressed.

In this study, an augmented reality-based mobile learning system is proposed for conducting inquiry-based learning activities. An experiment has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of learning achievements and motivations. The subjects were 57 fourth graders from two classes taught by the same teacher in an elementary school in northern Taiwan. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach is able to improve the students' learning achievements. Moreover, it was found that the students who learned with the augmented reality-based mobile learning approach showed significantly higher motivations in the attention, confidence, and relevance dimensions than those who learned with the conventional inquiry-based mobile learning approach.

Although research has identified the importance of interaction behaviors in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), very few attempts have been made to carry out in-depth analysis of interaction behaviors. This study thus applies both qualitative (e.g., content analyses, interviews) and quantitative methods in an attempt to investigate the role of interaction behaviors (i.e., cooperative processes, cognitive involvement) in group motivation (i.e., collective efficacy) and group performance in CSCL. A total of 35 college students generated 387 cooperative processes and 421 cognitive ideas during the collaborative process over six weeks. The results indicated that the quality of interaction behaviors was positively related to CSCL performance. High performance groups were more involved in complex cooperative processes, and expressed more cognitive ideas at both high and low cognitive levels than low performance groups. For the role of interaction in collective efficacy, the quantity rather than quality of interaction behaviors played a more critical role in constructing collective efficacy. High efficacy groups had more cooperative processes and cognitive ideas than low collective efficacy groups. The interviews also revealed that group interaction played a mediating role in constructing collective efficacy. For the role of collective efficacy in group performance, the results also show that the high efficacy groups performed better than the low efficacy groups. Implications and suggestions for future research are also provided.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a ubiquitous problem-based learning system (UPBLS) on students' question-raising performance in field inquiry activities. An experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course. A total of 43 sixth and fifth grade elementary students divided into experienced and novice groups participated in the field observation activities with on-line discussion over a period of seven months to evaluate the changes in their questioning ability. Moreover, a rubric for evaluating the students' questioning ability was developed and validated. Supported by UPBLS, the students collected the required wetland ecology data in three wetland field observation activities. The experimental results show that the students' questioning abilities significantly improved during the learning process. Moreover, it was found that both the experienced and the novice students had similar progress trends, implying that the proposed approach is helpful for improving the questioning abilities of students with different levels of prior knowledge.

Context-aware ubiquitous learning has been recognized as being a promising approach that enables students to interact with real-world learning targets with supports from the digital world. Several researchers have indicated the importance of providing learning guidance or hints to individual students during the context-aware ubiquitous learning process. In this study, an expert system-based guidance approach is proposed for conducting effective context-aware ubiquitous learning activities based on the domain knowledge provided by experienced teachers. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment on a learning activity in a senior high school Geosciences course has been conducted. The experimental results show that, with this new approach, the students' learning achievements have been significantly improved in terms of several cognitive processes in Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, such as "analyzing" and "evaluating." Consequently, it is concluded that the context-aware ubiquitous learning system with the interactive guiding approach has benefited the students in enhancing their higher order thinking competences. (Contains 5 tables and 5 figures.)

In this study, an adaptive learning system is developed by taking multiple dimensions of personalized features into account. A personalized presentation module is proposed for developing adaptive learning systems based on the field dependent/independent cognitive style model and the eight dimensions of Felder-Silverman's learning style. An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in a computer science course. Fifty-four participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group which learned with an adaptive learning system developed based on the personalized presentation module, and a control group which learned with the conventional learning system without personalized presentation. The experimental results showed that the experimental group students revealed significantly better learning achievements than the control group students, implying that the proposed approach is able to assist the students in improving their learning performance. (Contains 8 tables and 6 figures.)

Learning styles are considered to be one of the factors that need to be taken into account in developing adaptive learning systems. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate if students have the ability to choose the best-fit e-learning systems or content presentation styles for themselves in terms of learning style perspective. In this paper, we aim to investigate these issues by using two versions of an educational game developed based on the sequential/global dimension of the learning style proposed by Felder and Silverman. The experimental results showed that the choices made by the students were not related to their cognitive process or learning style; instead, most students made their choices by intuition based on personal preferences. Moreover, the students who learned with learning style-fit versions showed significantly better learning achievement than those who learned with non-fit versions. Consequently, it is concluded that students preferring one game over another does not necessarily mean that they will learn better with that version, revealing the importance and necessity of developing adaptive learning systems based on learning styles.

Mobile learning has been recommended for motivating students on field trips; nevertheless, owing to the complexity and the richness of the learning resources from both the real-world and the digital-world environments, information overload remains one of the major concerns. Most mobile learning designs provide feedback only for multiple choice items to guide students' learning. The aim of this study was to develop a series of worksheets as scaffolding to support inquiry-based ecology observations in a mobile learning environment. Based on a three-layer worksheet framework, a mobile learning system with in-field scoring rubrics was developed to guide the students to sequentially focus on guided observations, independent observations, and extended inquiries. Well-designed worksheets, instant feedback and supplementary materials were provided to balance the students' learning pressure and task challenge in the species-rich field. The automated scoring data for constructed response tasks were analyzed to investigate the learning growth and students' learning characteristics. The results showed that the proposed approach was effective in improving the field observation performance of the students. Furthermore, nearly 70% of the students who learned with the proposed approach could pursue their own inquiries in the mobile learning environment, showing that the approach is promising.

This study investigates the effects of different display modes of video captions on mobile devices, including non-caption, full-caption, and target-word modes, on the English comprehension and vocabulary acquisition of fifth graders. During the one-month experiment, the status of the students' English listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition was evaluated on a weekly basis. From the experimental results, it was found that the learning achievement of the English target-word group was as good as that of the full-caption group in terms of vocabulary acquisition, while both groups outperformed the non-caption group. When the students' learning preferences were taken into consideration, the visual style students in both the English target-word group and the full-caption group showed significantly better learning effectiveness in terms of vocabulary acquisition than those in the control group. Furthermore, in terms of listening comprehension, the students in all three groups made remarkable progress.

Enhancing students' problem-solving abilities has been recognized as an important and challenging issue for technology-enhanced learning. Thus, previous research has attempted to address this issue by developing various mechanisms, among which a cognitive apprenticeship model can particularly enhance students' abilities. However, it is not clear whether such a mechanism is suitable for every learner. Thus, this study examines the effects of human factors on problem-solving effectiveness in the cognitive apprenticeship model. Among various human factors, this study focuses on cognitive styles, with an emphasis on Witken's Field Dependence. The results indicate that Field Dependent learners can get great benefits from the cognitive apprenticeship model via collaborative learning. Implications for how to accommodate the needs of different cognitive style groups are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)

Although project-based learning is a well-known and widely used instructional strategy, it remains a challenging issue to effectively apply this approach to practical settings for improving the learning performance of students. In this study, a project-based digital storytelling approach is proposed to cope with this problem. With a quasi-experiment, the proposed approach has been applied to a learning activity of a science course in an elementary school. A total of 117 Grade 5 students in an elementary school in southern Taiwan were assigned to an experimental group (N = 60) and a control group (N = 57) to compare the performance of the approach with that of conventional project-based learning. A web-based information-searching system, Meta-Analyzer, was used to enable the students to collect data on the Internet based on the questions raised by the teachers, and Microsoft's Photo Story was used to help the experimental group develop movies for storytelling based on the collected data. Moreover, several measuring tools, including the science learning motivation scale, the problem-solving competence scale and the science achievement test, were used to collect feedback as well as evaluate the learning performance of the students. The experimental results show that the project-based learning with digital storytelling could effectively enhance the students' science learning motivation, problem-solving competence, and learning achievement. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)

This study aims to develop an electronic library-based learning environment to support teachers in developing web-based problem-solving activities and analyzing the online problem-solving behaviors of students. Two experiments were performed in this study. In study 1, an experiment on 103 elementary and high school teachers (the learning activity designers) has been conducted to understand their views toward an electronic library-based learning environment. The results showed that with this innovative approach, electronic libraries not only have the potential to support traditional in-class learning, but also can assist teachers in developing learning activities for training students in web-based problem-solving abilities. Moreover, teachers of different ages and backgrounds all readily accepted the new approach, in particular, the older and more experienced teachers showed even higher willingness to use the system than the younger and less experienced teachers. In study 2, a quasi-experiment on 62 elementary school students (experimental group with 31 students and control group with 31 students) has been undertaken on a natural science course for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Experimental results showed that this innovative approach can improve the students' learning achievements and attitudes in comparisons with the conventional web-based learning approach. (Contains 6 tables and 8 figures.)

The aim of nursing education is to foster in students the competence of applying integrated knowledge with clinical skills to the application domains. In the traditional approach, in-class knowledge learning and clinical skills training are usually conducted separately, such that the students might not be able to integrate the knowledge and the skills in performing standard nursing procedures. Therefore, it is important to develop an integrated curriculum for teaching standard operating procedures in physical assessment courses. In this study, a context-aware mobile learning system is developed for nursing training courses. During the learning activities, each student is equipped with a mobile device; moreover, sensing devices are used to detect whether the student has conducted the operations on the correct location of the dummy patient's body for assessing the physical status of the specified disease. The learning system not only guides individual students to perform each operation of the physical assessment procedure on dummy patients, but also provides instant feedback and supplementary materials to them if the operations or the operating sequence is incorrect. The experimental results show that the students' learning outcomes are notably improved by utilizing the mobile learning system for nursing training. (Contains 6 tables and 9 figures.)

A context-aware ubiquitous learning environment is an authentic learning environment with personalized digital supports. While showing the potential of applying such a learning environment, researchers have also indicated the challenges of providing adaptive and dynamic support to individual students. In this paper, a decision-tree-oriented mechanism is developed for that purpose, enabling digital guidance for students to observe and classify real-world objects in the learning activities of natural science courses. To show the effectiveness of the innovative approach, a context-aware ubiquitous learning environment was implemented for the "butterfly and ecology" unit of a fourth-grade natural science course in Taiwan, and 42 students participated in the learning activity. From the surveys and interviews that were conducted to understand the functionalities of the system and the learning effectiveness for the students, the results show that the system had a positive impact on students' learning, especially on the affective domain, including participation, motivation, and interaction. (Contains 6 tables and 4 figures.)

Ubiquitous computing and mobile technologies provide a new perspective for designing innovative outdoor learning experiences. The purpose of this study is to propose a formative assessment design for integrating PDAs into ecology observations. Three learning activities were conducted in this study. An action research approach was applied to continually revise the worksheet designs. Twenty-seven 5th and 6th graders' observation skills using PDAs, and their extended inquiry performance using e-diaries were assessed. An e-library, and online scoring and feedback systems were developed accordingly. The results suggest that the embedded formative assessment designs were effective for guiding and supporting the students' learning progress. The activity worksheets successfully helped the students focus their outdoor learning attention on the target tasks. The e-library provided reliable resources to clarify their observed descriptions, while the automatic scoring and feedback systems were especially helpful in sustaining the students' persistent effort. Most students demonstrated substantial improvements in their observation skills, and extended their inquiry abilities. The well designed online formative assessment embedded in the activity worksheet is very promising for PDA integrated learning. (Contains 2 tables and 9 figures.)

This study presents a mobile exploration activity that guides elementary students to learn during a social science activity with digital support from mobile devices and wireless communications. The students are situated in both the real world and the virtual world to extend their learning experiences. The learning activities between the field and the digital system not only demonstrate the practices of mobile learning, which emphasizes learning that happens close to real life, but also provides digital learning content to facilitate students' field studies. To enhance the learning performance of the students, an inquiry-based mobile learning approach is employed to assist the students in constructing their own knowledge by taking cognitive load into consideration. To evaluate the effectiveness of the innovative approach, 33 fifth grade students were arranged to carry out investigations in the Peace Temple of southern Tainan with the inquiry-based mobile learning system. Through pre- and post-class questionnaires as well as observations and focus group interviews, descriptive quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The results show significant positive results in terms of the students' learning. (Contains 4 tables and 10 figures.)

Researchers have conducted various studies on applying wireless communication and ubiquitous computing technologies to education, so that the technologies can provide learners and educators with more active and adaptive support. This study proposes a Ubiquitous Performance-support System (UPSS) that can facilitate the seamless use of powerful new technologies in the school setting. In order to help the readers visualize these novel technologies in practice, we present one case study of a butterfly-ecology training course facilitated by the UPSS. The aim behind the case study is to inform the design and the development of context-aware ubiquitous computing system and its learning materials. The research inquiry centers around three themes: (1) the critical features to the data-driven decision making of teachers, (2) the perceptions of teachers and students to the UPSS, and (3) implementation issues. The results of the two rounds of formative evaluation indicate positive effects of the UPSS regarding motivation, interactivity, and effectiveness. In addition, teachers' attitudes and teachers' pedagogical approaches toward UPSS use are two key factors in the successful implementation of teaching with such innovative technology. This study can be a useful reference for those who are interested in conducting studies applying context-aware ubiquitous computing to educational contexts. Finally, this study presents suggestions and implications for future research and system development. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

For large-scale tests, such as certification tests or entrance examinations, the composed test sheets must meet multiple assessment criteria. Furthermore, to fairly compare the knowledge levels of the persons who receive tests at different times owing to the insufficiency of available examination halls or the occurrence of certain unexpected situations, a set of parallel test sheets needs to be composed, which is almost impossible to accomplish manually. To cope with this problem, an enhanced particle swarm optimization approach is proposed to efficiently compose parallel test sheets from very large item banks, while simultaneously meeting multiple assessment criteria. Moreover, a computer-assisted testing system was developed, and a series of experiments were performed to evaluate the comparative performance of the proposed approach and a genetic algorithm counterpart. (Contains 7 figures and 3 tables.)

The popularity of web-based learning systems has encouraged researchers to pay attention to several new issues. One of the most important issues is the development of new techniques to provide personalized teaching materials. Although several frameworks or methods have been proposed, it remains a challenging issue to design an easy-to-realize framework for developing adaptive learning systems that benefit student learning performance. In this paper, we propose a modular framework that can segment and transform teaching materials into modular learning objects based on the SCORM standard such that subject contents can be composed dynamically according to the profile and portfolio of individual students. An adaptive learning system has been developed based on this innovative approach. Based on the experimental results of a college computer course, we conclude that the proposed framework can be used to develop adaptive learning systems that benefit the students' learning achievements. (Contains 5 tables and 20 figures.)

Recent progress in wireless and sensor technologies has lead to a new development of learning environments, called context-aware ubiquitous learning environment, which is able to sense the situation of learners and provide adaptive supports. Many researchers have been investigating the development of such new learning environments; nevertheless, the criteria of establishing a context-aware ubiquitous learning environment have not yet been clearly defined, not to mention the strategies of conducting effective learning activities. To resolve these problems, this paper presents the basic criteria, strategies, and research issues of context-aware ubiquitous learning, and identifies the necessary check items as well for the development of such learning environment. Illustrative examples of conducting context-aware ubiquitous learning activities and the requirements of setting up such learning environment are also presented at the end of this paper. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

Cooperative learning is known to be an effective educational strategy in enhancing the learning performance of students. The goal of a cooperative learning group is to maximize all members' learning efficacy. This is accomplished via promoting each other's success, through assisting, sharing, mentoring, explaining, and encouragement. To achieve the goal of cooperative learning, it is very important to organize well-structured cooperative learning groups. In this study, an enhanced genetic algorithm is proposed to organize cooperative learning groups to meet multiple grouping criteria. To show the usefulness of the algorithm, this study presents a case that, for a given course, the teacher sets the criteria of grouping that each concept of a certain course topic is precisely understood by at least one of the peer students in each group, and the average learning achievement of each group is approximately identical. Based on our enhanced genetic algorithm, an assistant system for organizing cooperative learning groups has been developed. Experimental results have shown that the enhanced approach is able to efficiently organize cooperative learning groups that more fit the instructional objectives set by the instructor. (Contains 8 tables and 7 figures.)

To accurately analyze the problems of students in learning, the composed test sheets must meet multiple assessment criteria, such as the ratio of relevant concepts to be evaluated, the average discrimination degree, difficulty degree and estimated testing time. Furthermore, to precisely evaluate the improvement of student's learning performance during a period of time, a series of relevant test sheets need to be composed. In this paper, a particle swarm optimization-based approach is proposed to improve the efficiency of composing near optimal serial test sheets from very large item banks to meet multiple assessment criteria. From the experimental results, we conclude that our novel approach is desirable in composing near optimal serial test sheets from large item banks and hence can support the need of evaluating student learning status. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)

In this study, an augmented reality-based mobile learning system is proposed for conducting inquiry-based learning activities. An experiment has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of learning achievements and motivations. The subjects were 57 fourth graders from two classes taught by the same teacher in an elementary school in northern Taiwan. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach is able to improve the students' learning achievements. Moreover, it was found that the students who learned with the augmented reality-based mobile learning approach showed significantly higher motivations in the attention, confidence, and relevance dimensions than those who learned with the conventional inquiry-based mobile learning approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of nursing education is to foster in students the competence of applying integrated knowledge with clinical skills to the application domains. In the traditional approach, in-class knowledge learning and clinical skills training are usually conducted separately, such that the students might not be able to integrate the knowledge and the skills in performing standard nursing procedures. Therefore, it is important to develop an integrated curriculum for teaching standard operating procedures in physical assessment courses. In this study, a context-aware mobile learning system is developed for nursing training courses. During the learning activities, each student is equipped with a mobile device; moreover, sensing devices are used to detect whether the student has conducted the operations on the correct location of the dummy patient's body for assessing the physical status of the specified disease. The learning system not only guides individual students to perform each operation of the physical assessment procedure on dummy patients, but also provides instant feedback and supplementary materials to them if the operations or the operating sequence is incorrect. The experimental results show that the students' learning outcomes are notably improved by utilizing the mobile learning system for nursing training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]