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The main purpose of the study was to explore how different augmented 3D visualizations may affect the learning of complex science concepts using the eye tracking method. An Augmented Reality (AR) learning system incorporated with different 3D visualizations was developed to assist conceptual learning in the topic of "molecular shapes." Learners' visual attention during the AR learning was recorded using a mobile eye tracking system. Participants were 32 10th grade students. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess students' learning achievements. Learners were grouped into low and high achievers according to the posttest result. To analyze the associations between learners' visual attentions and learning achievements, correlation, t -test, correlation, and regression analyses were applied. Additionally, we conducted lag sequential analysis (LSA) to compare the visual transitions of different groups of achievers. The results showed that learners' conceptual understanding was improved after the AR learning activity. Among the different 3D visualizations, learners attended more to the static and dynamic types in the basic learning stage and to the static and interactive types in the advanced learning stage. Attention to the 3D static model was found to associate more to the attention to the interactive type. The correlation and regression analyses found that the cognitive effort to integrate information about the static 3D model was the key predictor for the learning achievement. LSA showed that high achievers displayed a higher chance of looking back to the static 3D model from other AOIs. The visual pattern analysis suggested that a guidance to connect information delivered by the static and the animated visual representations is necessary for complex conceptual learning. • Visual attention to the augmented 3D static objects predicted learning achievement. • Visual attentions to the 3D static and interactive models were highly correlated. • Low achievers attended more to the interactive 3D objects. • High achievers looked back to the static 3D object from other AOIs more frequently. • High achievers made more sequential transitions between text and 3D objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to examine the paraphrasing strategies, sources, and self-plagiarism of 71 journal articles in the fields of language and education. Turnitin plagiarism detection software and human scrutiny were employed to uncover the full range of detectable text-borrowing practices in these publications. The results indicate 30 different types of paraphrasing strategies, among which copying verbatim and substitution were the most frequent. Additionally, authors in the study often integrated multiple paraphrasing strategies within single sentences. Journal articles represent the majority of the sources from which text is borrowed. Regarding authorship, overall, more than two-thirds (67.28%) of the observed textual borrowing involves the reuse (or recycling) of texts from an author's previous publications. The prevalence of matches with one's own publications calls for more explicit operational standards among disciplines in this regard and points toward factors that may contribute to unintentional self-plagiarism, such as lexical bundles or authors' stylistic habits in writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Arguing how the eye tracking technology can be used for exploring human cognitive processes related to learning. [•] Discussing how the eye movement measures can be used to indicate the processes of learning. [•] Reviewing the use of eye tracking methods in exploring learning from 2000 to 2012. [•] Developing a bridging framework illustrating the connections of eye movement studies to learning. [•] Suggesting future studies based on the review result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to investigate university learners' visual attention during a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation on the topic of “Dinosaurs” in a real classroom. The presentation, which lasted for about 12–15 min, consisted of 12 slides with various text and graphic formats. An instructor gave the presentation to 21 students whose eye movements were recorded by the eye tracking system. Participants came from various science departments in a national university in Taiwan, of which ten were earth-science majors (ES) and the other 11 were assigned to the non-earth-science group (NES). Eye movement indicators, such as total time spent on the interest zone, fixation count, total fixation duration, percent time spent in zone, etc., were abstracted to indicate their visual attention. One-way ANOVA as well as t-test analysis was applied to find the associations between the eye movement data and the students' background as well as different formats of PPT slides. The results showed that the students attended significantly more to the text zones on the PPT slides and the narrations delivered by the instruction. Nevertheless, the average fixation duration, indicating the average information processing time, was longer on the picture zones. In general, the ES students displayed higher visual attention than the NES students to the text zones, but few differences were found for the picture zones. When the students viewed those slides containing scientific hypotheses, the difference in attention distributions between the text and pictures reduced. Further analyses of fixation densities and saccade paths showed that the ES students were better at information decoding and integration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study measured high-school learners'' cognitive load as they interacted with different web-based curriculum components, and examined the interactions between cognitive load and web-based concept learning. Participants in this study were 105 11th graders from an academic senior high school in Taiwan. An online, multimedia curriculum on the topic of global warming, which lasted for four weeks, provided the learning context. After students worked through the curriculum, their feelings about the degree of mental effort that it took to complete the learning tasks were measured by self-report on a 9-point Likert scale. An online test and the flow-map method were applied to assess participants'' concept achievements. The results showed that curriculum components such as scientific articles, online notebooks, flash animations and the online test induced a relatively high cognitive load, and that a lower cognitive load resulted in better concept achievement. Also, students appeared to adopt different learning approaches that were corresponding to different levels of cognitive load. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of the study is to explore three kinds of personal affective traits among high-school students and their effects on web-based concept learning. The affective traits include personal preferences about web-based learning environments, personal epistemological beliefs, and beliefs about web-based learning. One hundred 11th graders participated in the study. Three questionnaires were developed to assess these affective characteristics. An online test and the flow-map technique were employed to probe concept achievements that indicated the learning outcome. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, correlation and regression analyses were conducted to present trends and relations among variables. It was found that participants of the study who mostly had not developed sophisticated epistemological beliefs displayed only moderate preferences toward explorative and interactive web-based learning environments, and they seemed to be conservative about the effectiveness of the new type of learning. According to the flow-map technique, the serial form of concept achievements was the main product of concept learning in the explorative web-based environments defined in the study. Regression analyses indicated that while preferences toward inquiry-based instructional designs and outward interactions, and the simple form of personal epistemology predicted concept achievements, beliefs about effectiveness of web-based learning resulted in a negative impact on concept learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Psychological studies have shown that personal beliefs about learning and environmental preferences affect learning behaviors. However, these learner characteristics have not been widely discussed in the web-based context. By developing questionnaires, this study attempted to detect learners’ web-based learning environmental preferences (WLEP) and beliefs about web-based learning (BWL). The scope of WLEP focused on the pedagogical dimension of the web-based learning environment, while BWL concerned the attributes and control factors of the web-based learning. There were about five hundreds of Taiwan university students participating in the study. Through factor analysis, the scales discussed in the study revealed a satisfactory validity and reliability in assessing students’ preferences and beliefs. Further analyses showed that university students preferred more of individual and structured instructional configurations while expected the outward mode of interaction. In general, students held a rather contextual belief about web-based learning, which was found to be correlated with their environmental preferences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to explore English as a foreign language (EFL) college students’ needs in English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Specific/Academic Purposes (ESP/EAP) courses in terms of their perceptions of three subcategories of needs—necessities, wants, and lacks—and reasons for students’ course enrollment. A questionnaire was administered to 972 EFL college students from six universities in Taiwan. The results showed that students had different perceptions of necessities, wants, and lacks in the different language skills taught in EGP and ESP/EAP courses. The findings also demonstrated discrepancies between the students’ perceptions of needs and the actual courses they took, thereby highlighting the importance of understanding needs as a complex, multiple, and conflicting concept. Finally, factors that determined students’ enrollment in EGP courses included necessities, short-term, and long-term goals while enrollment in ESP/EAP courses depended more on job relevancy. Implications for language instructors and curriculum designers are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study employed an eye-tracking technique to examine students’ visual attention when solving a multiple-choice science problem. Six university students participated in a problem-solving task to predict occurrences of landslide hazards from four images representing four combinations of four factors. Participants’ responses and visual attention were recorded by an eye tracker. Participants were asked to think aloud during the entire task. A 4 (options) × 4 (factors) repeated measures design, two paired t-tests and effect sizes analyses were conducted to compare the fixation duration between chosen and rejected options and between relevant and irrelevant factors. Content analyses were performed to analyze participants’ responses and think aloud protocols and to examine individual’s Hot Zone image. Finally, sequential analysis on fixated LookZones was further utilized to compare the scan patterns between successful and unsuccessful problem solvers. The results showed that, while solving an image-based multiple-choice science problem, students, in general, paid more attention to chosen options than rejected alternatives, and spent more time inspecting relevant factors than irrelevant ones. Additionally, successful problem solvers focused more on relevant factors, while unsuccessful problem solvers experienced difficulties in decoding the problem, in recognizing the relevant factors, and in self-regulating of concentration. Future study can be done to examine the reliability and the usability of providing adaptive instructional scaffoldings for problem solving according to students’ visual attention allocations and transformations in a larger scale. Eye-tracking techniques are suggested to be used to deeply explore the cognitive process during e-learning and be applied to future online assessment systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]