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The popularity of virtual reality (VR) technologies has increased since the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, there is a paucity of meta‐analytic studies that have investigated the use of VR technologies in language education. This current study addresses this gap by conducting a systematic analysis of 41 randomized controlled studies conducted between 2008 and 2021, examining the effects of VR technologies on language educational outcomes. The findings indicate that VR technologies reduce anxiety levels while enhancing motivation, performance, satisfaction, and self‐efficacy in language learning when compared to traditional learning methods. These outcomes are observed regardless of whether learners engage with immersive or nonimmersive environments and whether they use head‐mounted displays or nonhead‐mounted displays. Future research can investigate the impact of VR on intercultural communicative competence and collaborative problem‐solving abilities. The Challenge: The popularity of virtual reality (VR) technologies has increased, but are they effective when used in language education? This current study examines the effects of VR technologies on language educational outcomes through a systematic analysis of 41 randomized controlled studies conducted between 2008 and 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of information technologies, many learners opt to stay home receiving various forms of online education such as massive open online courses (MOOC). However, many learners and instructors complain that MOOC-based learning effectiveness has been dampened by many factors. Through a meta-analysis using Stata/MP 14.0, this study reveals that MOOC-based learning outcomes can be significantly influenced by eight factors, i.e. behavior intention, learning engagement, students' motivation, perceptions, satisfaction, performance, self-regulation, and social networks across the world. Future research could reveal more influencing factors pivoting on the forum improvements, as well as the effect of social presence on MOOC-based learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta‐analytic research delves into the influence of expertise on cognitive interpreting, emphasizing time efficiency, accuracy, and cognitive effort, in alignment with prevailing expertise theories that link professional development and cognitive efficiency. The study assimilates empirical data from 18 eye‐tracking studies conducted over the past four decades, encompassing a sample of 1581 interpreters. The objective is to elucidate the role of expertise in interpretative performance while tracing the evolution of these dynamics over time. Findings suggest that expert interpreters outperform novices in time efficiency and accuracy and exhibit lower cognitive effort, especially in sight and consecutive interpreting. This effect is particularly pronounced in the English‐Chinese language pair and with the use of E‐prime and Tobii eye‐tracking systems. Further, fixation count and pupil size are essential metrics impacting cognitive effort. These findings have vital implications for interpreter training programs, suggesting a focus on expertise development to enhance efficiency and accuracy, reduce cognitive load, and emphasize the importance of sight interpreting as a foundational skill. The selection of technology and understanding of specific ocular metrics also emerged as essential for future research and practical applications in the interpreting industry. This article is categorized under:Psychology > Theory and MethodsLinguistics > Cognitive [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are gaining increasing popularity in education. Due to their increasing popularity, many empirical studies have been devoted to exploring the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. The proliferation of experimental studies has highlighted the need to summarize and synthesize the inconsistent findings about the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. However, few reviews focused on the meta‐analysis of the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. The present study performed a meta‐analysis of 24 randomized studies utilizing Stata software (version 14). The main goal of the current study was to meta‐analytically examine the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes and the moderating effects of educational levels and intervention duration. The results indicated that AI chatbots had a large effect on students' learning outcomes. Moreover, AI chatbots had a greater effect on students in higher education, compared to those in primary education and secondary education. In addition, short interventions were found to have a stronger effect on students' learning outcomes than long interventions. It could be explained by the argument that the novelty effects of AI chatbots could improve learning outcomes in short interventions, but it has worn off in the long interventions. Future designers and educators should make attempt to increase students' learning outcomes by equipping AI chatbots with human‐like avatars, gamification elements and emotional intelligence. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicIn recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have been gaining increasing popularity in education.Studies undertaken so far have provided conflicting evidence concerning the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes.There has remained a paucity of meta‐analyses synthesizing the contradictory findings about the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes.What this paper addsThis study, through meta‐analysis, synthesized these recent findings about the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes.This study found that AI chatbots could have a large effect on students' learning outcomes.This study found that the effects of AI chatbots were moderated by educational levels and intervention duration.Implications for practice and/or policyAI chatbot designers could make AI chatbots better by equipping AI chatbots with human‐like avatars, gamification elements and emotional intelligencePractitioners and/or teachers should draw attention to the positive and negative effects of AI chatbots on students.Considering the importance of ChatGPT, more research is required to develop a better understanding of the effects of ChatGPT in education.More research is needed to examine the mechanisms underlying the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of information technologies, virtual reality (VR) has caught much attention in education. However, scanty studies have been committed to a meta-analysis of its effect in education in terms of various components. This study, through a meta-analysis, systematically reviews the effect of VR technologies on educational outcomes in terms of various components. It concludes that VR technologies generally exert a strong and positive influence on educational outcomes despite some negative findings in their effect on anxiety, cognition, creativeness, gender differences, learning attitudes, learner satisfaction, and engagement. Future research could expand the research by including more publications and examine the effect of VR technologies on educational outcomes through interdisciplinary cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducts meta‐analytical estimations based on 70 empirical studies regarding inconsistent effect sizes of augmented reality in interactive learning environments. It finds that compared with traditional tools, augmented reality in interactive learning environments significantly enhances overall learning effectiveness (g = 0.717, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.606–0.827) at the 0.05 level. The moderating analysis finds that augmented reality in interactive learning environments significantly enhances (1) students' acceptance of technological systems and attitudes toward their courses, (2) comfort, engagement, and self‐efficacy, (3) learning motivations (measured by attention, perceived relevance to learning objectives, confidence, satisfaction, and interest), (4) critical thinking and practical skills, and (5) knowledge acquisition outcomes (including memorization, retention, and application). Interactive augmented reality has insignificant influences on students' flow experience, collaboration, and communication at the 0.05 level, while significantly reducing cognitive load at the 0.05 level. The findings in this study may enlighten further studies on educational technologies and extend applications of augmented reality in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many students have been forced to receive education assisted by augmented reality technologies at home. To investigate the effects of augmented reality technologies on educational outcomes, researchers conducted a meta-analysis using Stata/MP 14.0. The results suggested that augmented reality-assisted education significantly improved learner attitudes towards and learning achievements when compared to non-augmented reality-assisted education. However, the study failed to identify any significant differences in motivation levels between augmented reality-assisted and non-augmented reality-assisted educational models. Several potential reasons were explored to account for this unexpected finding. Future research should consider more comprehensive influencing factors such as learning styles and learner personality to determine the effect of augmented reality technologies on educational outcomes. Additionally, integrating advanced technologies into course designs presents a promising avenue for improving educational outcomes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of artificial intelligence in recent years has promoted the use of chatbot technology in sustainable education. Many studies examined the effect of chatbots on learning outcomes. However, scant studies summarized the effectiveness of chatbots in education. The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of chatbot-assisted learning on various components and how different moderator variables influenced the effectiveness. This study, through a meta-analysis, reviewed 32 empirical studies with 2201 participants published between 2010 and 2022. The results showed that chatbot technology exerted a medium-to-high effect on overall learning outcomes regardless of moderator variables, i.e., intervention duration, chatbot roles, and learning content. In terms of learning components, chatbots could significantly improve explicit reasoning, learning achievement, knowledge retention, and learning interest despite negative findings in critical thinking, learning engagement, and motivation. Future research could expand chatbot research by including different learning components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of science and technology, virtual reality (VR) technologies have obtained great popularity in education, coupled with many studies on the effect of VR technologies on learning outcomes. However, few studies have systematically summarized their effect on educational outcomes. This study systematically and meta‐analytically examined the effect of VR technologies on educational outcomes using Stata 14.0. The researchers reviewed 43 empirical VR studies in education, ranging from 1993 to 2020, in high‐impact journals of educational technology. Researchers included the subgroups such as VR users' learning outcomes consisting of intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, motor skills, and educational levels of participants, as well as countries or regions where the sample was recruited. It is found that VR technologies can positively influence learning outcomes in education, improve learning outcomes across the world except Europe, and facilitate learning outcomes at different educational levels except the primary school level. Future designers and teachers should attempt to stimulate their learning interest in the VR‐based approach by integrating interesting components into VR technologies. Future design of VR‐based approach can also attach enough importance to motivation and satisfaction of learners, construction of VR labs in education, and the impacts of VR on students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this COVID-19 pandemic, learners across the world are encouraged to stay at home receiving online education, which has nearly caused various learning outcomes. It is thus necessary to analyze online learning outcomes, as well as their gender differences to provide constructive references for learners, teachers, and technology developers. This study obtained reliable data from various databases using searching techniques. The study also selected the research articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. After analyzing the forest and funnel plots drawn via Review Manager 5.3, the study arrived at the conclusion that online learning outcomes were significantly higher than the traditional learning outcomes with a large effect size (d = 1.24), while the gender differences in learning outcomes were not significant with a small effect size (d = -0.03). In the future, experts could make every effort to develop advanced emotion detection applications via interdisciplinary cooperation to improve online learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]