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Recently, alternate reality games (ARGs) have been applied in museum learning to encourage learners' active engagement through playful problem‐solving activities. However, most learners have insufficient prior knowledge and metacognitive skills to complete the learning tasks in such games. To support learning with ARGs, there is a need to provide proper feedback so that the learners are capable of self‐regulated learning and solving the problems encountered during the learning process. Considering the influences of individual differences, this research developed a chatbot as a learning partner in ARG‐based learning to support students' learning with adaptive feedback in a museum. A quasi‐experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness with and without the proposed approach. The results showed that the AI‐based chatbot approach could significantly improve learners' metacognition awareness, emotional engagement and behavioural engagement. Besides, it is helpful to facilitate students' double‐loop learning.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicAlternate reality games (ARGs) enable students to interact with real‐world contexts.The complexities of real contexts and ambiguities of the ARGs could frustrate students and demotivate their engagement in problem‐solving activities.Conventional corrected feedback may fail to match individual students' requirements in solving encountered problems.What this paper addsAn AI‐based chatbot was designed as a smart learning partner to support the students in solving encountered problems.The experimental results showed that the proposed approach improved students' metacognitive awareness and engagement.A drawing analysis and a behaviour sequential analysis were applied to further examine the students' perceptions and behavioural patterns.Implications for practice and/or policyIt is potentially worth integrating AI‐based chatbots into game‐based learning to promote students' metacognitive awareness and engagement.AI‐based chatbots provide adaptive feedback to effectively facilitate students' self‐regulated learning and double‐loop learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Flipped classrooms have been recognized as a potential approach that enables students to have flexible time to learn before the class as well as more opportunities to apply knowledge and to interact with peers and the teacher in the class. On the other hand, researchers have pointed out the challenge of engaging students in self-regulated learning and active participation in flipped classrooms. In this study, an Instant Response System (IRS)-facilitated collective issue-quest strategy is proposed for engaging students in active and self-regulated flipped learning. Moreover, a quasi-experimental design was conducted with undergraduate students in an internet marketing course in northern Taiwan to investigate the impacts of the proposed approach on the students' learning achievement, self-regulation, learning satisfaction and collective efficacy. The experimental results revealed that the learning achievement, collective efficacy and satisfaction of the students who learned with the proposed approach were significantly better than those of the students learning with the conventional flipped classroom approach. Moreover, in the "environment," "task strategies" and "help seeking" dimensions of self-regulation, the former had significantly higher ratings than the latter. This study contributes analysis results that highlight the benefits of implementing the IRS-facilitated collective issue-quest approach in the flipped classroom. The results of this research may provide a valuable reference for future studies and practice in the field.

To assess the effects and learner perceptions of context-aware ubiquitous language learning (CAULL), a green-building English-learning application (GBELA) employing sensing technology was created to develop participants' English listening and reading skills using smartphones and QR codes. This study investigated the effects of 40 participants' perceived ease of use, usability, usefulness, learner attitude, satisfaction with the use of GBELA, and self-efficacy in smartphone and GBELA usage. Quantitative and qualitative data through pretest/post-test, questionnaires, and semistructured interviews were collected with a focus on green building-based English (GBbE) reading and listening skills. Results proved the effectiveness of the GBELA for both high-achievement (HA) and low-achievement (LA) groups. Furthermore, correlations were found between the HA group and ease of use of the GBELA. The correlations among learner perceptions and self-efficacy showed that a well-designed context-aware learning system can help learners enhance self-efficacy in CAULL mode. Implications for the design of effective context- and knowledge-specific ubiquitous learning systems are provided in the study.

In an intensive care unit (ICU), patients' families play a very important role; however, they often lack medical knowledge and are extremely anxious, which could affect their ability to take care of the patients. The effects of giving conventional paper-based instruction are limited in terms of improving patients' families' understanding of the facilities and the rules in the ICU and in reducing their anxiety. Therefore, in this study, an interactive e-book was developed to present the nursing education content to ICU patients' family members. An experiment was conducted to compare the learning performances and perceptions of the patients' family members learning with the interactive e-book and those who learned with the conventional approach. The research results showed that the nursing e-book significantly improved the learning performances of the ICU patients' family members, although their anxiety was not immediately reduced. Moreover, the family members perceived that the e-book was useful and easy to use, and generally showed high satisfaction with its use. This reveals the potential of using interactive e-books to improve the quality of nursing service in hospitals.

One form of educational inequality is the disparity that exists between urban and rural settings. Equal distribution of quality education is a challenge for developing countries due to the unavailability of resources. Various approaches to equal distribution are distance learning, telecast learning and e-learning; however, these approaches cannot achieve the desired objectives due to their limitations. This research aimed to investigate the interesting question of whether mobile technology can bring urban and rural settings closer together. A mobile application for learning Urdu grammar was designed to measure the learning gains of fourth-grade students at two different schools from urban and rural settings. A quantitative technique, the quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test method, was used to measure the effectiveness of the mobile application. The comparison of the students' performances at the urban and rural schools illustrated the role of mobile technology in mitigating the educational gap. The present study provides evidence that children from different social backgrounds may benefit equally from mobile technology.

This study reviewed the mobile technology-assisted language learning studies published from 2007 to 2016 in selected journals. Several critical issues were investigated, such as research methods, research issues, language and learner types, and learning outcomes. It was found that English as a foreign/second language was the most common target language; few studies have been conducted on native language learning. Early studies mainly focused on fostering learners' individual language skills, while in the recent 5 years, researchers started to consider the issue of delivering multiple language skills in authentic learning environments. In addition, an increasing number of studies have involved mixed methods and longer treatment periods. Moreover, the effectiveness of mobile learning in terms of speaking, writing, vocabulary, and pronunciation was generally identified by most of the studies. On the other hand, more evidence is needed to further confirm its impacts on listening, reading, grammar, and integrated/whole language learning. Finally, some suggestions are provided to researchers or practitioners to facilitate their future work.

During early childhood, children start developing their cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural skills, laying the foundation for life-long learning. Cognitive skills are usually taught in traditional classrooms through the use of textbooks and worksheets. The learning content in these textbooks and worksheets is static pre-authored content that is repeatedly used for teaching and learning. This repetition jeopardises the child's learning of individualised and cognitive skills. Preschool cognitive skills learning content comprises facts of everyday life. Similarly, the Semantic Web attempts to model these facts through ontologies. From this, a relationship appears between preschool cognitive skills learning content and the ontologies. The present work focuses on the stated problem and presents the theoretical and development details of a child-friendly tutoring application that dynamically generates cognitive skills learning content using ontologies as domain knowledge. The proposed application was evaluated in a preschool environment for its learning effectiveness and the correctness of the generated content. Three groups of preschool children participated in the study for preschool cognitive skills learning through the use of the proposed application. The first group learned the cognitive skills through the traditional method with textbooks and the teacher's teaching. The second group learned the skills through the proposed application at school in classroom sessions. The third group experienced the proposed application both at school and at home, along with regular classroom sessions. The results show significant gains by the third group over the other two groups, and hence support the use of the proposed application in practice. However, the enhanced learning by the third group disappears if the additional application usage time is removed. Moreover, the results of the expert evaluation show that a great deal of the learning content was correctly generated, thus justifying the true modelling of the domain ontology.

The main objective of this study was to examine the factors of individual characteristics (e.g., self-regulation in terms of metacognition and motivation) and learning environmental expectancy (e.g., performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence) that influence students' behavioural intention to continue online courses. The questionnaire data collected from 312 college students were analyzed using the structural equation modelling approach to examine the relationship between self-regulation and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model. The experimental results revealed that self-regulation in terms of metacognition and motivation directly related to performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence. In addition, performance expectancy, effort expectancy and motivation significantly and directly influenced students' intention to use online courses. However, this study found that metacognition and social influence did not positively directly relate to behavioural intention. The discussion of the present findings and practical implications for possible future research have also been analyzed and concluded.

Owing to the popularity of tablet computers and smart phones, e-books have become an important medium for both formal and informal learning. However, conventional e-books are mainly designed to provide information in the form of multimedia, implying that students spend most of their time memorizing and comprehending what they read from e-books, while seldom engaging in higher order thinking. In this study, a problem-posing framework is proposed for developing an interactive e-book for guiding students to observe and pose questions. An experiment on an elementary school natural science course was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The participants were 46 fourth-grade students. From the experimental results, it was found that the problem-posing-guiding interactive e-book can significantly improve the students' learning achievements, critical thinking tendency, and deep motive. It was also found that the proposed approach did not increase the students' cognitive load owing to the provision of proper supports during the problem-posing process, which has generally been identified as a challenging task.

Medical education is a domain with fast-changing knowledge and attention to knowledge application and higher order thinking; therefore, how to implement effective teaching is a crucial issue. Based on the technology-based learning model, this study provides a multi-dimensional analysis of published papers on the flipped classroom in medical education from the SCOPUS database, including the form of the learning materials, learning system or player, learning strategies, educational technology, application domains, research issues, participants, and research methods. Based on the results, the application of flipped classrooms in medical education has grown rapidly over the past decade, with the number growing dramatically from 7 papers in 2014, to 16 papers in 2015, and 22 papers in 2016. It was found that a great number of studies adopted instructional videos uploaded on online learning systems or used existing online videos to conduct before-class teaching in the before-class stage of the flipped classroom; moreover, most studies involved no online discussion in the before-class stage. As for learning strategies in the in-class stage, the most frequently adopted strategies were issue discussion, practicing or doing exercises, and problem-based learning. This implies that most studies mainly emphasized basic knowledge understanding and skills training, while little attention was paid to developing learners' higher order thinking skills. In addition, the majority of studies explored students' learning interest/satisfaction, learning experience, and performance on the cognitive aspect, while little research was found to investigate their preparation degree or cognitive loading. Based on the review results, this study provides the research trends and potential research issues of flipped medical education to serve as a reference for researchers, instructors, and decision makers.

Gamification offers potential for improving students' online discussion quantity and the depth of discussion content. However, very few studies have examined the social network patterns when students are posting and providing peer-feedback to each other in gamification-based environments. In response to those gaps, this study used a learning analytics approach to understand the effects of gamification on students' online interactive patterns, posting quantity, and peer-feedback quality. The social network analysis results showed that students in the gamification-based course had denser networks than those in the control group. More students were active in the network compared with the control group. Content analysis revealed that students provided higher quality peer-feedback than students in the control group. This study provides empirical evidence for the positive effects of gamification on students' online interaction. Future research trends and the limitations of this study are also discussed.

In a conventional art course, it is important for a teacher to provide feedback and guidance to individual students based on their learning status. However, it is challenging for teachers to provide immediate feedback to students without any aid. The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has provided a possible solution to cope with this problem. In this study, a deep learning-based art learning system (DL-ALS) was developed by employing a fine-tuned ResNet50 model for helping students identify and classify artworks. We aimed at cultivating students' accurate appreciation knowledge and artwork creation competence, as well as providing instant feedback and personalized guidance with the help of AI technology. To explore the effects of this system, a quasi-experiment was implemented in an artwork appreciation course at a university. A total of 46 university students from two classes who took the elective art course were recruited in the study. One class was the experimental group adopting DL-ALS learning, while the other was the control group adopting conventional technology-supported art learning (CT-AL). The results showed that in comparison with CT-AL, learning through the DL-ALS could facilitate students' learning achievement, technology acceptance, learning attitude, learning motivation, self-efficacy, satisfaction, and performance in the art course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In second language acquisition (SLA), vocabulary learning can be a great challenge for some English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has unleashed its potential in language education, but insufficient attention has yet been paid to its impact on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. To bridge this gap, we conducted a quasi-experiment based on a self-developed VR platform, in order to investigate the effects of VR on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. A total of 68 college students participated in this study and were assigned to either the experimental (VR players) or the comparison (video watchers) group. The results revealed that the VR players significantly outperformed the video watchers in terms of vocabulary learning. The VR environment contextualized vocabulary learning by providing an authentic language learning experience, a strong sense of presence, and instant interaction and feedback, whereas the VR players’ learning motivation still needed to be strengthened. Analysis of semi-structured interviews further demonstrated that most of the students valued the potential of the VR-assisted learning approach, while some of them still held mixed feelings about it. This study provides some suggestions for both language instructors and technical experts in terms of task design, platform optimization, and material development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robotics education has received widespread attention in K-12 education. Studies have pointed out that in robotics courses, learners face challenges in learning abstract content, such as constructing a robot with a good structure and writing programs to drive a robot to complete specific learning tasks. The present study proposed the embodied learning-based computer programming approach and applied it to the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robotics course. To evaluate its effectiveness, a quasi-experiment was conducted in one public primary school to explore its effects on students' learning achievement, learning motivation, learning attitudes, learning engagement, and cognitive load. The experimental group (40 students) adopted the embodied learning-based computer programming approach, while the control group (40 students) adopted the conventional computer programming approach. The results showed that the experimental group had significantly better learning achievement in robotics than the control group, and that there was no significant difference in the cognitive load of the two groups. In terms of learning motivation, although both groups showed improvement, the experimental group had higher intrinsic learning motivation. In addition, the experimental group outperformed the control group with regard to learning attitudes and learning engagement (including cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement). Accordingly, this study could contribute to future research for developing more effective robotics teaching approaches and computer programming activity design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Play is crucial to children's development. With the prevalent use of digital technologies, children and young adults are seen playing games more often and longer on digital devices. How should teachers capitalize the advantages of games in class, without inducing more health risks or problems for children? To achieve this goal, teachers need empirical details and conclusive results in the application of game-based learning (GBL) in primary education, so that they can design GBL experiences that cater to the specific needs of pupils. The present paper provides a systematic review for 35 experimental studies that substantially integrated gaming elements in primary school lessons. Our major findings include that (1) most studies were published in technology-assisted learning journals, focusing on higher-grade students' natural science learning, through one GBL lesson conducted within one week; (2) theoretical foundations were absent in the majority of studies, with the rest implicitly or explicitly drawing upon Constructivist premises; (3) adopted GBL technologies were mostly self-designed, and used for formal learning; (4) Gamification was the most frequently used game genre and Intellectual Problem-Solving was the top gaming element to be incorporated and (5) there were more positive outcomes than mixed findings and more cognitive results reported than affective or behavioral dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed-methods study proposed a digital-storytelling-based (DST-based) online flipped learning approach during the pandemic, and investigated its impact on EFL learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) and their perceptions of the approach. A 16-week quasi-experiment was carried out in a college English course at a comprehensive university in Chinese mainland. A total of 69 EFL learners were recruited from two intact classes and assigned to either an experimental (the DST-based online flipped learning approach) or comparison (the online flipped learning approach) group, in order to explore the effects of the DST-based online flipped learning approach on learners' WTC. The quantitative data were obtained from the learners' WTC questionnaire. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gauge the students' perceptions of the different learning approaches. The quantitative results demonstrated that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group in terms of WTC at the end of the experiment. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data also lent support to the contribution of this DST-based online flipped learning approach in terms of boosting their English speaking confidence and encouraging more meaningful interaction and collaboration with others. Findings from this study offer insights into integrating the DST-based online flipped learning approach as an instructional implementation of technology-enhanced task-based language learning (TETBLT) in COVID/ post-COVID times. Pedagogical suggestions for EFL instructors and researchers are also provided, which would be significant for improving EFL learners' communication skills and would enable them to become more capable and globalized citizens in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning with digital games has gained considerable popularity. While digital game‐based learning has the potential to improve learners' language learning achievement, engagement and motivation, there still exists a gap when it comes to providing effective feedback to learners within these games. Conventional digital games generally provide learners with immediate error correction, which could be of less help to learners when learning complex language content, such as grammar. In this study, a metalinguistic corrective feedback‐based digital gaming approach is proposed. Moreover, an experiment was conducted to explore how digital games, combined with metalinguistic corrective feedback, affect novice English learners' grammar learning achievement, as well as their perceptions of learning motivation, self‐efficacy and flow experience during learning. Lag sequential analysis was also applied to identify differences in the behavioural patterns of the two groups. A total of 76 university students participated in this study. The experimental group learned the target grammar via digital games combined with metalinguistic corrective feedback, whereas the control group learned with digital games combined with regular feedback, which is immediate error correction. The results suggest that metalinguistic corrective feedback has a positive impact on students' grammar learning, and benefits students who have lower initial intrinsic motivation and self‐efficacy. Different feedback types also lead to diverse learning behaviours. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Feedback has substantial potential within the domain of digital game‐based learning.Proper instructional theories and strategies should be considered when designing digital games to guide language learners to engage in meaningful learning.What this paper adds Feedback that directs learners to rectify errors by emphasizing grammatical rules and language structures is referred to as metalinguistic corrective feedback. This study proposed a metalinguistic corrective feedback‐based digital gaming approach to explore the efficacy of such feedback in digital games.In addition to learning outcomes, learners' learning behaviour patterns were also recorded and analysed in this study.Implications for practice and/or policy It is potentially worth integrating metalinguistic corrective feedback into digital games to facilitate language learners' learning performances and perceptions.Metalinguistic corrective feedback has the potential to support learners with lower self‐efficacy and motivation to learn complicated language content.Future research can integrate different feedback models into digital games and investigate their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observation competence plays a fundamental role in outdoor scientific investigation. The computerized concept mapping technique as a Mindtool has shown the potential for enhancing meaningful learning in science education. The purposes of the present study are to develop a concept map integrated mobile learning design for ecology observation and to examine the implementation effect for elementary school children. Also, the difference in growth slopes between gifted and average students is investigated. Eighteen gifted students and thirty average students were included in this study. A computerized dynamic assessment system which combines a Computerized Ecology Observation Competence Assessment (CEOCA) and a concept map integrated ecology observation learning design were implemented. The results of the hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis reveal that the overall growth slope is significant ([mu] = 0.27, p less than 0.01). The effect size is 0.53. The growth slope of the gifted students is a little higher than that of the average students. However, the slope difference between ability groups is not significant. The results suggest that a well designed concept map integrated learning system demonstrates very promising potential for enhancing both the gifted and average students' mobile observation competence. The system developed in this study could be a useful resource for elementary school outdoor learning design. (Contains 4 figures and 7 tables.)

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of applying a game-based learning approach to nutrition education. The quasi-experimental nonequivalent-control group design was adopted in a four-week learning activity. The participants included sixty-six third graders in two classes of an elementary school. One of the classes was assigned to be the experimental group and the other was the control group. The experimental group learned with computer games, while the control group learned with the traditional teaching approach. The result showed that the learning achievement of the students in the experimental group was significantly better than that of the students in the control group. Similar results were obtained in terms of the learning interest of the students. Moreover, most of the students revealed quite positive attitudes toward the use of the game-based learning approach in nutrition education. An in-depth analysis showed that there was no significant difference between genders in terms of nutrition knowledge and learning attitudes. (Contains 6 tables and 5 figures.)

Recently, researchers have demonstrated the benefits of technology-enhanced science inquiry activities. To improve students' self-regulation and assist them in controlling their own learning pace through inquiry activities, in this study, a self-regulated science inquiry approach was developed to assist them in organizing information from their real-world exploration. A quasi-experimental design was conducted in an elementary school natural science course to evaluate the students' performance using the proposed learning approach. One class assigned as the treatment group learned with the self-regulated science inquiry approach, while the other class assigned as the control group learned with the conventional science inquiry approach. The students' learning achievement, tendency of information help seeking, tendency of self-regulation, and self-efficacy were evaluated. The results of the study revealed that the self-regulated science inquiry approach improved the students' learning achievement, especially for those students with higher self-regulation. In addition, the students who conducted inquiry with the self-regulated learning strategy increased their tendency of information help seeking, self-efficacy, and several aspects of self-regulation, including time management, help seeking, and self-evaluation. Accordingly, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the self-regulated learning strategy, an approach with high learner control, in terms of improving students' learning achievement and their self-regulation.

Engaging students in real-world learning contexts has been identified by educators as being an important way of helping them learn to apply what they have learned from textbooks to practical problems. The advancements in mobile and image-processing technologies have enabled students to access learning resources and receive learning guidance in real-world contexts. However, when interacting with such a rich information environment that contains real-world and virtual-world learning resources, students might feel confused and frustrated owing to the lack of appropriate instructional design. Therefore, in this study, an image recognition-based mobile learning system with an active learning-promoting mechanism was developed for supporting field trips for local culture courses. An experiment was executed to examine the effects of the proposed approach on students' learning achievement, learning motivation, and local culture identity. Moreover, the students' learning behavioral patterns were probed. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach not only improved the students' learning achievements as well as their learning motivation and local culture identity, but the students who learned with the proposed approach also demonstrated more active behavioral patterns than those who learned without the active learning-promoting mechanism. Based on the findings of this study, some recommendations for those who plan to develop effective learning strategies for conducting AR-based mobile learning activities are proposed.

Mobile applications on the go have been adopted in many fields and areas. However, there has been little research regarding the development and use of a context-aware application for users to improve their English listening comprehension through collaboration. This research aimed at helping users improve their listening comprehension with a combination of context-aware tools and video-based materials and attempted to investigate the learning strategies used in groups. Therefore, the researchers designed a Ubiquitous Fitness English Listening Comprehension System (UFELCS) incorporating collaborative listening activities into a fitness center. The researchers conducted mixed methods research using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results indicate that the participants' learning performance was significantly improved. Moreover, the analysis of the interview data showed that the interviewees and their own groups held positive attitudes towards the creative ways of language learning, and their use of listening strategies was also revealed.

In this study, a one-year program was conducted to investigate the relationships between students' perceptions of mobile learning and their tendencies of peer interaction and higher-order thinking in issue-based mobile learning activities. To achieve the research objective, a survey consisting of eight scales, namely, usability, continuity, adaptive content, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity, was developed. A total of 658 students from 38 high schools in Taiwan filled in the questionnaire after experiencing issue-based mobile learning activities. From the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, it was found that the questionnaire had high reliability and validity. The structural equation model further revealed that the provision of adaptive content in the mobile learning had positive impacts on the students' tendency to interact with peers (i.e., collaboration and communication), which further affected their tendency to engage in higher-order thinking (i.e., problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity). The findings of this study provide a good reference for researchers and school teachers who intend to promote mobile learning in school settings.

In traditional teacher-centered mathematics instruction, students might show low learning motivation owing to the lack of applied contexts. Game-based learning has been recognized as a potential approach to addressing this issue; however, without proper alignment between the gaming and math-applied contexts, the benefits of game-based learning could be limited. Therefore, this study aims to develop a microworld-based educational game, which provides simulated contexts encouraging students to explore, discover, and solve practical problems using the mathematics knowledge gained in the class. A quasi-experimental design was implemented in the learning activity of the "Speedy World" unit in an elementary school mathematics course to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A total of 107 sixth graders participated in the experiment. The experimental results showed that the students who learned with the microworld-based gaming approach had better learning achievement and motivation in the mathematics course than those who learned with the conventional technology-enhanced learning approach. In addition, the students also showed that they highly accepted the microworld-based game for learning mathematics. The findings of this study provide good evidence for the importance and necessity of associating authentic applied contexts with gaming contexts in developing computer educational games for mathematics.

Augmented reality (AR) offers potential advantages for intensifying environmental context awareness and augmenting students' experiences in real-world environments by dynamically overlapping digital materials with a real-world environment. However, some challenges to AR learning environments have been described, such as participants' cognitive overload and the ways to provide assistance in constructing the presented learning materials. In this study, a mindtool-based AR learning system was developed, based on the repertory grid method and the contiguity principle of multimedia learning, for assisting students in constructing their knowledge in a natural science course. Furthermore, an experiment was carried out on an elementary school natural science course to compare the influences of this method with those of the conventional AR learning system on students' learning effectiveness. The experimental results show that the designated approach effectively promoted the students' learning achievements, and no significant difference existed between the mindtool-based AR learning system and the conventional AR learning system in terms of students' cognition load and satisfaction degree; moreover, both the experimental group and the control group perceived low cognition load during the learning activity and rated their own AR learning systems as being highly satisfactory.

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.