Nikolaos Pellas, Nikolaos Konstantinou, Georgia Georgiou, Christos Malliarakis, I. Kazanidis
{"title":"Utilizing a Serious Game via Open Sim Standalone Server and Scratch4OS for Introductory Programming Courses in Secondary Education: Their Effect on Student Engagement","authors":"Nikolaos Pellas, Nikolaos Konstantinou, Georgia Georgiou, Christos Malliarakis, I. Kazanidis","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.203","url":null,"abstract":"This study suggests a constructionist-learning framework to amplify students' engagement in introductory programming courses via a serious game that was held in Open Sim standalone server integrated with Scratch4OS. Fifty five (n=55) voluntary students from three different High schools have participated and experienced in Co. Co. I. A., a 3D mind-trap puzzle game. The empirical study findings indicated that behavioral engagement (attention, retention and energy expenditure for activity completion) does not only have a linear correlation with cognitive engagement (learning strategies for the construction of the knowledge domain), but it also has a positive nexus with emotional engagement (positive emotions and achievement orientation) in collaborative learning tasks, causing the reinforcement of the other two factors too.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126423260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"SOLE-R: A Semantic and Linguistic Approach for Book Recommendations","authors":"Angel L. Garrido, M. S. Pera, S. Ilarri","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.155","url":null,"abstract":"Reading is a fundamental skill that each person needs to develop during early childhood and continue to enhance into adulthood. While children/teenagers depend on this skill to advance academically and become educated individuals, adults are expected to acquire a certain level of proficiency in reading so that they can engage in social/civic activities and successfully participate in the workforce. A step towards assisting individuals to become lifelong readers is to provide them adequate reading selections which can cultivate their intellectual and emotional growth. With that in mind, we have developed SOLE-R, a topic map-based tool that yields book recommendations. SOLE-R takes advantage of lexical and semantic resources to infer the likes/dislikes of a reader and thus is not restricted by the syntactic constraints imposed on existing recommenders. Furthermore, SOLE-R relies on publicly-accessible data on books to perform an in-depth analysis of the preferences of a reader that goes beyond book content or reading patterns explored by existing recommenders. We have verified the correctness of SOLE-R using a popular benchmark dataset. In addition, we have compared its performance with (state-of-the-art) recommendation strategies to further demonstrate the effectiveness of SOLE-R.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127772821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Design and Evaluation of a Flipped Course Adopting the Holistic Flipped Classroom Approach","authors":"Henry Yung-Lung Chen, N. Chen","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.183","url":null,"abstract":"There has been a paradigm shift in the modern classroom from teacher-centered, in-class lecture in a physical classroom, to student-centered, blended learning in a flipped classroom. However, many university teachers are having difficulties in designing effective learning instructions or activities for a flipped course. Aiming to explore the validity of the flipped learning concept in a higher education context, an innovative flipped course was designed and implemented using an advanced learning platform to create a holistic flipped classroom environment. A survey, an interview, and computer system logs were used to evaluate the effectiveness of such a pedagogical method. It was found that the \"Holistic Flipped Classroom\" approach was effective: students reported that they were satisfied with the course, their attendance improved, and their study efforts increased. It was also found that the transactional distance changed during the learning process: highly motivated students performed much better comparatively than less motivated ones. Although this approach has shown positive results, some students retained their former passive learning habits, and this became the main obstruction to full adoption. Finally, for the practitioner, case examples and suggestions are provided to address the design, implementation and adoption issues.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128806432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Comics Use to Develop Thinking Dispositions in Early Childhood Education","authors":"Kyriaki Melliou, Anna Moutafidou, T. Bratitsis","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.148","url":null,"abstract":"A growing body of evidence highlights the importance of using technology to support critical thinking. This study investigates the influence of digital comics on the development of young students' inclinations towards high-order thinking, proposing a dispositional approach to technology integration with story making. Following the seven thinking dispositions model [7], 18 stories of 4-6 years olds were examined, in order to explore digital comic's potential as a thinking dispositions' development enhancing tool. The findings were positive and promising.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129180968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring Student Motivation during \"The Hour of CodeTM\" Activities","authors":"S. Nikou, A. Economides","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.218","url":null,"abstract":"The present study reports the experiences from the Hour of Code implementation in the context of two introductory Informatics courses, one in a high school level and one in a first-year University level. It explores learning motivation among 47 high school students and 51 first-year University level students, during their participation in the Hour of Code activity. The theoretical framework is Self-Determination Theory of Motivation. The theory distinguishes mainly four types of motivation, namely Intrinsic Motivation, Identified Regulation, External Regulation and Amotivation. Students were found to exhibit more self-determined types of motivation during the Hour of Code activities. Both groups found the activities to be attractive and useful. The results may be helpful to practitioners in order to design more intrinsically motivated educational scenarios when modeled appropriately.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116949960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Analyses of Comparative Gaze with Eye-Tracking Technique for Peer-Reviewing Classrooms","authors":"Hironori Egi, S. Ozawa, Yuki Mori","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.181","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on peer-reviewing classrooms, which is a helpful activity for teachers to improve teaching skills, involving students in their course, and using chalks and slides better. This kind of activities mainly consists of a lecture that is open to other teachers and a reflective discussion with the teachers after the lecture. In order to encourage such activities and make them more fruitful, we introduced an eye-tracking technique to understand visual attention of the experts on the actual classroom observations. Beginners on classroom observations are also measured and compared with the experts. From the results of the experiments, a trend of comparative gaze on the elements in classroom like the teacher, the slides, and the students is typically found among the experts. Peer-reviewing with recorded video files from four angles is also being evaluated. These trends may be applied to training programs in faculty development.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"32 9","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132394974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chuantao Yin, Bingxue Zhang, B. David, Nathalie Noel, R. Chalon, Zhang Xiong
{"title":"Design and Case Study of WoBaLearn -- A Work-Based Learning System","authors":"Chuantao Yin, Bingxue Zhang, B. David, Nathalie Noel, R. Chalon, Zhang Xiong","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.32","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.32","url":null,"abstract":"Work-based learning is a crucial approach to promoting professionals' working and learning efficiency. It is just-in-time, work-related, informal and spontaneous. With an aim to facilitate this kind of learning, in the paper we propose WoBaLearn, a work-based learning system, which can provide professionals with just-in-time, personalized and work-related learning supports. This paper specifies the design of a learning process in WoBaLearn based on a previously designed architecture. To evaluate the system, a learning scenario, in which professionals engage in a work-based learning activity with the support of WoBaLearn, is assumed and implemented. Results obtained from the scenario evaluate positively the design of WoBaLearn.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132821737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards Semantically Enriched E-learning Assessment: Ontology-Based Description of Learning Objects","authors":"L. Romero, M. Gutiérrez, M. L. Caliusco","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.236","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this paper is to present the progress done in the development of an ontology network, named AONet that conceptualizes the e-assessment domain and supports the semi-automatic generation of assessment. Particularly, this paper is focused on ontology-based description of assessment as an educational resource, including the mappings between metadata standard specifications. The hypothesis of this work is that a proper description of assessment resources improves its location and retrieval by educators, learners and software systems and favors reuse and collaborative work.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133115215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Baldiris, R. Fabregat, S. Graf, V. Morales, Néstor D. Duque, Cecilia Ávila
{"title":"Learning Object Recommendations Based on Quality and Item Response Theory","authors":"S. Baldiris, R. Fabregat, S. Graf, V. Morales, Néstor D. Duque, Cecilia Ávila","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.238","url":null,"abstract":"Nowadays, teachers and students continue to face the problem to find high quality learning objects for learning and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative approach, which considers Item Response Theory (IRT) for recommending to students or teachers Learning Objects (LOs) of high quality in the context of the Learning Objects Economy, which is a marketplace for sharing and reuse of LOs. Recommendations provide to teachers or students the needed support for finding high quality learning objects taking advantage of the previous quality evaluations carry out by peers. An evaluation of our approach was carried out in a real scenario which allowed us to verify the applicability of the process for generating good recommendations.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133059470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of Thinking Style and Problem Difficulty on Students' Decision-Making Behavior in a Real Time Strategy Game","authors":"D. Wen, Dick Jen-Wei Chang","doi":"10.1109/ICALT.2014.196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2014.196","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to explore the problem-solving processes, decision-making behaviors and tendencies of students facing different problem difficulty levels in strategy games. The problem difficulty in the strategy game as manipulated by two situational factors-information availability and resource advantages. Forty-five college and graduate student participated in the experiment. Quantitative data was measured to represent student's gaming performance, and qualitative data was collected to reveal the problem-solving process of students. Students' thinking style (liberal and conservative style), another variable related to students' problem solving tendencies and habits, served as a classification variable for students. Results indicated that, liberal style students have an \"active-oriented\" problem-solving style, whereas conservative students have a 'passive-oriented' problem-solving style. The two situational factors can be applied to construct a personalized game-based educational instrument to develop students' problem-solving skills by adjusting their difficulty level. Also, research findings on the two thinking styles in problem-solving processes will help support the development of a personalized and game based learning environment for strategic planning tanning. The results and implementation of this study are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":268431,"journal":{"name":"2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies","volume":"260 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122894642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}