91

Letter to the Reader

Authors: Giovanni Vincenti, James Braman

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

We would like to start our service to you, our readers, by expressing our most sincere appreciation for your curiosity about this initiative. This project has finally taken shape after years of planning and countless communications among a significant number of people. In true modern fashion, even though we have been working together for years, we have no idea what most of those within our extended team look like. This fantastic world of technology once again enables us to produce significant works without the need of direct or even synchronous interaction. It is this very aspect of today’s global infrastructure that plays the most central role into this project: the ability of interacting socially through electronic media, focussing on research and practice applied to the modern classroom. Our interest in e-education stems from the pure curiosity of ‘how can we improve our teaching’ once we became faculty members, with a significant load of classes to manage every semester. Our initial studies were concentrating mainly in agent-based simulations and artificial intelligence, interests that are still deeply rooted within us and that we carry on exploring. It is the classroom aspect of our jobs that has led us to exploring new and more efficient ways to utilize technology in teaching. Whether we are carrying out office hours in multi-user virtual environments, letting the students review programming concepts until the very last minute before the exam through some online demonstration, or thinking about the next project, we are researchers and practitioners just like you. The pervasiveness of information systems keeps breaking its own records, as we get to a degree of connectivity that is continuously increasing. Although its presence is not uniform through the entire globe, the possibilities that this intercontinental infrastructure offers appear nearly endless. It is in the intersection where we find the niche of e-learning and e-education that attracts us the most.

Keywords: Letter to the Reader

93

Digital ethnicity: discussion of a concept and implications for education

Authors: Nan B. Adams, Thomas A. DeVaney

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Interaction with the rapidly expanding digital technologies for education, work, and play has drastically changed the processes and practices of world populations. As societies evolve in response to these new communication and calculation tools, the need arises to understand the sometimes unique but increasingly common change in cultures. The Digital Ethnicity Scale (DES), utilizing Longstreet’s (1978, Aspects of Ethnicity (New York: Teachers College Press) model of the Aspects of Ethnicity, was developed to describe the emergence of new cultural patterns of behavior that result from the influence of human interaction with digital communication technologies (Adams, DeVaney, and Longstreet (2010) Comput. Hum. Behav. 26(6): 1822–1830). Longstreet’s definition of ethnicity focuses on cultural development during the earliest stages of human development, prior to the onset of children’s abstract thinking. The ultimate goal for the development of the DES is to describe those aspects of digital ethnicity and collect these descriptions along with demographic data to achieve profiles of various digital ethnicities. A discussion of the guiding concept and overview of the development of the DES seeks to present a description of these digital ethnic profiles that may provide insight into the educational needs of rapidly changing societal groupings with hopes of providing guidance for educational practice.

Keywords: computers and human behavior, educational computing, socio-cultural patterns

94

Conceptual design of collaborative virtual environments for education using a theater-based metaphor

Authors: Alberto Bucciero, Anna Lisa Guido, Luca Mainetti

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) are becoming more and more important in many areas because they offer users the opportunity to experiment with novel interaction paradigms in order to perform collaborative work or have engaging experiences ‘being together’. One of the most promising application fields is eLearning, where CVEs give the unique opportunity to explore effective educational formats. Surprisingly, if compared with other more traditional fields as software engineering and database, we note a lack of design approaches. We point out that a well-founded design approach is crucial to develop collaborative experiences that could generate substantial and measurable educational benefits. To meet this challenge, in this paper we present a set of founding concepts that enable pedagogs and teachers designing effective 3D virtual worlds for education. To keep our concepts simply understandable, we based our design method on a widespread metaphor: the theater. We demonstrate through a real case study the promising advantages of our approach: expressiveness to capture collaborative features at a high level of abstraction, semi-formality to facilitate the establishment of a common ground between educational designers and CVEs engineers, and guidance to enable non-experts to cope with all the relevant aspects of a 3D virtual world.

Keywords: collaborative virtual environment, conceptual design, conceptual map, design metaphor, multi-user virtual environment, 3D virtual world

97

On the importance of social network sites in the transitions which characterize ‘emerging adulthood’

Authors: Gianluca Frozzi, Elvis Mazzoni

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Modern-day economic and socio-cultural developments require people to be ever more specialized and mobile in their educational and professional choices. This is particularly relevant for ‘emerging adults’, that is to say, those who find themselves at that stage of life when their scholastic or university education ends, and they begin to make choices regarding their professional working life. Transitions between different activity systems, and changes of residence which they entail, make ‘emerging adulthood’ a particularly unstable period in which young people continually dissolve, create and recreate relationship networks of varying degrees of importance which are able to support them through these changes. Beginning with empirical evidence and theoretical starting points typical of the psychology of education and development, this contribution proposes a theoretical reflection which attempts to analyze the efficacy of Social Network Sites in facilitating and supporting emerging adults during their education and vocational training and the important transitions which they have to face as they develop.

Keywords: activity systems, emerging adulthood, social capital, social network sites, transitions

97

An e-tool for undergraduate surveying education: design and evaluation

Authors: Hazar Dib, Nicoletta Adamo-Villani

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

We describe an innovative e-tool for Surveying Education, report the results of a pilot study with a group of undergraduate students, and discuss lessons learned and future work. The e-tool consists of two parts: a student’s component and an instructor’s component. The students’ component is a 2D Virtual Learning Environment that can be used by students to review surveying concepts and practices and get feedback on their understanding of the subject. The instructor’s component is a summative assessment tool that measures the individual student’s cognitive and practical abilities with accuracy. Results of the pilot study show that students perceived the application as easy to use, useful for reviewing class content, and effective at providing immediate and accurate feedback on their performance. A comparison between the grades obtained by manually grading the field exercise and the grades generated by the e-tool showed a significant disagreement between the two sets of data, with the electronically generated grades being much lower. The study revealed the limitations of the current tool due to its dimensionality (i.e. 2D) and suggested the need for a more realistic 3D learning environment.

Keywords: e-assessment, e-content management and development, games, surveying, technological issues in education, virtual universities

91

The design of inclusive curricula for multi-user virtual environments: a framework for developers and educators

Authors: Denise Wood

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Increasing access to Information Communication Technologies and a growing awareness of the importance of digital media literacy have led many educators to seek innovative solutions to harness the enthusiasm of ‘net gen’ learners while also enhancing their ability to collaborate, communicate and problem solve augmented by digital technologies. One of the emergent trends in response to these demands has been the shift away from traditional models of teaching to more flexible approaches such as the use of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) designed to facilitate a more collaborative and participatory approach to student learning. At the same time, international initiatives such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Education for All and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have highlighted the importance of ensuring that such teaching and learning environments are inclusive of students with diverse needs. Many universities are also responding to a widening participation agenda; a policy focus which aims to increase both the access and success rates of students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Educational technology has long been regarded as a means by which students who may be isolated by disability, geographical location and/or social circumstances can gain access to such learning opportunities. The growth in the use of MUVEs combined with increasing access to mobile communications opens up new opportunities for engaging students from diverse backgrounds through virtual learning environments. Yet despite the potential, there are many challenges in ensuring that the very students who are most able to benefit from such e-learning technologies are not further disadvantaged by a lack of attention to both the technical and pedagogical considerations required in the design of inclusive e-learning environments. This paper reports on the findings of research funded through an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Grant, which aims to increase the opportunities for learners to participate more fully in education through an accessible multi-user virtual learning environment. The paper draws on ethnographic research, trials of undergraduate courses and a framework that can guide educators and designers in developing curricula that maximises the pedagogical affordances of e-learning technologies such as MUVEs, while also addressing the needs of diverse learners.

Keywords: diversity, e-learning, ICTs, inclusivity, MUVEs, pedagogical affordances, virtual learning environments, 3D virtual worlds, Web 2.0

94

Technology and Education: an Ever-Growing Intersection

Authors: Giovanni Vincenti, James Braman

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Taking with it many facets of everyday interaction, including that of teaching and learning. As the educational forefront is continually advancing through the introduction of new ideas, technologies and media, it is important to report all of these changes in order to stay abreast of its impacts. It is with great pleasure that we introduce our second issue of the ICST Transactions on eEducation and e-Learning. It has always been our belief that it is important for educators to experiment with new instructional tools and pedagogical approaches in order to find innovative ways to enhance teaching and learning. It is through the expertise of many educational pioneers that we are able to gain invaluable insight into new methods of teaching. Education should change and adapt as both society and technology evolve. Even though technology can be a great asset to educators, technology alone does not guarantee learning. Students must be engaged and encouraged to apply their skills and understanding in order to retain and process new information. Many of today’s students are comfortable using technology, especially the digital natives (Prensky, 2001). The idea of technology in the classroom is now a prerequisite rather than an index of innovation. Educators must have an understanding of the technology they are using in order to choose the appropriate tool and to implement it the most practical way for their classroom. As the very nature of the classroom has evolved into a new learning space, new creative approaches are needed to solve today’s educational problems. Some argue that challenges stem from issues like teacher attrition, lack of parental *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] involvement and student’s reading abilities, which all hinder progress in education (Boyer & Hamil, 2008). Others note challenges related to inequality and cultural differences as creating additional learning barriers and complexities (Banks & Banks, 2009). Whatever the issue, there are many unique solutions and innovations that can help educators alleviate many problems through technologies. Teachers of all disciplines need to stay current and up-to-date with the ever changing arena of learning and educational technologies. Though a difficult and daunting task, it is through publications such as this one that we hope to make the journey a little easier, as we can learn from the experiences and many experiments conducted in the field of the “classroom”. There is a growing need to investigate further the impact of potential e-learning tools and other collaborative social Web 2.0 technologies for online and hybrid teaching (Solomon & Schrum, 2010). Many new tools have become available in the last several years, allowing for many creative teaching moments and learning endeavors. For instance the use of augmented reality coupled with mobile and tablet based learning (Tarng & Ou, 2012). The availability of cell phones and other mobile devices had open many new doors, allowing for many types of learning. Many forms of interactive simulations can be conducted in virtual labs and in 3D environments and even social virtual worlds. We have been experimented in such domains for the past several years, pushing the envelope and encouraging others to experiment in new mediums to further engage students (Vincenti & Braman, 2011). The society of tomorrow will be very different and full of many new challenges. Teaching our students better today will prepare them for the road ahead.

Keywords: Technology and Education: an Ever-Growing Intersection

95

A Method for Teaching the Modeling of Manikins Suitable for Third-Person 3-D Virtual Worlds and Games

Authors: Nick V. Flor

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Virtual Worlds have the potential to transform the way people learn, work, and play. With the emerging fields of service science and design science, professors and students at universities are in a unique position to lead the research and development of innovative and value-adding virtual worlds. However, a key barrier in the development of virtual worlds—especially for business, technical, and non-artistic students—is the ability to model human figures in 3-D for use as avatars and automated characters in virtual worlds. There are no articles in either research or teaching journals which describe methods that non-artists can use to create 3-D human figures. This paper presents a repeatable and flexible method I have taught successfully to both artists and business students, which allows them to quickly model human-like figures (manikins) that are sufficient for prototype purposes and that allows students and researchers alike to explore the development of new kinds of virtual worlds.

Keywords: Teaching, Multi-User Virtual Environments, Learning

96

Animating Instructional Materials in Computer Education: An Approach to Designing and Teaching Concepts in Data Structures Using LATEX

Authors: Damilola Osikoya, Adeleke Oluwalani

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Animation gives a different perception on what is being visually presented. Research has shown that students are likely to understand what is being taught from the combination of animation and text than just with text. Students easily understand scientific concepts in narrative and animated forms. Data structure is a way of storing and arranging data. The efficacy of searching these stored data is very important, so is it vital that they are stored with the right algorithm. This paper presents animations designed to support teaching in computer education. Our main focus is to present controlled animated instructional materials in teaching topics in data structures. We have created three scientifically animated instructional materials in data structures consisting of the Stacks, Queues and Trees. These scientific spheres have been chosen to demonstrate the basic ideas of this work, because of its simplicity in representing the animations. We hope to develop reasonable sets of instructional material of different subject areas that will be stored in a database repository. These are intended to be delivered to students through an e-learning website and/or Mobile phones to support them with additional learning opportunities.

Keywords: Animations, Data Structures, Controlled Animations, Computer Education

99

Collaboration on the web – Chances of participation in a formal education context

Authors: Jane Fleischer, Klaus Bredl, Ramona Weise

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

This contribution addresses the options and chances for an alliance between students’ participation and the adoption of digital media in a context of academic education at universities. Under certain circumstances these two aspects are able to develop an additional benefit for the process of teaching and learning. Collaboration serves as an exemplification to show imaginable and straightforward ways for such alliances. All of the processes presented in the contribution already have been realized. The following introduces the case study and summarizes every potential and challenge of collaboration. According to the summary every kind of collaboration will be allocated in the correlation of participation in the web and at the academia.

Keywords: Teaching, Multi-User Virtual Environments, Learning

99

Scaffolding in Mobile Science Enquiry-based Learning Using Ontologies

Authors: Sohaib Ahmed, David Parsons, Mandia Mentis

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

The use of ontologies has become increasingly widespread in many areas, particularly in technology enhanced learning. They appear promising in supporting knowledge representation and learning content creation for domains of interest. In this paper, we show how ontology-based scaffolding has helped mobile learners to perform scientific enquiry investigations. Enquiry-based learning aims to provide educational activities and tools to assists students to learn science by doing science. In this study, a design science research approach was taken to creating an ontology-driven application for a science content domain, which has been evaluated with high school science students. The results showed the significant value of ontologies in scaffolding learning content in such enquiry-based learning environments. With this application, students were found to learn science in more meaningful and engaged ways as well as developing positive attitudes towards mobile learning.

Keywords: Abduction, Domain Ontology, Enquiry-based Learning, Mobile Learning, Ontology-driven Application, Scaffolding

92

Smart Agent Based Mobile Tutoring and Querying System

Authors: Suresh Sankaranarayanan

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

With our busy schedules today and the rising cost of education there is a need to find a convenient and cost effective means of maximizing our educational/training experiences. New trends in the delivery/access of information are becoming more technology based in all areas of society with education being no exception. The ubiquitous use of mobile devices has led to a boom in m-commerce. Mobile devices provide many services in commercial environments such as mobile banking, mobile purchasing, mobile learning, etc. It is therefore fitting that we seek to use mobile devices as a platform in delivering our convenient and cost effective solution. The proposed agent based Mobile tutoring system seeks to provide a student with a rich learning experience that will provide them with the relevant reading material based on their stage of development which allows them to move at their own pace. The system will allow the user to be able to ask certain questions and get explanations as if they were interacting with a human tutor but with the added benefit of being able to do this anytime in any location via their mobile phone.

Keywords: Mobile Tutoring, Querying, Agent, JADE-LEAP, Android

89

A few thoughts on the Flipped Classroom

Authors: G. Vincenti, J. Braman

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

There are many ways educators can enhance their curriculum and experiment with new pedagogical models to engage students. There have been numerous studies that have shown improvement as well as the potential for additional success with many of these models. From our own experience, certain classroom settings and topics lend themselves to a particular learning style that may be more advantageous. Experience coupled with keeping up with the literature and research on best practices can be very helpful to create the best learning environment for students. Technology can often greatly enhance the strategies used in and out the classroom and can also greatly enhance access to certain materials. With increased usage of online materials educators can reach a larger number of students as well as facilitate learning far beyond the classroom walls. One such shift that has been fostered by technology is that of the flipped classroom model of learning. Here instructors can record lectures and/or other instructional materials for dissemination online so that more time can be spent working together on tasks in the classroom though in-class exercises (Educause, 2012). While this same approach could be done with printed reading material, most are using online content. This model allows for exposure to topics at home so that students can work more in-depth on related material in the classroom, which can allow for more in-depth help from peers or the instructor and meaningful conversations. Following this, students can then complete additional coursework at home to help retain information.

Keywords: A few thoughts on the Flipped Classroom

90

Web 2.0 in e-Learning

Authors: M. Tariq Banday

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

Web 2.0 tools have created fresh opportunities for governments, education, businesses and individuals to enhance efficiency and improve effectiveness while executing respective professional duties. The key features of these tools include online character and access through a web browser, supportive for open content licenses, open sharing and social interaction, and often free to use or support free features. These have created novel prospects for teachers to combine face-to-face teaching and online materials via social media such as discussion forums, blogs and wikis. The web 2.0 educational design is based on socio-cultural learning theories such as interaction, joint creation of content, critical thinking, learning by doing and collaboration. This paper makes an appraisal of ICT adoption in education, emergence of Web, improvements in Web and its effect on the e-Learning. It explains gradual integration of ICT into education through various stages. The paper presents the content and communication dimensions of e-learning for its classification. It discusses various opportunities created by Web 2.0 tools in education for effective teacher-learner, learner-learner and teacher-teacher communication, interaction and collaboration. It presents various cases and projects involving use of some Web 2.0 tools for enhancing learning. Furthermore, it lists some challenges for successful implementation of e-learning through Web 2.0 tools and discusses some possible solutions for its control.

Keywords: E-Learning, Web in Education, Blended Learning, Stages of ICT integration in Education, Web in e-Learning, E-Learning Challenges

90

A study of the effects of computer animation on college students’ learning of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - LEED

Authors: Razieh Nilforooshan, Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, Hazar Dib

EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning 2019/Jun/07

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Abstract

This paper presents ongoing research aimed at investigating the efficacy of computer animations in improving college students’ learning of building sustainability concepts and practices. The use of animations in educational contexts is not new, however scientific evidence that supports their effectiveness as educational materials is still limited. This paper reports an experiment that explored the impact of an educational digital animation, called “LEED-ERS”, on college students’ learning of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Specifically, the animation focused on the LEED category of Sustainable Site. Results of a study with 68 students show that viewing the animation led to an increase in subjects’ declarative knowledge by 15%. Compared to traditional learning methods (e.g. reading assignments with static images), viewing the animation led to significantly higher declarative knowledge gains.

Keywords: computer animation, engineering education, LEED, e-learning, building sustainability

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