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This paper reports on the design and development of educational games and materials that utilize affordable e-textile technology. The researchers employed a design-based approach whereby preschool children used three e-textile materials in two cycles to inform on the development of interactive materials from ordinary objects and bodily interactive games. The study's data were collected and analyzed according to the designbased research framework through iterative cycles of interviewing, video recording, and note-taking. The paper describes the characteristics, pros, and cons of e-textiles and what to consider when using them to create interactive educational materials for preschool-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive background for understanding current knowledge on Learning Analytics (LA) and Educational Data Mining (EDM) and its impact on adaptive learning. It constitutes an overview of empirical evidence behind key objectives of the potential adoption of LA/EDM in generic educational strategic planning. We examined the literature on experimental case studies conducted in the domain during the past six years (2008-2013). Search terms identified 209 mature pieces of research work, but inclusion criteria limited the key studies to 40. We analyzed the research questions, methodology and findings of these published papers and categorized them accordingly. We used non-statistical methods to evaluate and interpret findings of the collected studies. The results have highlighted four distinct major directions of the LA/EDM empirical research. We discuss on the emerged added value of LA/EDM research and highlight the significance of further implications. Finally, we set our thoughts on possible uncharted key questions to investigate both from pedagogical and technical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flipped classroom is an educational strategy about inverting the traditional use of in-class time for conducting lower-level learning activities and out-of-class time for conducting higher-level learning activities. Guided social inquiry learning (GSIL), which is a scaffolded constructivist pedagogic approach, has been conventionally adopted in learning and teaching of Liberal Studies (a "young" core senior secondary subject of social and humanities education in Hong Kong). In this research, we aimed to integrate the idea of the flipped classroom into the process of GSIL for promoting students' learning achievement and self-efficacy in studying Liberal Studies. Apart from delineating the pedagogic design of the proposed "flipped" social inquiry learning (FSIL) approach, this paper also reports our quasiexperimental study on investigating the pedagogic effectiveness of FSIL in comparison with GSIL. There was a total of 215 Grade-11 students from top, middle, and bottom academic-banding schools participating in this study. Results indicated that, compared to the conventional approach, FSIL had different degrees of positive effects on the high, moderate, and low academic-achieving participants. The findings provide grounds for further studying a wider adoption of the flipped classroom in social and humanities education, as well as in constructivist learning and teaching activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of an educational game, named My-Pet-Shop, to enhance young children's learning of English vocabulary. The educational game is underpinned by an application-driven model, which consists of three components: application scenario, subject learning, and learning regulation. An empirical study is further conducted with 30 fourth-grade students to examine its influence on the aspects of performance, flow, self-regulation, and behavior related to learning. The results demonstrated that the system contributed to enhanced flow experience and better learning self-regulation when compared to using a quiz game system without the support of the application-driven model. In addition, behavior analysis revealed that the component of learning regulation played a critical role. Some implications about the application-driven model and its future development are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has grown enormously, with communities of players reaching into the millions. Their fantasy narratives present multiple challenges created by the virtual environment and/or other players. The games' potential for education stems from the fact that players are immersed in a virtual world where they have the opportunity to manipulate and explore, thus motivating the construction of knowledge. The interaction and collaboration between participants allows students to exchange information, test their understanding and reflect on what they have learned. Given the promising results of using MMORPG technologies for educational purposes, this paper translates the multiplayer role playing game (MRPG) aspect, the essential concept behind MMORPGs, into the classroom context. We present the abstraction behind a Classroom Multiplayer Presential Role Playing Game (CMPRPG) and the development of a CMPRPG for teaching ecology. The game has a quest structure in which each result highlights a key teaching objective. It is implemented at a high level, with interaction between reusable game elements defined using triggers. It is observed that the implemented CMPRPG has appropriate usability levels, benefits the learning and application of the concepts of ecology and, in the interactive dimensions, it encourages participation and collaborative narrative structures among participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a self-regulated learning (SRL) system with scaffolding support in order to develop independent learning skills among students. The SRL system uses self-regulated learning and scaffolding theories to appeal to both instructors and learners. On the part of the instructors, a Content Accessibility Subsystem is provided to easily organize learning materials and to dynamically provide different levels of support for their learners. As for the learners, many subsystems are proposed that provide a conducive mobile learning environment for them. With the application of the scaffolding theory, the system can easily adjust to provide help to the learners, facilitating SRL processes anytime and anywhere, and establishing the learners' SRL patterns gradually. The learners in the experiment deemed that that the proposed system could provide them selfregulatory attributes. The experiment results show that the average SRL score of learners increases, though the improvement is not significant. However, the result also showed that the SR skills of students in the group of Low SR significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the new major directions in research on web-based educational systems is the notion of adaptability: the educational system adapts itself to the learning profile, preferences and ability of the student. In this paper, we look into the issues of providing adaptability with respect to learning pathways. We explore the state of the art with respective to deriving the most apt learning pathway to recommend to the learner. Our proposal suggests a novel way of modeling learning pathways that combines rule-based prescriptive planning, which could be found in many of the classic Intelligent Tutoring Systems, and Ant Colony Optimization-based inductive planning, for recommending learning paths by stochastically computing past learners' traveled paths and their performances. A web-based prototype has been developed using C# and .NET technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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