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Social-Media-based Lifelong Learning (SMLL) have come under the spotlight nowadays because they allow people to realise lifelong learning in their quotidian existence. However, the factors that determine SMLL have received little scholarly attention, hence our poor understanding in this regard. To remedy the deficiency, a research model was developed through Maslow's need hierarchy theory to address the issue. The research findings show that (1) safety needs play an initial role that drives users gradually towards belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs and self-actualisation needs; (2) self-actualisation needs serve as a sole pivotal role in users' satisfaction with SMLL, which in turn affects their continuance intention towards SMLL. These findings reveal that social media not only allow people to safeguard their jobs by offering access to the latest knowledge but also help them fulfil their ambitions and realise their self-worth. This study also challenges the stereotypes about Maslow's need hierarchy theory by showing that the levels of needs are not necessarily to be fulfilled in ascending order but can be satisfied simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiny and affordable computers (e.g. Raspberry Pi and Arduino) have been widely applied to technology-enhanced hands-on learning (THL). However, little scholarly attention has been devoted to the key factors behind students' performance in THL contexts. Therefore, this study not only helped the participants learn computer science through THL, but also devised a research model to investigate the major factors affecting their learning performance. In this model, self-efficacy and social support serve as the independent variables, and perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and behavioral intention act as the mediating variables, while learning performance functions as the dependent variable. The research findings reveal that (1) self-efficacy is a more significantly influential factor than social support behind learning performance; and (2) perceived enjoyment is more significantly influential than perceived usefulness in affecting learning performance via the mediation of behavioral intention. These findings imply that students' self-efficacy in using technologies is more important than others' assistance in THL contexts, since the latter may not be offered in a timely manner, whereas the former will prompt students to solve problems independently and ergo deliver better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flipped civic education has attracted many educators' attention, because it can be employed to increase students' interest in learning civic literacy. However, very few researches investigated students' continuance intention to participate in flipped civic education. It is a truly important issue since flipped civic education can be more effectively applied and developed if the factors behind students' continuance intention can be identified. Therefore, in order to identify these key factors, this study adopted social cognitive theory to devise a research model. The research findings showed that social interaction ties occupy a dominant role in affecting students' continuous participation in flipped civic education through hedonic and utilitarian outcome expectations. The results suggested that fostering the collaborative activities like debates or discussions is the top priority for teachers who want to promote students' engagement in flipped civic education, because it will help students construct knowledge and experience pleasure from interpersonal interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, programming games have attracted many researchers' attention, since they not only allow students to learn programming through games, but also help them develop skills in critical thinking and problem-solving. However, only a few studies investigated students' continuance intention toward programming games. Scholars do not know much, therefore, about this issue, let alone formulate effective strategies for such games' development and application. To remedy the deficiency, we developed a research model comprising perceived enjoyment and learning climate (i.e. hedonic factors) as well as perceived usefulness and learning opportunity (i.e. utilitarian factors). Our research findings indicated that (1) through satisfaction as an intermediary, learning climate (a hedonic factor) exerted an indirect yet significant influence on the subjects' continuance intention toward the programming game; (2) learning opportunity (a utilitarian factor) had a direct and significant influence on the subjects' continuance intention toward the programming game. The two findings imply that the subjects felt satisfied and continued using the programming game when they regard learning through it as enjoyable. Besides, the learning opportunity offered by the programming game also directly affected the subjects' continuance intention toward the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to the reviews performed by the members of the Editorial Advisory Board, we greatly appreciate and thank the following 294 reviewers for their significant contribution to the IJHCI journal. [Extracted from the article]

Face-to-face computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) was used extensively to facilitate learning in classrooms. Cloud services not only allow a single user to edit a document, but they also enable multiple users to simultaneously edit a shared document. However, few researchers have compared student acceptance of such services in face-to-face CSCL between the single-user mode and the multi-user mode so as to explore which one is accepted by students more readily. Our findings indicate that students prefer to use the multi-user mode and further reveal that when the multi-user mode is used in face-to-face CSCL, (1) social influence plays a vital role related to students’ intention to use; (2) training and problem-solving assistance are helpful to familiarise students; (3) strategies for students engaging in the multi-user mode should be considered, otherwise each student has the authority to edit the shared file, which leads to it being difficult to reach a consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The learning of plants has garnered considerable attention in recent years, but students often lack the motivation to learn about the process of plant growth. Also, students are not able to apply what they have learned in class in the form of observation, since plant growth takes a long time. In this study, we use augmented reality (AR) technology to develop the ARFlora system, which can assist students in observing the changes in plant growth while in the classroom. More specifically, students are able to use AR markers to manipulate various virtual objects (e.g. sunlight) and observe the changes they have on plant growth. Meanwhile, a quasi-experimental evaluation is in place to substantiate the effectiveness of ARFlora in the learning of plants and to compare it with digital video learning. In the quasi-experimental design, 55 elementary-school students participated in the study. The participants are divided into two groups, an “experimental group” and a “control group.” The experimental group was taught using the ARFlora system, while the control group was taught by employing the digital video. Results show that (1) ARFlora and digital video have the same effectiveness on student's learning outcomes; (2) ARFlora is more effective in helping students retain learned knowledge; and (3) ARFlora is comparatively more useful in motivating students to learn about plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web-based self-learning (WBSL) has received a lot of attention in recent years due to the vast amount of varied materials available in the Web 2.0 environment. However, this large amount of material also has resulted in a serious problem of cognitive overload that degrades the efficacy of learning. In this study, an information graphics method is proposed to resolve this problem. This method is based on social tagging, which is used to visualize the relationships among materials and can thus assist learners in facilitating learning. To examine the feasibility of the proposed method for managing cognitive load, an experimental model was designed in which cognitive load theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. A total of 60 university students participated in the experiment, and the partial least squares method was used to verify the experimental model. The results show that the information graphics method has a positive impact on three types of cognitive load, namely intrinsic, extraneous, and germane. Furthermore, intrinsic and germane cognitive load have a positive influence on perceived learning effectiveness, while extraneous cognitive load does not have a significant influence. One possible reason for this outcome is that the problem of visual load was not considered in the design of this study. The overall summary of the findings is that the use of social tagging can effectively manage cognitive load and positively links to perceived learning effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient method for the resolution of key intermediate to d-biotin in high chemical and optical yields is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]