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In this study, the game-based development approach is proposed for improving the learning motivation, problem solving skills, and learning achievement of students. An experiment was conducted on a learning activity of an elementary school science course to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. A total of 59 sixth graders from two classes of the elementary school participated in the experiment. One class of 30 students was selected as the experimental group, and the other class of 29 students was the control group. From the experimental results, it was found that the proposed game development-based learning approach could effectively promote the students' problem-solving skills. However, the students' learning achievement and motivations were quite different from our expectations. A discussion of the experimental group interview data is provided and suggestions made.

Although educational computer games have been recognized as being a promising approach, previous studies have indicated that, without supportive models, students might only show temporary interest during the game-based learning process, and their learning performance is often not as good as expected. Therefore, in this paper, a two-tier test approach is proposed for developing educational computer games. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a role-playing game was developed and an experiment was conducted on the "migratory bird identification" unit of an elementary school natural science course. Two classes of fifth graders participated in the experiment. One class was the experimental group who learned with the proposed game-based learning approach. The other class was the control group who learned with the conventional e-learning approach. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach not only significantly promoted the students' learning motivation, but also improved their learning achievements. Moreover, it was found that the students who learned with the educational computer game showed significantly higher technology acceptance degree than those who learned with the conventional e-learning approach. Accordingly, it is concluded that the proposed digital game-based learning approach is effective.

The rapid progress of wireless communication, sensing, and mobile technologies has enabled students to learn in an environment that combines learning resources from both the real world and the digital world. It can be viewed as a new learning style which has been called context-aware ubiquitous learning. Most context-aware ubiquitous learning systems employ expensive sensing technologies, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), to detect the real-world learning behaviors of students and to provide personalized learning guidance accordingly. In this paper, the authors use QR (Quick Response) code, a low cost technology that is available on smart phones for detecting students' real-world learning status. Moreover, Web 2.0 technology is employed to enable students to collaboratively build a learning materials database. An experiment was conducted to investigate the relationships between the system quality, personal factors, learning motivation, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use, learning attitude, and behavioral intention of the students. In addition, from the interviews, it was found that most of the students felt interested in learning with the system and considered it as a helpful learning tool.

Fostering students' scientific inquiry competence has been recognised as being an important and challenging objective of science education. To strengthen the understanding of science theories or notations, researchers have suggested conducting some learning activities in the field via operating relevant devices. In a traditional infield scientific inquiry activity, the teacher usually lets the students operate the devices on their own after demonstrating the operational procedure. With such an approach, the students are likely to suspend the practice when they encounter problems; moreover, it is difficult for the students to connect what they have learned from the textbooks with the field practice. To deal with this problem, this study presents a context-aware ubiquitous learning system with sensing technology to detect and examine the real-world learning behaviours of students, such that personalised learning guidance and feedback can be provided; moreover, the students' experiences of operating those scientific devices, such as solar power equipment or the constellation simulators, can be conjunct to the knowledge learned from the textbooks. The experimental results from a science course of an elementary school show that this innovative approach is able to improve the learning achievements of students as well as enhance their learning motivation. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)

Recent advances in mobile and wireless communication technologies have enabled various new learning approaches which situate students in environments that combine real-world and digital-world learning resources; moreover, students are allowed to share knowledge or experiences with others during the learning process. Although such an approach seems to be promising and innovative, researchers have indicated several problems when applying it to practical applications, in particular, the lack of proper strategies or tools to assist the students to learn collaboratively in such a learning scenario with abundant content. Students might feel interested when using the mobile devices to learn; however, without proper assistance or guidance, their learning achievements are usually disappointing. To cope with this problem, this study proposes a concept map-oriented Mindtool for collaborative ubiquitous learning. Experimental results from a natural science course in an elementary school show that this approach not only enhances learning motivation but also improves the learning achievements of the students.

In recent years, digital learning has been converting from e-learning to m-learning because of the significant growth of wireless and mobile computing technologies. Students can learn any time and any where with mobile devices. Consequently, context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning) is emerging as a new research area. It integrates wireless, mobile and context awareness technologies in order to detect the situation of the learners and provide more seamless adaptive support in the learning process. In this paper, a context-aware u-learning environment is developed for learning about campus vegetation in elementary schools based on an innovative approach by employing repertory grid method in designing learning content. In addition, we probe the feasibility of context-aware u-learning in courses by soliciting feedback from the students and teachers through interviews and questionnaires. The findings reveal that the environment is capable of enhancing students' motivation and learning effectiveness. Moreover, it is also capable of reducing the teaching load while enabling better control of class order.

Conventional testing systems usually give students a score as their test result, but do not show them how to improve their learning performance. Researchers have indicated that students would benefit more if individual learning guidance could be provided. However, most of the existing learning diagnosis models ignore the fact that one concept might contain multiple knowledge levels with different degrees of difficulty, and hence students might be guided in an inefficient and ineffective way. In order to provide more precise learning guidance to individual students, the study described in this paper uses an enhanced concept-effect model for diagnosing students' learning problems and providing learning advice. The experimental results from a mathematics course have demonstrated the utility and effectiveness of this innovative approach. (Contains 1 note, 2 tables, and 5 figures.)

A context-aware ubiquitous learning environment is an authentic learning environment with personalized digital supports. While showing the potential of applying such a learning environment, researchers have also indicated the challenges of providing adaptive and dynamic support to individual students. In this paper, a decision-tree-oriented mechanism is developed for that purpose, enabling digital guidance for students to observe and classify real-world objects in the learning activities of natural science courses. To show the effectiveness of the innovative approach, a context-aware ubiquitous learning environment was implemented for the "butterfly and ecology" unit of a fourth-grade natural science course in Taiwan, and 42 students participated in the learning activity. From the surveys and interviews that were conducted to understand the functionalities of the system and the learning effectiveness for the students, the results show that the system had a positive impact on students' learning, especially on the affective domain, including participation, motivation, and interaction. (Contains 6 tables and 4 figures.)

Recent developments in computing and mobile technologies have enabled the mobile and ubiquitous learning approach, which situates students in an environment that combines real-world and digital-world learning resources. Although such an approach seems to be innovative and interesting, several problems have been revealed when applying it to practical learning activities. One major problem is owing to the lack of proper learning strategies or tools that can guide or assist the students to learn in such a complex learning scenario. Students might feel excited or interested when using the mobile devices to learn in the real world; however, their learning achievements could be disappointing. To cope with this problem, in this study, a knowledge engineering approach is proposed to develop Mindtools for such innovative learning scenarios. Experimental results from a natural science course of an elementary school show that this innovative approach not only enhances learning motivation, but also improves the learning achievements of the students. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

Although Web 2.0 technologies have been recognized as effective means of conducting group learning activities, a critical and challenging issue of Web 2.0-based learning is the lack of mechanisms for promoting information exchanges and sharing among participating students. To cope with this problem, an intelligent blog system is proposed in this article to assist teachers in conducting group learning activities on the Internet. In this system, a promotion mechanism is provided to encourage the exchanging and sharing of information and learning resources by collecting and analyzing the frequently asked questions and the historical contents selected from relevant discussion forums. On the basis of the experimental results, the system is proven to be able to fulfill the need of the students and the teachers and also very helpful for enhancing students' learning efficacy. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

The growing popularity of computer and network technologies has attracted researchers to investigate the strategies and the effects of information technology applied instructions. Previous research has not only demonstrated the benefits of applying information technologies to the learning process, but has also revealed the difficulty of applying them effectively. One of the major difficulties is due to the lack of an easy-to-follow procedure for inexperienced teachers to design course content with proper use of suitable information technologies. In this paper, a model for conducting information technology applied instructions is proposed. The novel approach can assist teachers in designing information technology applied course content based on the features of subject materials and the learning status of the students. An experiment on a Chemistry course in a junior high school was conducted to evaluate the performance of our novel approach. (Contains 10 tables and 8 figures.)

The national certification tests and entrance examinations are the most important tests for proving the ability or knowledge level of a person. To accurately evaluate the professional skills or knowledge level, the composed test sheets must meet multiple assessment criteria such as the ratio of relevant concepts to be evaluated and the estimated testing time. Furthermore, to fairly compare the knowledge levels of the persons who receive different national tests and to avoid unexpected situations due to weather, accidents, etc., a set of parallel test sheets with identical test ability need to be composed, which is almost impossible to be accomplished manually. To cope with this problem, an innovative approach is proposed to efficiently compositing parallel test sheets from very large item banks, while meeting multiple assessment criteria. Moreover, a computer-assisted testing system was developed and a series of experiments were conducted to show the efficiency and effectiveness of the innovative approach. (Contains 3 figures and 7 tables.)

Augmented reality (AR) is helpful in leading students to observe real-world learning targets with supports from online learning resources using mobile and wireless communication technologies. In this study, an AR-based learning system for an architecture course is proposed based on a formative assessment mechanism, which guides students to find answers on their own by giving hints when they fail to correctly answer questions. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment has been conducted in the Museum of World Religions for a university architecture course. A total of 39 students were randomly assigned to an experimental group learning with the proposed approach and a control group learning with the conventional AR-based learning. The experimental results showed that the AR-based learning with the formative assessment mechanism significantly improved the students' learning achievements and motivation, while also reducing their cognitive load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept maps have been recognized as an effective tool for students to organize their knowledge; however, in history courses, it is important for students to learn and organize historical events according to the time of their occurrence. Therefore, in this study, a time sequence-oriented concept map approach is proposed for developing a game-based environment to facilitate students' learning of historical events and their organization during the gaming process. With this approach, students can easily learn the precedence relationships among the historical events that occurred in different time periods with the time sequence-oriented concept map. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a historical role-playing game has been developed for an elementary school history course to examine the students' performance in terms of learning motivation, self-efficacy and learning achievements. A subject unit, the “Siege of Fort Zeelandia by Zheng Cheng-Gong,” was chosen as the history topic. The results show that the proposed approach can significantly enhance the students' learning achievement, but did not affect their learning motivation or self-efficacy for the history course. As a consequence, it is concluded that students can benefit from concept maps in terms of enhancing their learning achievement, but they do not necessarily enjoy using concept maps in game-based learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses innovative learning environments and learning technologies as the theme of the issue.

The continuing attention to the educational value of digital games highlights the need for more focused literature reviews in order to identify critical gaps and opportunities in domain-specific areas. The current study thus set out to provide a scoping overview of empirical evidence on the use and impacts of digital games in language education from 2007 to 2016, as a means to advance the emerging research on digital game-based language learning (DGBLL). A total of 50 selected studies were systematically analyzed, revealing the following findings: (1) Most of the selected DGBLL studies adopted mixed methods to examine the educational use of digital games; (2) Immersive games, notably massively multiplayer online role-playing games, were the most common genre in the current DGBLL literature; (3) Most of the games for language learning were custom-built by DGBLL researchers; (4) Personal computers were the most common platforms for playing games to support language learning; (5) Most of the DGBLL studies adopted games to facilitate the learning of English as a second or foreign language; (6) Most of the research on DGBLL investigated learners with mixed levels of language proficiency; (7) University students were the most frequently selected samples in the existing DGBLL literature; and (8) The majority of DGBLL studies featured positive outcomes in regard to student learning, with the most frequently reported ones being related to affective or psychological states, closely followed by language acquisition. Taken as a whole, these findings reflect the diverse nature of this field and suggest the overall feasibility of using digital games for promoting the language and literacy learning of both native and non-native speakers in various aspects. Several promising but under-researched areas were also identified in this review, along with discussions on their implications for future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]