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This paper presents a comprehensive review and a specific example implementation of a minimally invasive technique that can be used to make quantitative measurements of a subject's Electro-Dermal Activity (EDA) in educational technology studies. The Q sensor is a low-cost wireless sensor that can be worn on the wrist to measure a subject's response to various stimuli in both laboratory and natural education research settings. The example application shown here is from a study on presence while viewing two different screen sizes used in a Virtual Reality (VR) system. It is recommended that EDA data be used in conjunction with other data, such as from other types of sensors and from qualitative instruments such as surveys, because human EDA response to a given environment and stimuli is not always consistent. EDA sensors show great promise as an effective tool that can be used in educational technology research.

Advanced multimedia techniques offer significant learning potential for students. Dale (1946, 1954, 1969) developed a Cone of Experience (CoE) which is a hierarchy of learning experiences ranging from direct participation to abstract symbolic expression. This paper updates the CoE for today's technology and learning context, specifically focused on the use of multimedia in education. The new hierarchy, called the Multimedia Cone of Abstraction (MCoA), has fewer primary levels than the CoE but many more total levels because of multiple potential sublevels. The purpose of the MCoA is to help instructional designers of educational content to select appropriate multimedia for each learning context.

This study used descriptive statistics, rating and ranking procedures, and factor analysis to describe the predictions of 447 educators and members of the general public about 13 concepts that would influence the future of American public education. The 13 items formed four broad factors that were predicted to influence the future of education in the following order: (1) general educational requirements, (2) serving learning needs, (3) meeting ethical responsibilities, and (4) maintaining fiscal accountability and competitiveness. All individual items and factors were perceived to be moderately to strongly influential on the future of educational practice. Predictions of the influence of the factors were similar across demographic groups and between educators and the public. The study created a picture of 21st-century education as an effort to find fiscal resources to maintain relevant emerging technologies and to make them effectively and universally available to all learners in ways that address their individual needs. (Contains 5 tables.)

Virtual reality (VR) technology has demonstrated effectiveness in a variety of technical learning situations, yet little is known about its differential effects on learners with different levels of visual processing skill. This small-scale exploratory study tested VR through quasi-experimental methodology and a theoretical/conceptual framework based on supplantation theory, cognitive load theory, Dale's Cone of media concreteness, communication theory, and Lowenfeld's visual/haptic perceptual typology. The study compared the differential effects of VR and traditional still-image presentations of surgical operating room environments to students with high- and low-visual perceptual styles. Descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVAs were used to examine main and interaction effects on six learning performance and opinion variables. Several significant main effects and disordinal interactions suggested that communication channel noise and cognitive load may disrupt supplantation-concreteness benefits of VR, particularly for low-visual learners. Follow-up qualitative data suggested these overload issues may have dissipated when the VR presentation was moved into a classroom learning environment.

This paper presents a review of literature that introduces major concepts and issues in using avatars and pedagogical agents in first- and second-person virtual environments (VEs) for learning online. In these VEs, avatars and pedagogical agents represent self and other learners/participants or serve as personal learning "guides". The paper offers insights into the relationship of online VEs and their components to computer games and discusses the roles of the Computer as Social Actor (CASA) paradigm, anthropomorphism, ethopoeia, and homophily in these learning environments. It defines and illustrates the terminology and conventions used in VE technology, discusses social aspects of human learning in online VEs, reviews relevant literature, introduces theories relevant to designing these environments, and suggests some models for research to advance the currently limited knowledge of how, why, when, and for whom these online learning environments may be most effective.

This study examined gender-related issues in using new desktop virtual reality (VR) technology as a learning tool in career and technical education (CTE). Using relevant literature, theory, and cross-case analysis of data and findings, the study compared and analyzed the outcomes of two recent studies conducted by a research team at Oklahoma State University that addressed gender issues in VR-based training. This cross-case analysis synthesized the results of these two studies to draw conclusions and implications for CTE educators that may assist in developing or implementing successful virtual learning environments for occupational training. The cross-study findings suggested that males and females may be differently affected by VR and that females may be less comfortable, confident, and capable in virtual learning environments, particularly when the environments are highly technical and visually complex. The findings indicate caution in the use of VR in mixed-gender CTE programs, particularly in programs that are heavily female-gendered. (Contains 1 figure.)

Virtual reality (VR) that immerses users in a 3D environment through use of headwear, body suits, and data gloves has demonstrated effectiveness in technical and professional education. Immersive VR is highly engaging and appealing to technically skilled young Net Generation learners. However, technical difficulty and very high costs have kept immersive VR out of most education institutions and corporate training programs. Now, a new technology is making the learning benefits and competitive advantages of VR possible cost effectively. This new technology, called desktop virtual reality, has recently improved dramatically and can now put high-quality virtual environments on standard desktop and laptop computers. This paper introduces instructional uses of VR, reviews the characteristics and benefits of desktop VR, overviews the hardware and software required to develop and use desktop VR for learning and training, and reviews the theoretical foundations and experimental findings from a research program on this innovative technology currently in progress at Oklahoma State University in the United States.

Virtual reality (VR) has demonstrated effectiveness as an instructional technology in many technical fields. However, VR research has generally lacked a sound theory base to provide explanatory or predictive strength. Further, research into the effectiveness of "new desktop technologies" that place VR within the reach of schools and teachers is currently embryonic. The study reported here is a pilot and is highly exploratory. It is a first step in developing a theory-based line of inquiry into desktop VR as an instructional technology with potential for Career and Technical Education. Grounded in several theory and research strands, this study compared the effects of presenting a complex scene via desktop VR and a set of still photographic images. The two treatments were given to groups drawn from the general population with equal representation by both genders and two age groups. Two performance measures and a confidence measure were analyzed using 2-way ANOVAs. Statistically significant main effects for treatment were found for all three measures, all in favor of the VR treatment. These findings were consistent with predictions based on the study's theory base. Several main effects for age and gender, and trends for interactions of age and gender with treatment, were also identified that may provide impetus for further research.(Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

In an effort to individualize instruction and improve the effectiveness of instructor-learner transactions, education and instructional research has addressed a wide assortment of learner variables and assessed their relationships to instructional methods and environments. Adult education has recently seen the development by Conti and Kolody of a new model for the study and classification of learning preferences, which they call learning strategies. To accompany their model, they created a new assessment instrument named Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults, or ATLAS. The purpose of this study was to apply the ATLAS test to identify and describe the learning strategies and the associated instructional preferences of students in CTE programs and to compare these results with those found in previous ATLAS studies of non-traditional learner populations. The subjects in this study were 621 career and technology education (CTE) students whose instructors were already using the ATLAS instrument as part of their instructional techniques. Data for the study were gathered from two instruments: The ATLAS test of learning strategies, and a short questionnaire developed specifically for the study. (Contains 5 tables.)

Virtual Reality has been defined in many different ways and now means different things in various contexts. VR can range from simple environments presented on a desktop computer to fully immersive multisensory environments experienced through complex headgear and bodysuits. In all of its manifestations, VR is basically a way of simulating or replicating an environment and giving the user a sense of being there, taking control, and personally interacting with that environment with his/her own body. In this article, the author discusses the benefits of using visual technologies for teaching and learning in industrial education. Such a technology is virtual reality (VR). The capabilities and possibilities for VR technology may open doors to new vistas in industrial and technical instruction and learning, and the research that supports them. The emergence of desktop VR now makes it possible for industrial educators to add this powerful high-impact technology to their classroom instructional mix, and to build a unique research base in the field. Desktop VR may be a technology whose time has come for both research and practice in industrial education. With recent breakthroughs in technical and cost accessibility, the door to the world of virtual reality is standing wide open. For industrial teacher educators and researchers, it's only a matter of walking through. Furthermore, implications and recommendations for the use of VR technology as a potential tool for technical and industrial training are discussed.

Continuing engineering education (CEE) is important to ensure engineers maintain proficiency over the life of their careers. However, relatively few studies have examined designing effective training for working engineers. Research has indicated that both learner instructional preferences and prior knowledge can impact the learning process, but it has not established if these factors are interrelated. The study reported here considered relationships of prior knowledge and three aspects of learning preferences of working engineers at a manufacturing company: learning strategy choices, verbal-visual cognitive styles, and multimedia preferences. Prior knowledge was not found to be significantly related to engineers' learning preferences, indicating independence of effects of these variables on learning. The study also examined relationships of this finding to the Multimedia Cone of Abstraction and implications for its use as an instructional design tool for CEE.

Many have argued for the importance of continuing engineering education (CEE), but relatively few recommendations were found in the literature for how to use multimedia technologies to deliver it most effectively. The study reported here addressed this gap by investigating the multimedia category preferences of working engineers. Four categories of multimedia, with two types in each category, were studied: verbal (text and narration), static graphics (drawing and photograph), dynamic non-interactive graphics (animation and video), and dynamic interactive graphics (simulated virtual reality (VR) and photo-real VR). The results showed that working engineers strongly preferred text over narration and somewhat preferred drawing over photograph, animation over video, and simulated VR over photo-real VR. These results suggest that a variety of multimedia types should be used in the instructional design of CEE content.

Many have argued for increased continuing education for working engineers, but relatively little research has been done on how to most effectively teach that group. Many have also recommended using learner characteristics to enhance learning, but relatively little is known about the learner characteristics of working engineers. In the study reported here, 116 engineers at a medium-sized US manufacturing company were surveyed to determine their verbal-visual preferences as defined by the Verbal-Visual Learning Style Rating instrument. There was a much higher percentage of visualisers in the engineering sample compared to the general population. This suggests that instructional designs for continuing engineering education should be highly visual.

This study used a cross-case analysis methodology to compare four line-of-inquiry studies of desktop virtual environments (DVEs) to examine the relationships of gender and computer gaming experience to learning performance and perceptions. Comparison was made of learning patterns in a general non-technical DVE with patterns in technically complex, occupationally-specific DVEs. Two oppositely-gendered occupations were sampled in the technical studies: surgical technology and policing. The cross-case analysis confirmed in the occupationally-specific DVEs the gender effect in favor of males on spatial learning that has been documented in previous research literature. It also supported a gaming experience effect in favor of more experienced gamers, but did not clearly demonstrate a relationship between gender and gaming experience. Several implications and recommendations are presented for practitioners and researchers in adult vocational, career, and technical education.

Students in career and technical education (CTE) programs have many environments they need to discover, explore, and understand. For CTE teachers, transporting their students to these environments can be difficult, dangerous, or even impossible. However, there is now a way to take students on location anywhere without leaving the classroom. Virtual reality (VR) was introduced in the late 1960s as immersive experiences with computer-generated imagery presented through head-mounted displays (HMDs). It now includes several different types of computer-based experiences ranging from fully immersive environments with complex HMD gear and body suits, to realistic PC-based programs. VR technologies have proved to be effective in improving learning in a variety of occupational settings and subjects, and reports from both industry and teachers show a generally high level of enthusiasm for the instructional potential of VR. The recent development of high-quality desktop VR systems that function on off-the-shelf PC equipment and without high costs or complex programming is now bringing the benefits of VR within the reach of schools and teachers. Through this new technology, CTE teachers can now actively engage their students in learning environments that are truly exciting, motivating, and engaging. To borrow a metaphor from the technology itself, the VR door is open; CTE teachers need only to click on a hotspot, step through, and discover the instructional excitement that awaits them and their students.

This research describes course design elements most valued by adult learners in blended learning environments that combine face-to-face contact with Web-based learning. It identifies the online course features and the instructional design goals selected as most important by a sample of 67 adults and compares the group rankings with those of various sub-groups based on gender, pre-course technology and self-direction skills and experiences, and preferred learning strategies as measured by Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults (ATLAS). The results of the study support the principles of adult learning, indicating that adults value course designs containing options, personalization, self-direction, variety, and a learning community. Findings also identify some differences in learning emphasis by gender, preferred learning strategies, and previous experience with technology and self-directed learning. Implications of these findings for higher education in serving adult learners are discussed.

Examines the perceptions of instructors and administrators regarding self-directed learning modules for adult and younger students, comparing the modules' perceived effectiveness, benefits, and challenges. Addresses the issue of personal freedom versus the need for focus and guidance, finding that adult learners reported no freedom versus focus dilemma, but younger learners reported strong conflicts. (Contains 16 references.) (AUTH)

Summarizes the basic concepts and principles of visual literacty, sketches the technocultural background in which it is founded, and suggests some ideas about how it might be put into practice by educators. (Author/JEG)

Suggests 11 dimensions of cognitive style which influence learning, and proposes a three-step instructional design plan to move beyond individual instruction to individualized instruction, so that differences in learners need not result in differences in learning. (Author/JEG)

The model stresses interactions among specific combinations of cognitive task requirements, learner characteristics, and instructional treatment properties, in a manner analogous to the aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) model. "Supplantation" is the provision of overt assistance to learners in performing a specific process required by a task. (Author/SJL)