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BackgroundInsomnia can significantly affect students’ learning performance. Researchers have indicated the importance and challenge of coping with insomnia using nondrug treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia. However, it is easy for the traditional CBT for insomnia to be interrupted owing to the overly lengthy period of sleep therapy. Self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies are known to be an effective approach for helping students improve their time management, as well as their ability to set learning goals and adopt learning strategies. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to propose a mobile sleep-management learning system integrated with SRL strategies and CBT. MethodsA total of 18 undergraduate students from a university in northern Taiwan participated in the 2-week experiment of using this sleep-management system. ResultsThe experimental results showed that the proposed approach was useful and easy for students to use. In addition, the number of students with insomnia significantly decreased; that is, the proposed approach could help students improve their sleep quality and cultivate better sleeping habits, which is important for them to enhance their learning efficiency. ConclusionsWith the assistance of this proposed approach, students can plan their daily life by setting goals, applying strategies, monitoring their life habits process, and modifying strategies to cultivate good learning and healthy lifestyle habits. Trial RegistrationGovernment Research Bulletin MOST104-3011-E038-001; https://www.grb.gov.tw/search/planDetail? id=11568383&docId=467988 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/73MnPHNri)

In the past decades, collaborative game-based learning has been used to facilitate students' learning in authentic learning contexts. Although several previous studies have reported the potential of this approach for students' learning performance and motivation, unequal participation could negatively influence the learning effectiveness of collaborative learning. To this end, this study developed a mandatory contribution-based collaborative gaming approach (MCCG) to enhance the competencies for conducting practical solutions related to environmental issues during a cross-field learning activity between a school and a museum. MCCG and a conventional collaborative gaming approach (CCG) were implemented to investigate the effects of individual contributions on collaborative learning. Both individual learning achievements and collaborative learning outcomes were assessed. The results showed that game-based collaboration supports can support competency-based education to enhance students' competencies, such as problem-solving and critical thinking competencies. Those students who learned with the mandatory contribution approach had better collaborative learning outcomes.

Artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education has proven to be a useful learning technology; it can help learners achieve positive learning outcomes in the learning environment and can also enable teachers to better understand learners' learning status and further improve their teaching strategies. This study reviewed the top 50 AI in higher education studies in the Web of Science database from the perspective of highly cited papers and based on a technology-based learning model. The results show that predictions of learners' learning status (including dropout and retention, student models, and academic achievement) are most frequently discussed in the AI in higher education studies; AI technology is most commonly applied in engineering (including computer courses); AI technologies most often play the role of profiling and prediction in higher education, followed by intelligent tutoring systems and assessment and evaluation. In terms of research issues, the most frequently discussed issues are learning behaviour, accuracy, sensitivity and precision, cognition and affect. Learners' higher order thinking skills, collaboration or communication, self-efficacy or confidence and skills are less frequently discussed in AI in higher education studies. Accordingly, we propose potential research issues and practitioner notes for AI in higher education as a reference for researchers, educators and decision-makers.

Although game-based learning strategies have been used in mathematics education for a period of time, the potential for enhancing students' learning achievement and math self-efficacy is still being explored. Students need to face complex mathematics concepts and calculations in mathematics courses. Even though using games to learn mathematics may enhance students' motivation, without efficiently personalized learning guidance, students may not be able to learn well in games. Therefore, adaptive educational games provide opportunities to give students personalized learning content and guidance. The concept-effect relationship is an effective tool for the organization of learning material in developing adaptive diagnostic systems for detecting students' learning problems. In this study, a concept-effect relationship and an interactive game-based learning system were conducted as an effective tool for the organization of learning material in developing a diagnostic and remedial system for detecting students' learning problems. An experiment was conducted on an elementary school mathematics course to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach. The experimental results clearly show that the proposed approach not only improves the efficiency of learning achievement for students, but also enhances their learning attitudes and self-efficacy, and reduces their cognitive load in mathematics courses.

Although computer-supported collaborative learning has been successfully applied in educational settings to improve group learning performance, most such systems still lack effective strategies for knowledge representation which could help reduce discussion time. In this study, concept mapping, already applied as a tool to help visualize and organize existing or newly learned knowledge, is incorporated to address this problem in a newly developed concept map and computer-supported collaborative learning system (CMCLS). It was designed as a quasi-experiment study and was carried out with 77 university students. The system was first used by the groups of students to illustrate their knowledge and achieve consensus during a learning activity, after which their performance and feelings of satisfaction with this innovative approach were evaluated. Patterns of learning within the proposed framework were explored. The learning behaviors, including the actions and interactions with peers of the participants during the learning activity were recorded. Finally, lag-sequential analysis was used to compare the interactions and the differences in the behavior patterns of the two groups, one using the newly developed CMCLS consensus map-embedded approach and a control group which did not use this approach. The results showed significant improvement in the learning achievement of students using the novel approach, as well as a higher degree of perceived usefulness and satisfaction. The novel consensus map-embedded approach was useful for knowledge construction and for assisting with integration of the team members' results to produce the final ER diagram.

EFL (English as a foreign language) students usually learn by rote when they study English grammar. They usually memorize all the grammar rules mechanically instead of learning grammar in a structured way. Researchers have suggested that students can internalize knowledge via using knowledge construction tools and collaborated learning activities. Therefore, in this study, a grammar concept mapping-based collaborative English mobile gaming approach has been developed. A quasi-experiment on an English course was carried out in an elementary school to evaluate the learning achievement of the low- and high-achieving students. Moreover, the students' learning behavioral patterns were explored by analyzing their interactive logs in the mobile discussion forum. The results showed that the students using the proposed approach revealed significantly higher English grammar achievements than those who learned with the collaborative English gaming approach; moreover, the grammar concept mapping strategy can help the low-achieving students to have better learning achievements, and to realize the concept structure of English grammar to internalize their knowledge. In addition, it was also found that the low-achieving students had significantly higher mental load than the high-achieving students, implying that the use of the grammar concept mapping approach provided a challenging but helpful task to help the low achievers focus on the gaming process and successfully organize the grammar structures they had learned.

In this study, a one-year program was conducted to investigate the relationships between students' perceptions of mobile learning and their tendencies of peer interaction and higher-order thinking in issue-based mobile learning activities. To achieve the research objective, a survey consisting of eight scales, namely, usability, continuity, adaptive content, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity, was developed. A total of 658 students from 38 high schools in Taiwan filled in the questionnaire after experiencing issue-based mobile learning activities. From the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, it was found that the questionnaire had high reliability and validity. The structural equation model further revealed that the provision of adaptive content in the mobile learning had positive impacts on the students' tendency to interact with peers (i.e., collaboration and communication), which further affected their tendency to engage in higher-order thinking (i.e., problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity). The findings of this study provide a good reference for researchers and school teachers who intend to promote mobile learning in school settings.

Game-based learning (GBL) has been proven to be an attractive learning model by many studies; however, scholars have pointed out that the effectiveness of game-based learning could be limited if proper learning strategies are not incorporated. Prompting is a strategy that plays the important role of providing hints and guidance in interactive learning environments. Therefore, this study proposes a game-based learning approach with a progressive prompting strategy, using different levels of hints to guide students to complete tasks and achieve learning goals. Quasi-experimental research was employed in this study using two groups of students. The experimental group learned with the proposed approach, while the control group was allocated a conventional game-based learning strategy. The findings of the study show that the proposed approach significantly improved the second graders' mathematics learning achievement. From the analysis of the experimental students' learning behaviors, it was reported that the experimental group students could generate the answer after two progressive prompts. Thus, we could see that the proposed approach could enhance the learning achievement of the experimental group students by correctly guiding them to answer questions, step up their thinking, and understand the learning content in the learning process.

Mathematics has been widely recognized as being challenging for most students. In this study, an online formative peer-tutoring approach was proposed to cope with this problem, and an online learning system was developed accordingly. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted to explore its effects on students' learning behaviors as well as their learning performance and perceptions of the mathematics course. The experimental results showed that both the formative and conventional peer-tutoring approaches significantly improved the students' learning achievement as well as reduced their cognitive load in comparison with conventional online collaborative learning approaches. In addition, the learning behavior analysis results showed that the students playing the role of tutor in the formative peer-tutoring group revealed more appropriate behaviors of assisting their tutees via discussing with them and providing hints to them as well as guiding them to solve the mathematics problems, while the tutees were more willing to ask questions than those learning with the conventional peer-tutoring approach. This implies that the proposed approach could motivate both the tutors and tutees to become active learners with good learning conceptions.

Peer-assessment and video comment-sharing are effective learning strategies for students to receive feedback on their learning. Researchers have emphasized the need for well-designed peer involvement in order to improve students' abilities in the cognitive and affective domains. Although student perceptions of peer-assessment have been studied extensively in higher education, few studies have focused on the effects of the peer-assessment strategy on students' performance from the affective perspective, especially in Physical Education courses. Therefore, in this study, a peer-assessment mobile physical education approach is proposed for developing a mobile learning system for a Kung Fu Tai-Chi physical education course. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted by assigning 42 college students to participate in this learning activity. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only promoted the students' learning interest and motivation, but also improved their learning self-efficacy and socialization.

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.

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.

Learning English is an important and challenging task for English as Foreign Language (EFL) students. Educators had indicated that, without proper learning support, most EFL students might feel frustrated while learning English, which could significantly affect their learning performance. In the past research, learning usually utilized grouping, but few studies have considered the difference in group members' learning styles. In this study, a learning style-based collaborative learning approach is proposed to cope with this problem. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an learning style-based online collaborative learning platform has been developed. Moreover, an experiment has been conducted on a university English course to compare the learning performance and learning interest of the students who learn with the proposed approach and those who learn with the conventional collaborative learning approach. It was found that the homogeneous learning style groups outperformed the heterogeneous groups. Besides, those students who used the online English collaborative learning approach outperformed those who used the traditional paper-based English collaborative learning approach. Sequence analysis was also carried out to analyze the students' online discussion.

Identifying learning problems of students has been recognized as an important issue for assisting teachers in improving their instructional skills or learning design strategies. The accumulated assessment data provide an excellent resource for achieving this objective. However, most of conventional testing systems only record students' test results, which are not helpful to teachers in realizing students' learning problems without further assistance. To cope with this problem, in this study, an innovative approach that combines a student concept model and the change mining mechanism is proposed to analyze the learning problems of students from their historical assessment data. The teachers received the analysis results and then used those suggestions to improve their instructional strategies. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a web-based learning assessment system has been developed and an experiment has been conducted on an "Introduction to Computers" course in a university. The experimental results showed that, those analysis results provided by the innovative approach were helpful to the teachers in providing appropriate instructional assistance and remedial learning materials for improving the learning achievements of the students.

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.

Previous studies have reported the importance and benefits of situating students in a real-world learning environment with access to digital-world resources. At the same time, researchers have indicated the need to develop learning guidance mechanisms or tools for assisting students to learn in such a complex learning scenario. In this study, a grid-based knowledge acquisition approach is proposed and a Mindtool is developed to help students organize and share knowledge for differentiating a set of learning targets based on what they have observed in the field. An experiment has been conducted in an elementary school Natural Science course for differentiating different species of butterflies. Forty-one fifth-grade students have been assigned to a control group and an experimental group to compare the effect of the conventional approach and that of the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only improves students' learning achievements, but also significantly enhances their ability of identifying species in the field.

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.)

Researchers have conducted various studies on applying wireless communication and ubiquitous computing technologies to education, so that the technologies can provide learners and educators with more active and adaptive support. This study proposes a Ubiquitous Performance-support System (UPSS) that can facilitate the seamless use of powerful new technologies in the school setting. In order to help the readers visualize these novel technologies in practice, we present one case study of a butterfly-ecology training course facilitated by the UPSS. The aim behind the case study is to inform the design and the development of context-aware ubiquitous computing system and its learning materials. The research inquiry centers around three themes: (1) the critical features to the data-driven decision making of teachers, (2) the perceptions of teachers and students to the UPSS, and (3) implementation issues. The results of the two rounds of formative evaluation indicate positive effects of the UPSS regarding motivation, interactivity, and effectiveness. In addition, teachers' attitudes and teachers' pedagogical approaches toward UPSS use are two key factors in the successful implementation of teaching with such innovative technology. This study can be a useful reference for those who are interested in conducting studies applying context-aware ubiquitous computing to educational contexts. Finally, this study presents suggestions and implications for future research and system development. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

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.)