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Competition in digital game-based learning (DGBL) is tantamount to a double-edged sword, because it not only improves students' learning performance, but may also cause them psychological stress. Therefore, researchers focus on collaboration, for it can mitigate the negative effect of competition. However, studies on the correlations among competition, collaboration, and learning performance in DGBL remain wanting so far. To remedy this deficiency, this study developed a question bank practice game which offers a situation of intergroup competition with intragroup collaboration, and devised a research model to investigate the correlations among competition, collaboration, and learning performance in DGBL. The research findings of this study indicated that: (1) perceived competition is a factor more significant than perceived collaboration behind learning performance, in which perceived competition directly affects perceived collaboration; (2) perceived competition not only directly affects behavioral intention, but also indirectly influences it via perceived enjoyment, whereas perceived collaboration simply has indirect influence on behavioral intention through perceived usefulness; and (3) behavioral intention directly influences learning performance. These research findings showed that the combination of competition and collaboration indeed influences students' learning performance in DGBL, and competition occupies the most crucial role. This is because the pleasure brought by competition strongly prompts students to engage in DGBL, which in turn influences their learning performance in DGBL. Meanwhile, competition also facilitates students' collaboration, from which they benefit personally in terms of learning.

Classroom community in higher education benefits students' learning because it can soothe students' anxiety about isolation. However, only a small number of studies investigated the key factors behind the cohesion of a classroom community. It is a vital issue because previous studies have pointed out that cohesion is crucial for the survival of a community. Against this background, this study developed a research model that incorporates social presence and social capital, so as to identify the decisive factors behind the cohesion of a classroom community. Our research findings demonstrated that social presence plays a pivotal role in affecting the cohesion of a classroom community. The former not only directly influenced the latter, but also affected it indirectly via structural and relational social capital. This result implies that increasing the interaction among community members (e.g. engaging them in discussion rather than allowing them to ignore read messages) is the first priority if we are going to alleviate students' anxiety about isolation with classroom community. As students' interaction increases, their social ties and mutual trust will become stronger, and their cohesion will be strengthened as well.

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]

The teaching of translation has received considerable attention in recent years. Research on translation in collaborative learning contexts, however, has been less studied. In this study, we use a tool of synchronous collaboration to assist students in experiencing a peer translation process. Afterward, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and a partial least squares regression approach are used to explore students' perspectives on the synchronous collaboration. Specifically, the study is constructed in a technical university in Tainan, Taiwan. A total of 27 participants enrolled in the study. The results show that most of the hypotheses we had developed before the study were supported by the data we collected, and further reveal that the construct of facilitating conditions is the most important determinant of students' intention to use the synchronous collaboration, followed by social influence and effort expectancy. The results indicate that the construct of facilitation conditions, such as the usage of new technology or problem solution, plays a significant role when integrating new technology since students will be more familiar with the new technology. Finally, both the implications and limitations of this study are discussed, and further research directions are proposed.

Educational computer games have been widely employed to facilitate students' learning. Studies have pointed out that these games may improve students' learning effectiveness when they are equipped with appropriate learning strategies. However, the role of learning strategies in students' acceptance of educational computer games has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Hence, this research proposed two learning scenarios to address this question. Students in the first scenario were offered an educational computer game with a learning strategy, while those in the second were offered the same game without the strategy. A quasi-experimental design with a research model was constructed to examine the role of learning strategies in students' acceptance of the given game. In this study, 65 students participated in the two learning scenarios. Two research findings are presented: (1) the adoption of the learning strategy not only affected students' acceptance of the game, but also made their perceived ease of use significantly influence their perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and attitude towards using; (2) with or without the learning strategy, perceived enjoyment was the most important factor that affected students' acceptance of the game, while perceived usefulness, attitude towards using, and perceived control exerted no influence on this issue.

Ubiquitous learning receives much attention in these few years due to its wide spectrum of applications, such as the T-learning application. The learner can use mobile devices to watch the digital TV based course content, and thus, the T-learning provides the ubiquitous learning environment. However, in real-world data broadcast environments, the mobile learners are unable to continuously watch a digital course for a long time, because the power of devices and the user patient constrain available learning time. In this paper, we design an optimal watching mode for data broadcast T-learning environment, such that the learner can retrieve as many distinct courses as possible within given time. We then optimize the watching mode by using the genetic algorithm in order to reduce the computation cost of the optimization. Our experimental results show that genetic optimization process indeed reduces the computation cost, and still lead to a near optimal watching mode. (Contains 4 tables and 11 figures.)

Web-based self-learning (WBSL) provides learners with a powerful means of acquiring knowledge. However, WBSL may disorient learners, especially when their skills are inadequate for regulating their learning. In this paper, a Web 2.0 self-regulated learning (Web2SRL) system based on the theory of self-regulated learning is proposed. Learners use the Web2SRL system to read articles in RSS feeds from blogs of interest. The Web2SRL system provides learners with mechanisms for regulating their learning, including planning, practice, and reflection. The results of pre- and post-tests show that the Web2SRL system supports knowledge acquisition in WBSL contexts, especially for low-achieving learners. The results of a questionnaire indicate that learners perceive the Web2SRL system to be useful in supporting WBSL. The proposed system can thus play an important role in supporting WBSL. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

Team messaging services represent a type of cloud computing applications that support not only the messaging among users but also the collaboration in a team. Accordingly, team messaging services have great potential to facilitate students' collaboration. However, only few studies utilized such services to support students' collaboration and further investigated the factors that influence students' acceptance of these services. To remedy this deficiency, this research not only employed a team messaging service to support the subjects' collaboration but also conducted a survey with a questionnaire designed for identifying the factors that influenced their intention to use the service. The research findings demonstrated that (1) social presence not only played an important role in influencing the subjects' intention to use the service, but also significantly affected their motivation in using it; (2) the subjects' intrinsic motivation played a more significant role than their extrinsic motivation did in influencing their attitude toward using and behavioral intention; (3) the subjects' attitude toward using the service exerted no influence on their intention to use it. These findings suggested that, when students collaborate through a team messaging service, their awareness of others' presence will significantly influence their motivation and intention to use the service.

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]

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.

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.

Vocabulary is the foundation for students who learn a foreign language. Nevertheless, students may be bored by the painstaking process of rote learning. To this end, this study designed a handheld sensor-based vocabulary game based on a scaffolding strategy for improving students' motivation and achievement in vocabulary learning. On the one hand, such mobile technologies not only help students learn vocabulary anytime and anywhere, but also create embodied learning experiences by allowing students to control the avatar in the game with their hands. On the other hand, the scaffolding strategy adopted in this study serves as a complementary mechanism to help students learn vocabulary. To evaluate the effectiveness of the game, this study conducted a quasi-experiment by dividing the participating students into an experimental group and a control group. The former played the handheld sensor-based vocabulary game based on the scaffolding strategy, while the latter played the same game without the assistance of the scaffolding strategy. The research findings of this study showed that the handheld sensor-based vocabulary game significantly improved the low-achieving students' motivation and performance in vocabulary learning, but seemed to be less effective in helping them retain the vocabulary they learned through the game.

The use of collaborative technologies in learning has received considerable attention in recent years, but few studies to date have examined the factors that affect sequential and global learners' intention to use such technologies. Previous studies have shown that the learners of different learning styles have different needs for educational technologies. Accordingly, understanding the factors that affect the different types of learners' intention to use collaborative technologies is an important issue. To this end, we add two external variables, facilitating conditions and social influence, to the technology acceptance model and then testing a number of hypotheses. Our results show that most of the hypotheses are supported, and further reveal that (1) attitude towards using is the most important determinant of students' intention to use a collaborative technology, followed by social influence and facilitating conditions; (2) sequential learners are more concerned about perceived usefulness; (3) global learners are more concerned about perceived ease of use.

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. (Contains 6 figures and 4 tables.)