In the course of a teaching and learning process, different cognitive skills are required for a student. Attention is an important variable to be measured, since it plays a fundamental role in the accumulation of information with the stimulus of the learner's memory in the course of the assimilation of knowledge. The purpose of this article is to…

This paper draws on design-based research to develop a real-world classroom Augmented Reality (AR) scenario, which was accompanied by tasks used to mediate intercultural telecollaboration. It investigates the role of these tasks and AR scenario in enacting affordances to enrich students' learning experiences, to establish a connection between…

In this paper, it is argued that education, especially in the online learning setting, should be viewed as a complex, dynamic endeavor. Design and evaluation grounded in systems thinking principles of relationships and connectedness, as well as complexity theory concepts such as self-organization and emergence, prove valuable tools for…

Existing guidelines, standards, and frameworks for addressing quality of online courses often highlight the importance of setting up effective systems to support faculty in overcoming the emerging challenges they face in design and delivery of these courses. However, not much information is available in literature on the means of tackling these…

In this paper, we explore role-playing and experiential learning approaches applied in an immersive virtual environment for a professional counseling distance course. Training professional counselors requires practice and therefore possesses a challenge for the distant education. Although both counseling professionals' codes of ethics provide…

This emerging technology report describes the Experience API (xAPI), a new e-learning specification designed to support the learning community in standardizing and collecting both formal and informal distributed learning activities. Informed by Activity Theory, a framework aligned with constructivism, data is collected in the form of activity…

Different approaches have explored how to provide seamless learning across multiple ICT-enabled physical and virtual spaces, including three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). However, these approaches present limitations that may reduce their acceptance in authentic educational practice: The difficulties of authoring and sharing teacher-created…

The main objective of this paper is to show a set of new methodologies applied in the teaching of Computer Science using ICT. The methodologies are framed in the conceptual basis of the following sciences: Psychology, Education and Computer Science. The theoretical framework of the research is supported by Behavioral Theory, Gestalt Theory.…

This paper presents four case studies from two regional and two metropolitan Australian universities, showcasing how 3D virtual world platforms have been used to connect, engage and motivate students in both co-located and non-co-located contexts. The case studies provide practical examples of how virtual worlds and associated applications have…

Second Life (SL) is a social virtual world, which emphasizes the general use of immersive worlds for supporting a variety of human activities and interactions, presenting a plethora of new opportunities and challenges for enriching how we learn, work and play (Boulos, Hetherington & Wheeler, 2007; Prasolova-Førland, Sourin & Sourina,…

Online learning critically relies upon good communication between engaged parties in order to convey ideas, meanings, and values. Emerging technologies in collaborative virtual environments are providing new affordances in establishing greater online presence and, in turn, greater abilities to communicate and learn. This study examines how…

Massively Multiuser On-line Learning (MMOL) Platforms, often called "virtual learning worlds", constitute a still unexplored context for communication-enhanced learning, where synchronous communication skills in an explicit social setting enhance the potential of effective collaboration. In this paper, we report on an experimental study of…

This study explores the effects of the use of Second Life (SL) as a learning environment on a course's dialogue. An experimental design within groups was used with thirty-seven graduate students for three weeks. Half of them followed the course activities in the official Learning Management System (LMS) of the program, Blackboard Vista, and the…

A traditional approach centred on weekly lectures, perhaps supported by tutorials, still predominates in modern legal education in Australia. This approach tends to focus on the transmission of knowledge about legal rules and doctrine to students, who adopt a largely passive role. Criticisms of the traditional approach have led to law schools…

Virtual worlds have been linked with e-learning applications to create virtual learning environments (VLEs) for the past decade. However, while they can support many educational activities that extend both traditional on-campus teaching and distance learning, they are used primarily for learning content generated and managed by instructors. With…