The main goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of an animation and visualization of data structures (AVDS) tool on both perceptions and objective test performance. The study involved a rigorous experiment that assessed the usability, acceptability, and effectiveness of the AVDS tool in solving exercises. A total of 78 participants…

Providing appropriate feedback is important when learning to program. However, it is still unclear how different feedback strategies affect learning outcomes in programming. This study designed four different two-step programming feedback strategies and explored their impact on novice programmers' academic achievement, learning motivations, and…

We investigated whether the temporal contiguity effect, which holds that information sources, such as visual information and narration need to be temporally coordinated for learning to be effective, can also be found in narrated slideshows. A concurrent presentation-key point format (CPK), in which visual information sequentially appeared as key…

Online discussion forums are common features of learning management systems; they allow teachers to engage students in topical discussions in environments beyond physical spaces. This study presents a novel approach to operationalizing the connections between social interaction and contextual topics by visualizing posts in an online discussion…

Dialectical thinking is a way of discussing and analyzing things from different viewpoints to reach a solution. It is often taught in language courses by conducting argumentation activities. However, without providing effective strategies or tools, learners generally encounter difficulties in structuring their viewpoints during the argumentation…

This paper reviews five ways to increase the effectiveness of instructional video and one way not to use instructional video. People learn better from an instructional video when the onscreen instructor draws graphics on the board while lecturing (dynamic drawing principle), the onscreen instructor shifts eye gaze between the audience and the…

Multimedia design principles were applied to an online geography slideshow on geographic information systems (GIS) intended for college students taking an introductory course. In a 2 (segment vs. non-segmented) × 2 (redundant vs. non-redundant) between-subjects design, the base lesson (non-segmented condition) provided a worked example of how to…

In this mixed-methods study, we examined if students benefitted from a game design course offered during an enrichment hour in terms of gains in their system analysis and design skills. Students at a rural middle school in Southeast US (n = 19) attended a 1-hour game design course offered weekly during an academic enrichment class period, for the…

In traditional learning, students passively absorb the materials provided by their teachers or textbooks. Thus, their learning autonomy is insufficient, and this affects learning motivation. Students find it difficult to absorb the knowledge taught in a classroom and apply it to real life. We combined situated learning and learning through drama…

This exploratory study introduces the systemic approach and the explicit teaching of a meta-language to provide conceptual tools for students for the analysis and interpretation of multimodal texts. Equipping students with a set of specialised vocabulary with conventionalised meanings associated with specific choices in multimodal texts empowers…

Research on the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) on learning exists, but there is a paucity of empirical work that explores the role that positive emotions play in supporting learning in such settings. To address this gap, this study compared undergraduate students' emotions and learning outcomes during a guided historical tour using mobile…

This study examined some of the methodological approaches used by students to construct causal maps in order to determine which approaches help students understand the underlying causes and causal mechanisms in a complex system. This study tested the relationship between causal understanding (ratio of root causes correctly/incorrectly identified,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of diagrams and time-compressed instruction on learning and learners' perceptions of cognitive load. The following design factors, visuals (visuals and non-visuals) and time-compressed instruction (0%-normal paced, 25, and 50%) were presented to 216 university students to analyze learning in a…

Causal reasoning represents one of the most basic and important cognitive processes that underpin all higher-order activities, such as conceptual understanding and problem solving. Hume called causality the "cement of the universe" [Hume (1739/2000). Causal reasoning is required for making predictions, drawing implications and…