There is intense interest in computer games. A total of 65 percent of all American households play computer games, and sales of such games increased 22.9 percent last year. The average amount of game playing time was found to be 13.2 hours per week. The popularity and market success of games is evident from both the increased earnings from games,…

Although multimedia technologies offer a great potential, educators and decision makers need to see evidence regarding the instructional effectiveness of multimedia in order to integrate it into the educational processes. The main purposes of this paper are: (1) to identify and discuss the main criticisms of media research, including the research…

Drama has been effectively used in many learning contexts including English as a second language classes. However, it has received less attention in foreign/second contexts. This article explores how drama for learning can impact upon the relationships among attitudes, motivation and learning in French second language (FSL) classrooms. The authors…

This article covers the application of virtual reality (VR) to training and lifelong learning. A number of considerations concerning the design of VR applications are included. The introduction is dedicated to the more general aspects of applying VR to training. From multiple perspectives, we will provide an overview of existing applications with…

One of the newest methodologies in nursing education is high-fidelity human patient simulation (HPS). Many nursing educators have embraced the method as it offers a strategy to facilitate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor outcomes. Despite their popularity, however, HPS systems are costly and, in an era of cost containment and tuition…

Approximately one third of the population of Louisiana is African American. According to federal reports, Blacks in Louisiana receive a poorer quality of healthcare compared to the White population. Occupational therapy is a profession of predominately White, middle class females who report in surveys that they are not adequately prepared to…

The paper presents a theoretical framework addressing three aspects of embodied pedagogical agents: visual static appearance, pedagogical role, and communicative style. The framework is then applied to a user study where 90 school children (aged 12-15) in a dummy multimedia program were presented with either an instructor or a learning companion…

According to the 2008 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE): 82 percent of community college students surveyed have part-time jobs (and over half of this group works more than 20 hours a week); almost all (93 percent) reported commuting to campus and 21 percent said they spend between six and 20 hours a week in the commute;…

The purpose of this study was to examine students' learning of simple machines, a fifth-grade (ages 10-11) forces and motion unit, and student engagement using a teacher-created Multiplayer Educational Gaming Application. This mixed-method study collected pre-test/post-test results to determine student knowledge about simple machines. A survey…

One of the major problems that a tree-approach to data analysis often encounters is the instability of tree-structures. The instability issue must be dealt with before data can be interpreted by this method. Examining instability at a node of a tree provides insight into the instability of the whole tree, because the same theory of instability…

A way of identifying non-random patterns of effects on a group of individuals as a result of some intervention when a sample of participants is arrayed according to some indices of similarity is presented. The principle of proximal similarity and the concept of pattern matching provide the background for this effort. Major advantages are the…

Recently, R. Shealy and W. Stout (1993) proposed a procedure for detecting differential item functioning (DIF) called SIBTEST. Current versions of SIBTEST can only be used for dichotomously scored items, but this paper presents an extension to handle polytomous items. The paper presents: (1) a discussion of an appropriate definition of DIF for…

N. S. Raju, W. J. van der Linden, and P. F. Fleer (in press) have proposed an item response theory-based, parametric procedure for the detection of differential item functioning (DIF)/differential test functioning (DTF) known as differential functioning of item and test (DFIT). DFIT can be used with dichotomous, polytomous, or multidimensional…

Whether "more is ever too much" for the number of indicators (p) per factor (p/f) in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was studied by varying sample size (N) from 50 to 1,000 and p/f from 2 to 12 items per factor in 30,000 Monte Carlo simulations. For all sample sizes, solution behavior steadily improved (more proper solutions and more…

The robustness with respect to Type I error and the power of a proposed test statistic in testing the conjoint hypotheses of mean and variability equality were examined in this simulation study. The conjoint test utilizes the maximum p-value from separate tests of equality of means and equality of variability as its p-value to control the Type I…