A number of interactive technologies for learning integrate virtual agents—as expert or peer agents—in their interactions to support student learning across domains. However, these agents tend to be mainly designed to foster students’ cognitive and metacognitive aspects, without addressing a critical component of fostering trust with students. We conducted a co-design study with 11 students and one teacher on trustworthy virtual peer agents (VPAs) with Armenian middle school students for math learning. Through a three-phase design-based approach, students and their teacher collaborated to develop six VPA prototypes, differentiated by appearance (human, robot, animal) and communication style (trustworthy vs. untrustworthy). Results from post-design semi-structured interviews reveal that students’ trust in VPAs is shaped not only by visual appearance but also by empathetic and communication factors. These findings offer valuable insights for creating effective and trustworthy interactions within educational technologies through virtual agents.

In our increasingly interconnected and complex world, issues that emerge from local circumstances can give rise to pressing global crises. To successfully address these crises and prepare future generations to become contributing members of society, this paper presents the design of a Work-in-Progress collaborative AR game - Swarm, which aims at helping students' understand how complex systems emerge and the causal mechanism underlying such adaptive systems. The game design process is guided by the PAIR-C framework, an innovative theoretical contribution to conceptual change.

Embodiment is expected to play a key role in learning in VR. This randomized control trial determined how the two factors of embodiment (low versus high) and platform (2D PC versus 3D Virtual Reality (VR)) affected STEM learning. A total of 214 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to four conditions in a 2 x 2 design with pretests and posttests. The low embodied groups did not control the virtual net in the natural selection game, they observed a playback of butterflies being captured. All groups showed significant content knowledge gains by posttest. There was a main effect of embodiment; the active groups that controlled the virtual net learned more content. There was not a main effect of platform on learning. However, there was an intriguing interaction of embodiment by platform by test time revealing that the low embodied VR group learned the least (ES= .38), while the high embodied VR group learned the most (ES=1.07). The low embodied VR players may have expected to have more agency and control over the game mechanics, and playing in the observational mode was infelicitous for learning. Interestingly, the PC condition was not significantly affected when in the more passive/observational mode. Players in the 2D PC condition may be more accustomed to low embodied learning, e.g., watching playback videos on monitors. Several guidelines are recommended for learning design in immersive VR. Non-interactive objects and videos in VR should be used judiciously and designers are encouraged to make the 3D VR content manipulatable and interactive.

Joint sparse graph for code division multiple access systems (JSG‐CDMA) combines multiple accessing (low‐density signature) and forward error correction (low‐density parity check code) techniques, and it achieves satisfactory performance under overloaded conditions. In this study, the authors carry on the research on the joint detection and decoding for JSG‐CDMA, and analyse the syndrome effect of message passing on the JSG by the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart. An improved algorithm for joint detection and decoding on the JSG‐CDMA receiver is proposed, and the convergence behaviour of the algorithm is analysed by EXIT chart. Simulation results show that improved algorithm enhance the system performance significantly with a marginal increase of the computational complexity.

Low‐density signature code division multiple access (LDS‐CDMA) and low‐density parity‐check (LDPC) code can both be represented by a single sparse graph. In this study, the authors propose a joint sparse graph (JSG) over GF( q ) which combines LDS‐CDMA and non‐binary LDPC codes, namely JSG‐CDMA. On the JSG, multiple accessing and channel coding are well‐linked together, in addition, joint detection and decoding are performed by message passing algorithm. Two schedules for message updating on the JSG, that is, flooding and serial schedules, are, respectively, presented. To predict the convergence behaviour of the joint detection and decoding, they depict the iterative structure of the JSG‐CDMA receiver and analyse its extrinsic information transfer chart. Key factors of JSG‐CDMA include message passing schedule, maximum iteration number and Galois field order. Simulation results show that JSG‐CDMA performs much better than conventional CDMA, in addition, compared with LDS‐CDMA and turbo structured LDS‐CDMA, at a bit error rate of 3 × 10 −4 , JSG‐CDMA brings about 1.9 and 1.1 dB gain, respectively.