High-quality academic writing should be presented with clear logical connections. However, it may be too challenging for some students so they may be demotivated. On the other hand, serious games provide students with fun and engagement so their motivation can be enhanced. Thus, this study developed a serious game, which was named as a Digital Entertaining English Logic Learning (D-[EL]2). Students could learn how to present academic writing with clear logical connections in the D-[EL]2 context. Additionally, an empirical study was conducted to investigate students’ reactions to the D-[EL]2 from a cognitive style perspective, in terms of test performance, task performance and task behavior. Regarding test performance, Holists significantly obtained better pre-test scores than Serialists but Serialists’ gaining scores were significantly higher than those of Holists. Accordingly, no significant difference was found for their post-test scores. Regarding task performance, no significant difference existed between Serialists and Holists. Regarding task behavior, Serialists more frequently used the location hint and keyword hint than Holists. Additionally, Serialists used the notebook for multiple purposes whereas Holists used it for a single purpose. Based on these findings, we proposed a framework, which can be applied to personalize the D-[EL]2 in the future so that the preferences and requirements of diverse learners can be satisfied.

Game-based learning, electronic books (e-books), and animations offer different advantages and serve distinct purposes. Consequently, this study aimed to propose an entertaining animated e-book by seamlessly integrating these three information technologies. Additionally, customization was incorporated into the entertaining animated e-book to accommodate learners’ diverse preferences. In other words, a Customizable Entertaining Animated E-book (CEAE) was implemented in this study, which also aimed to investigate the influences of gender differences on their reactions to the CEAE. Results indicated that the CEAE could reduce gender differences, in terms of test performance and task performance. However, differences between males and females still existed in learning behavior and gaming behavior. More specifically, males and females preferred to use different scaffolding hints and choose different gaming modes. Based on these findings, we introduced a framework, which could work as a valuable reference for instructors to implement e-books, GBL, and animations in educational settings. This framework could also provide guidelines for designers to personalize entertaining animated e-books.

This study proposed a three-tier test (T3), where students were not only asked to give answers and reasons for their answers but also to engage in review questions. Furthermore, an individualized three-tier test (IT3) was implemented by incorporating customization and personalization into the T3. The T3 was utilized in Group A while the IT3 was used in Group B. Both tests were applied to help students learn English grammar. An empirical study was conducted to examine the varied reactions of these two groups, in terms of test performance, task performance, and learning behavior. Regarding test performance, Group B outperformed Group A. Regarding task performance, Group B obtained higher task scores than Group A. Regarding learning behavior, Group A tended to rely on a single scaffolding hint iteratively whereas Group B preferred utilizing various scaffolding hints concurrently. These results suggested that the IT3 was relatively beneficial to students. The aforementioned findings could provide guidance for the effective implementation of online tests.

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) and electronic books (E-books) can provide students with different benefits. Accordingly, one aim of this study was to incorporate an E-book into DGBL to develop a Digital Entertaining English Learning (DEEL). However, individual differences exist among learners, especially prior knowledge. To this end, the other aim of this study was to provide a complete understanding of the effects of prior knowledge on student learning in the context of DEEL. Hence, we conducted empirical investigation, where learners’ reactions to the DEEL were analyzed with quantitative methods and the lag sequential analyses. An independent variable was prior knowledge while dependent variables were test performance, task performance and learning behavior. Regardless of test performance or task performance, results indicated that high prior knowledge learners (HPK) performed better than low prior knowledge learners (LPK). Regarding learning behavior, LPK more frequently used the grammar E-book than HPK, especially pictorial illustration. Additionally, LPK moved between the text description and pictorial illustration with a bidirectional approach while HPK viewed the text description and pictorial illustration with a unidirectional approach. Based on these findings, we developed a framework, which can be applied to personalize the DEEL so that learners’ learning experience can be improved.

Task-based learning can be used to promote language learning. On the other hand, scaffolding instruction can help students without sufficient abilities to undertake tasks. Accordingly, we developed the Scaffolding Task-based English Logic Learning (S-TELL) by incorporating scaffolding instruction into Task-based Learning. The S-TELL was applied to facilitate research students to learn how to present clear logical relationships in academic writing. Additionally, an empirical study was conducted to investigate how different cognitive style groups (i.e., Serialists and Holists) reacted to the S-TELL, including learning performance, learning perception and learning behavior. Regarding learning performance, the findings showed that either Holists or Serialists made significant improvement via interacting with the S-TELL. Moreover, Holists significantly obtained higher post-scores than Serialists though they had similar task scores. Regarding learning perception, few perception differences existed between Serialists and Holists. Regarding learning behavior, Holists demonstrated more behavior sequences than Serialists. This was due to the fact that Holists often checked the current status and used the English hint while Serialists did not show such behavior. According to these findings, we proposed a framework, which can be employed to personalize the S-TELL in our future work so that the preferences of Holists and Serialists can be accommodated.

In order to help learners improve the grammar concept of academic English, we developed an Academic English Competitive Solitaire Game (AECSG) where learners developed the understanding English academic writing via a problem-solving process. In addition, an empirical study was conduct to investigate how high prior knowledge (HPK)learners and low prior knowledge (LPK)learners reacted to the AECSG. The results indicated that HPK learners had better task scores and got fewer answer card errors in Task 1. Additionally, HPK learners favored to collect large-scaled information with the sentence hint so while LPK learners were keen to collect small-scaled information with the Chinese hint. On the other hand, no significant differences between HPK learners and LPK learners were found for the scores of Task 2. These finding suggested that practice could reduce the gap between LPK learners and HPK learners. In summary, the findings from this study contribute the understandings of how to develop personalized AECSG.

The development of advanced information technologies has opened up new opportunities in the area of digital learning environments (Brandi & Iannone, 2015). A key aspect of this work lies within the...

Existing peer response approaches majorly take place in traditional educational contexts, where students may not be highly motivated. On the other hand, game-based learning takes a joyful way to enhance students’ motivation. Accordingly, we propose a joyful peer response (JPR), where game-based learning and peer response are integrated together. Furthermore, two empirical studies were conducted to investigate how high- and low-ability students perform in the JPR and how their perceptions are associated with their performance. Regarding the former, the findings suggest that the JPR is beneficial to high- and low-ability students. Regarding the latter, the findings imply that the writing performance of the high-ability students is majorly related to their perceptions of game elements. On the other hand, the writing performance of the low-ability students is related to their perceptions of both game elements and peer response.

The spread of drugs causes serious problems recently. To enhance people awareness about drugs, several approaches were adopted to deliver anti-drug materials. However, limitations were observed in these approaches. Thus, this study develops a game-based anti-drug system (GADS), which incorporates game-based learning into anti-drug materials. In order to get a complete understanding of whether the GADS is suitable to both non-addictive users and addictive users, an empirical study was conducted. Drug experience was considered as a target to investigate learners' reactions to the GADS. The results indicated that non-addictive learners had better game performance and learning performance than addictive learners because addictive learners' working memory was negatively affected by drugs.

There is an increasing growth of Social Network Services (SNSs). A variety of SNSs are applied in online interpersonal platforms. Among them, asynchronous and synchronous discussions are widely examined. However, there is a lack of research into the effects of integrated discussion services that combines asynchronous and synchronous discussions. Thus, the study investigates users’ performances and behavior patterns in a mixed discussion model that integrates asynchronous and synchronous discussions with a lag sequential analysis. The results showed that most groups chose to adopt the mixed discussion model (i.e., using both synchronous and asynchronous discussions), and only one group totally adopted the asynchronous discussion model. The study further analyzed the learners’ learning effectiveness and behavioral patterns, and the results indicated that the groups using the mixed model had a positive performance to a certain extent in terms of learning effectiveness and knowledge construction. In addition, users with the mixed discussion model demonstrated diverse behaviors, which were more complex than that of those with a single-way discussion model. Furthermore, regarding the groups using “balanced synchronous and asynchronous discussions” and the groups “mainly using synchronous discussion supplemented by less asynchronous discussion” in the mixed model (simultaneously using synchronous and asynchronous discussions), those users who mainly used synchronous discussion supplemented by asynchronous discussion had more diverse behaviors of knowledge construction.

E-assessment learning, which combines the advantages of e-assessment and learning, was proposed in educational settings. However, it still makes most of learners feel anxious. Thus, this study develops a Joyful Assessment-based Learning System (JALS), which incorporates game-based learning into e-assessment learning. In order to get a complete understanding of how individual differences affect learners' reactions, an empirical study was conducted. Among various individual differences, cognitive styles and prior knowledge were considered as targets to investigate learners' reactions to the JALS. Our results suggest that FD learners preferred to use the game-based learning tool and demonstrated good performance. Conversely, the different level of prior knowledge may affect FI learners' learning preferences and learning performance.

Poetry is a creative language which enhances imagination and self-reflection. However, the ambiguity of poetry increased the difficulty in interpretation, which builds students' negative perception because they consider that reading poetry is joyless and hard-understanding. Furthermore, the negative perception demotivates most students to read poetry. Therefore, to motivate students to read poetry, there is a need to improve the negative perception of poetry. Meanwhile, previous research shows games are able to avoid ambiguity by providing clear feedback and guidance. Besides, many studies also suggest game-based learning positively improves students' learning perception and motivation. To the end, this study develops a game-based learning system to motivate students to read poetry. The results show this game-based learning system significantly improves students' interpretation and perception. However, the long-term negative perception and the lack of self-efficacy affect students' motivation to read poetry after gaming.

Social media on the World Wide Web, such as Wiki, are increasingly applied to support collaborative learning for students to conduct a project together. However, recent studies indicated that students, learning in the collaborative project, may not actively contribute to the collaborative work and are involved only in a limited level of positive interdependence due to the ambiguous ownership on the collaborative work. To this end, this study proposes an approach to support collaborative learning based on the notion of Creative Commons (CC). CC may be helpful to enhance positive interdependency because it provides a mechanism which protects individual creations while encouraging remixing and deriving new creations from them. This study conducted an empirical evaluation to examine how students react to the collaborative learning with CC notions. The results showed that CC can significantly improve participants' attitude to the derivative works, the satisfaction level of remix outcomes, perception to the peer interaction and the sense of work ownership. Such results suggest that CC may be a potential avenue for increasing individuals' responsibilities and motivating them to participate in the collaborative learning activity.

Competition is useful in game-based learning, although it can also generate negative influences. To expand the potential for competition models in game-based learning, this study proposes the notion of surrogate competition, which eliminates direct competition between students. Such surrogates could be employed as buffers so that the competition between students is more relaxed. To explore the possible benefits of a surrogate approach to competition, the My-Pet-My-Arena system has been developed and evaluated. Two empirical studies were conducted to examine the effects of the surrogate competition. The results revealed that surrogate competition enhanced students’ learning achievement as well as increased their motivation. Furthermore, the surrogate competition might also assist students in attributing competitive failures to a lack of effort. Working from the results obtained in these two studies, a general model of surrogate competition is proposed to help designers implement forms of surrogate competition in other systems for game-based learning.

Synchronous discussion and asynchronous discussion have different advantages and disadvantages. However, it is unclear how students react to these two models. Thus, we developed a learning environment that combines these two models, and then examined how students selected them. The findings show that students selected different models at different discussion stages. Additionally, the mixed discussion model, which combines synchronous and asynchronous models, can achieve better performance in discussion, regardless of the types of discussion activity.

Mobile devices bring a lot benefits to student learning, including flexibility, convenience and ubiquity. On the other hand, students have various characteristics, among which cognitive styles play an important role. This study aims to investigate how students react differently to mobile device from a cognitive style perspective. The results suggest that students in the mobile device scenario had more engagement and performed better than those in the desktop computer scenario. Furthermore, Holists who made more movements and Serialists who frequently used the Keyword Search could achieve good performance in the desktop computer scenario. On the other hand, the students performed similarly in the mobile device scenario though Serialists who made more repeated visits and browsed more pages could have better performance.

Poetry is the most concise language, which is full of creativities. Reading poetry enhances imaginations. However, many teachers find it hard to teach poetry because of the lack of pedagogical role model and the difficulties of explanation. Moreover, the difficulties to interpret the meanings of poetry also decrease student’s learning motivation. On the other hand, game-based learning has been widely used to promote student learning. Thus, to improve students’ motivation and the level of their understandings of poetry, this study uses a game-based learning environment to guide students interpreting poetry. Previous research found that prior knowledge and flow have positive effects on student learning so this study also examines the effects of these two factors on the understandings of poetry in the game-based learning environment. The result shows that game-based learning improves students’ motivation to read poetry, but the ignorance of descriptions and the difficulty of games should be concerned to improve learning effectiveness.

Many studies have identified gender differences in communication related to spatial navigation in real and virtual worlds. Most of this research has focused on single-party communication (monologs), such as the way in which individuals either give or follow route instructions. However, very little work has been reported on spatial navigation dialogs and whether there are gender differences in the way that they are conducted. This article will address the lack of research evidence by exploring the dialogs between partners of the same and of different gender in a simulated Human-Robot Interaction study. In the experiments discussed in this article, pairs of participants communicated remotely; in each pair, one participant (the instructor) was under the impression that s/he was giving route instructions to a robot (the follower), avoiding any perception of gendered communication. To ensure the naturalness of the interaction, the followers were given no guidelines on what to say, however, each had to control a robot based on the user's instructions. While many monologe-based studies suggest male superiority in a multitude of spatial activities and domains, this study of dialogs highlights a more complex pattern of results. As anticipated, gender influences task performance and communication. However, the findings suggest that it is the interaction—the combination of gender and role (i.e., instructor or follower)—that has the most significant impact. In particular, pairs of female users/instructors and male “robots”/followers are associated with the fastest and most accurate completion of the navigation tasks. Moreover, dialoge-based analysis illustrates how pairs of male users/instructors and female “robots”/followers achieved successful communication through “alignment” of spatial descriptions. In particular, males seem to adapt the content of their instructions when interacting with female “robots”/followers and employ more landmark references compared to female users/instructors or when addressing males (in male-male pairings). This study describes the differences in how males and females interact with the system, and proposes that any female “disadvantage” in spatial communication can disappear through interactive mechanisms. Such insights are important for the design of navigation systems that are equally effective for users of either gender.

This study examines the effects of matching and mismatching on web-based learning with a human-centered approach. In particular, we emphasize on how prior knowledge and gender differences affect students' reactions to a matching/mismatching environment. In general, the results demonstrate that learners in a matching condition perform better than those in a mismatching condition. Furthermore, males can overcome the mismatching condition when they acquire declarative knowledge. In contrast, females can positively face the mismatching condition when they obtain procedural knowledge. In summary, the matching/mismatching is not only related to gender differences but also is linked to declarative/procedural knowledge.

Most Adaptive Hypermedia Learning Systems (AHLSs) tailor presentation content and navigational support based on prior knowledge or cognitive styles of students separately. There is, however, a need to explore how the two individual difference characteristics could be combined in adaptive hypermedia learning systems in order to maximize learning and comprehension of educational materials. To this end, the study presented in this paper developed two adaptive hypermedia learning systems, one tailored to students’ prior knowledge, with the other tailored to their cognitive styles, with emphasis on Pask’s Holist-Serialist dimension. Findings indicate that, in general, adapting to either prior knowledge or cognitive styles improves learning performance.

editorial Free Access Share on Editorial: Data mining for understanding user needs Authors: Sherry Y. Chen Brunel University, UK Brunel University, UKView Profile , Robert D. Macredie Brunel University, UK Brunel University, UKView Profile , Xiaohui Liu Brunel University, UK Brunel University, UKView Profile , Alistair Sutcliffe University of Manchester, UK University of Manchester, UKView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM Transactions on Computer-Human InteractionVolume 17Issue 1March 2010 Article No.: 1pp 1–6https://doi.org/10.1145/1721831.1721832Published:06 April 2010Publication History 7citation1,123DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations7Total Downloads1,123Last 12 Months15Last 6 weeks1 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my Alerts New Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

As Web-based instruction (WBI) becomes increasingly popular, designers are faced with the challenge of identifying the varying preferences of learners and accommodating them in WBI programs. Cognitive style has been shown to have a significant effect on users' preferences for WBI. In particular, Witkin's field dependent/independent has been widely studied in this area. It has been suggested that this cognitive style has conceptual links with the rarely studied Pask's holist/serialist dimension. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between these two cognitive style dimensions by using a data mining approach that integrates feature selection and decision trees. The results show that in general field dependent users and holists show the same preferences for WBI, as do field Independent users and serialists. However, this study also highlights the similarities in preference between field dependent users and serialists, and field independent users and holists. The findings of this study contribute towards the understanding of field dependent/independent and holist/serialist users' preferences. Additionally, a novel data mining methodology is proposed.

Web-based learning is widespread in educational settings. The popularity of Web-based learning is in great measure because of its flexibility. Multiple navigation tools provided some of this flexibility. Different navigation tools offer different functions. Therefore, it is important to understand how the navigation tools are used by learners with different backgrounds, knowledge, and skills. This article presents two empirical studies in which data-mining approaches were used to analyze learners' navigation behavior. The results indicate that prior knowledge and subject content are two potential factors influencing the use of navigation tools. In addition, the lack of appropriate use of navigation tools may adversely influence learning performance. The results have been integrated into a model that can help designers develop Web-based learning programs and other Web-based applications that can be tailored to learners' needs.

Web-based instruction (WBI) programs, which have been increasingly developed in educational settings, are used by diverse learners. Therefore, individual differences are key factors for the development of WBI programs. Among various dimensions of individual differences, the study presented in this article focuses on cognitive styles. More specifically, this study investigates how cognitive styles affect students' learning patterns in a WBI program with an integrated approach, utilizing both traditional statistical and data-mining techniques. The former are applied to determine whether cognitive styles significantly affected students' learning patterns. The latter use clustering and classification methods. In terms of clustering, the K-means algorithm has been employed to produce groups of students that share similar learning patterns, and subsequently the corresponding cognitive style for each group is identified. As far as classification is concerned, the students' learning patterns are analyzed using a decision tree with which eight rules are produced for the automatic identification of students' cognitive styles based on their learning patterns. The results from these techniques appear to be consistent and the overall findings suggest that cognitive styles have important effects on students' learning patterns within WBI. The findings are applied to develop a model that can support the development of WBI programs.

Abstract Digital libraries have become one of the most important Web services for information seeking. One of their main drawbacks is their global approach: In general, there is just one interface for all users. One of the key elements in improving user satisfaction in digital libraries is personalization. When considering personalizing factors, cognitive styles have been proved to be one of the relevant parameters that affect information seeking. This justifies the introduction of cognitive style as one of the parameters of a Web personalized service. Nevertheless, this approach has one major drawback: Each user has to run a time‐consuming test that determines his or her cognitive style. In this article, we present a study of how different classification systems can be used to automatically identify the cognitive style of a user using the set of interactions with a digital library. These classification systems can be used to automatically personalize, from a cognitive‐style point of view, the interaction of the digital library and each of its users.

Interactive multimedia learning systems use sophisticated techniques to present advanced interface features. However, not all users appreciate the strengths of such interface features because of the variations of user backgrounds and skills. In this context, human factors are important issues in deciding user preferences. This study applies a data mining approach to examine user preferences of interface features and to identify the influence of human factors on this issue. K-modes, a data mining technique extensively applied to user modeling, was used to group users' preferences. The results indicated that users' preferences could be divided into eight groups where gender and computer experience significantly influenced the choices made by users.

The rapid growth of the web, wireless communication, hypermedia, and the data interoperability among massive digital repositories will enable virtually everyone to have access to huge amounts of content on almost any topic, and services. In this context, personalised systems have emerged as environments that adapt content, structure, and/or presentation to individual user characteristics, usage behaviour and user needs. Adaptation is defined as the concept of making adjustments in a system to accommodate diversity in user requirements and abilities in order to maintain the appropriate context for interaction. It is acknowledged that individuals differ in traits, such as skills, aptitudes and preferences for processing information, constructing knowledge from information, and applying it to real-world problem solving. Personalised systems aim to enhance the mode of delivery of information to the user, increase both flexibility and adaptation of the e-content and of the interface to individual needs, requirements and preferences. Personalisation technologies enable organisations to develop systems, offer added value services and facilitate resource access in several application areas. This direction in web-based systems development has created various challenges and opportunities in terms of adaptation techniques, customisation and personalisation of content, navigation support and layout. New architectures for personalised systems and adaptation techniques have been developed in order to take full advantage of the potential of this new approach to tailor content, navigation support and services to user needs. This kind of technology can be applied on the current infrastructure of the web, or exploit the Internet, to personalise learning environments, recommender systems, and services to customers. It may also be facilitated by recent advances in the area of semantic web.

The ability of an adaptive hypermedia system to create tailored environments depends mainly on the amount and accuracy of information stored in each user model. Some of the difficulties that user modeling faces are the amount of data available to create user models, the adequacy of the data, the noise within that data, and the necessity of capturing the imprecise nature of human behavior. Data mining and machine learning techniques have the ability to handle large amounts of data and to process uncertainty. These characteristics make these techniques suitable for automatic generation of user models that simulate human decision making. This paper surveys different data mining techniques that can be used to efficiently and accurately capture user behavior. The paper also presents guidelines that show which techniques may be used more efficiently according to the task implemented by the application

Discovery of user communities can help designers to develop learning systems that are more suitable to the needs of different individuals. The paper builds user communities based on their common navigation behavior using the k-means algorithm. The results indicated that three user groups could be identified and cognitive style is a potential factor that may influence the patterns of each group.

Abstract Search engines are very popular tools for collecting information from distributed resources. They provide not only search facilities, but they also offer directories for users to browse content divided into groups. In this paper, we've adopted an individual differences approach to explore user's attitudes towards various interface features provided by existing Web directories. Among a variety of individual differences, cognitive style is a particularly important characteristic that influences the effectiveness of information seeking. Empirical results indicate that users' cognitive styles influence their reactions to the organization of subject categories, presentation of the results, and screen layout. We developed a set of design guidelines on the basis of these results, and propose a flexible interface that adopts these guidelines to accommodate the preferences of different cognitive style groups.

There has been tremendous growth in Web-based instruction over the past few years. Because the user group of Web-based instruction includes learners from heterogeneous backgrounds, individual differences become an important issue in the development of Web-based instructional programs. Among a variety of individual differences, cognitive style is a particularly important characteristic. This study aims to determine the relationships between learners' cognitive styles and their perceptions and attitudes toward the features of a Web-based instructional program. The results indicate that cognitive styles influence students' reactions to nonlinear interaction, independent learning, and navigation tools and the difficulties and problems that they encounter. The findings are applied to develop a learning model that can support the design of Web-based instructional programs.

Abstract There has been an increased growth in the use of hypermedia to deliver learning and teaching material. However, much remains to be learned about how different learners perceive such systems. Therefore, it is essential to build robust learning models to illustrate how hypermedia features are experienced by different learners. Research into individual differences suggests cognitive styles have a significant effect on student learning in hypermedia systems. In particular, Witkin's Field Dependence has been extensively examined in previous studies. This article reviews the published findings from empirical studies of hypermedia learning. Specifically, the review classifies the research into five themes: nonlinear learning, learner control, navigation in hyperspace, matching and mismatching, and learning effectiveness. A learning model, developed from an analysis of findings of the previous studies, is presented. Finally, implications for the design of hypermedia learning systems are discussed.