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The Design And Use Of Simulation Computer Games In Education, Brett E. Shelton, David A. Wiley

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This book, edited by Brett Shelton and David Wiley, is a view of models and simulations for education and research.

Table of Contents

1. In Praise of Epistemology - David Shaffer

2. Six Ideas in Search of a Discipline - Richard Van Eck

3. Building Bridges Between Serious Game Design and Instructional Design - Jamie Kirkley, Sonny Kirkley and Jerry Heneghan

4. Layered Design in an Instructional Simulation - Andrew S. Gibbons and Stefan Sommer

5. Designing Educational Games for Activity-Goal Alignment - Brett E. Shelton

6. "The Peripatos Could Not have Looked Like That," and Other Educational Outcomes From …

The Underutilization Of Internet And Communication Technology-Assisted Collaborative Project-Based Learning Among International Educators: A Delphi Study, Barry S. Kramer, Andrew Walker, Jennifer M. Brill

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explores the barriers associated with teachers implementing Internet and Communication Technology-assisted Collaborative Project-based Learning (ICTCPrjBL) as a classroom teaching methodology with students. We used a Web-based Delphi method to engage experienced educators in anonymous consensus building consisting of three rounds of surveys. The Round 1 analysis yielded 51 barriers. The Round 2 analysis produced descriptive statistics (range, mean, and standard deviation) on the importance of each barrier. The Round 3 analysis confirmed 16 of the 51 (31.4%) barriers as “moderately significant” to “very significant” to implementing ICTCPrjBL. Important contributions of this study include: (a) identification of barriers to …

Pedagogical Agents As Social Models To Influence Learner Attitudes, Yanghee Kim, A. Baylor

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Based on social-cognitive theory, we describe the role of pedagogical agents as “social models.” In several experimental studies we have found that pedagogical agents as social models can effectively persuade and motivate learners. We briefly describe two on-going projects where agents as social models are employed to enhance young women’s motivation and attitudes toward math and engineering.

Desirable Characteristics Of Learning Companions, Yanghee Kim

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study investigated the desirable characteristics of anthropomorphized learning-companion agents for college students. First, interviews with six undergraduates explored their concepts of desirable learning companions. The interviews yielded agent competency, agent personality, and interaction control. Next, a controlled experiment examined whether learner competency (strong vs. weak) would relate directly to agent competency (high vs. low) and to interaction control (agent-control vs. learner-control). The dependent measures included learners' perceptions of agent functionality, their self-efficacy beliefs in the task, and their learning. The results indicated that academically strong students perceived the high-competent agent higher than the lowcompetent agent and showed higher self-efficacy …

Text Categorization For Aligning Educational Standards, O. Yilmazel, N. Balasubramanian, S. C. Harwell, J. Bailey, Anne R. Diekama, E. D. Liddy

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Standard alignment (where standards describing similar concepts are correlated) is a necessary task in providing full access to educational resources. Manual alignment is time consuming and expensive. We propose an automatic alignment system, using machine learning techniques utilizing natural language processing. In this paper we discuss our experiments on text categorization for automatic alignment. We explore the role of relevant vocabulary sets in automatic alignment.

Designing Educational Games For Activity-Goal Alignment, Brett E. Shelton

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

What indeed, can we expect from our newest trend in education, implementing moving pictures and conversations with instruction through simulation games? Lewis Carroll's familiar narratives Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass provide helpful imagery for many of the queries, explorations and assumptions we currently make about this latest Wonderland of academia. So what are the goals for the designers and researchers of educational games, or perhaps more importantly, what should be the goals?