Effects of an augmented reality-based mobile system on students’ learning achievements and motivation for a liberal arts course

ABSTRACT

Although Augmented Reality (AR) technology has already been adopted into mobile learning environments, additional effort must be put towards providing strong evidence that AR-based mobile systems are excellent educational tools that make a positive impact in or outside of the classroom. Our study utilized a similar AR-based mobile learning system developed to authentically teach a liberal arts course at a Taiwanese university. Under controlled study environments, we were able to design a system that could impart relevant concepts from the course to students outside of the traditional classroom setting. Experimental results demonstrated that students with the opportunity to learn through the proposed system demonstrated higher learning motivation, had better learning performance and comprehension abilities than those studying via the conventional outdoor instruction approach. Moreover, the questionnaire survey conducted after our study revealed that “confidence” was the most highly rated motivational factor among students who used the proposed system, suggesting that students were quite motivated to learn using the novel system supplemented with technological advances because they felt more sure of their knowledge and performance. Thus, we believe that using the proposed system can effectively improve the learning outcomes of students enrolled in the liberal arts course, with the particular benefit of boosting confidence in gaining new knowledge, which leads to an improvement of overall learning performance and motivation.     

文科女生数学学习障碍探究

现在的文科班,不管是重点中学还是普通中学,女生的数量都占班级总人数的绝大部分。笔者在执教过程中发现,文科女生由于某些原因,在数学学习中存在着这样或那样的障碍,以至于数学成绩提高较慢,进而对学习数学有一种恐惧心理。有的女生甚至是因为数学不好才去学文科的。文章从文科女生学习数学障碍的分类及成因入手,提出一些合理的建议及看法,帮助文科女生克服各种障碍,走出心理阴影,不因数学而哭泣,真正学好数学。     

A preliminary investigation and analysis of student learning style preferences in further and higher education

In the current further education (FE) and higher education (HE) environment, students are under increasing pressure to perform well and achieve good results. As educators we must strive to enable students to make the most of their higher education by providing an education of the highest quality and enhance the learning experience. This study was undertaken as a preliminary investigation of how students learn and how we, as educators, can improve their learning. In this study, a range of students on different (FE and HE) courses completed the VARK (visual, audio, read/write, kinaesthetic) questionnaire on learning style preferences at the beginning of the semester. Responses were analysed and the author adapted various teaching techniques into course materials for the semester to accommodate the results obtained in the initial VARK survey. Students' responses were encouraging, with many being keen to participate with a view to improving their course performance. The author found that using a range of teaching techniques encouraged student participation in the course and, for some, enhanced their performance in assessment. This investigation provides an insight into the awareness of learning style preferences and how such awareness can be positively exploited in teaching and learning processes.     

疫情下程序设计语言课程在线学习现状调查与对策

疫情当前,面对计算机基础较为薄弱的文科生,程序设计语言课程如何顺利开展在线教学并保障教学质量,是一个值得探讨的问题。以韩山师范学院3个专业6个文科班的学生为调查对象,运用问卷调查法从个人基本信息、以往在线学习经历、对本门课的在线学习需求3个维度进行数据统计与分析。基于调查结果,提出在文科生程序设计语言课程在线教学中,可通过搭建课程框架、组织针对性的课程资源、采用异步教学方式、积极创设课堂活动、关注学生学习进度5个方面提升教学质量。     

词汇学习观念与策略之调查比较研究

通过对非英语专业一年级学生的词汇学习观念与策略进行问卷调查并运用SPSS13.0独立样本T检验对调查结果进行高分组与低分组、文科生与理科生、女生与男生差异比较,了解不同群体学生词汇学习观念与策略的使用情况。调查结果显示:所有学生在观念上都赞成词汇应该在用中学,但在实际学习中还普遍运用重复策略。高分组、文科生和女生群体比低分组、理科生和男生群体更主动学习词汇,但还不能有效使用其他元认知策略。高分组、文科生和女生群体比低分组、理科生和男生群体使用更多的词汇学习策略。     

Understanding collaborative learning behavior from Moodle log data

Although course management systems (CMSs) were originally designed for teachers to manage their teaching, little interest has been directed at students' learning. Moodle is usually regarded as a CMS. However, how to make full use of its powerful features and design them into learning tools has rarely been investigated. This study investigates two features, embedded in the Moodle system, wiki and assessment tools, to find out how they are designed to support project-based learning. The theory and rationale for using these two features in learning activities are elaborated. The effects of wiki-supported collaboration, peer grading, and feedback on junior secondary students' enquiries in liberal studies are analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. One hundred and eighty-six students participated in the study. Working on their own wikis, commenting on the work of peers, and previous performance on the humanities course were found to be significant predictors of liberal study project performance.     

高校文科专业线上教学效果的调查研究

“互联网+教育”背景下,为了解文科专业师生线上教学的真实状态与效果,通过对文科专业教师和学生的双向问卷调查,对师生线上教学的基本情况进行了分析;从师生对线上教学效果、教学效果影响因素、线上学习能力诉求、对教师角色定位等方面剖析了师生认识的统一性,从线上教学方法应用和效果、互动场景的偏好、师生对线上教学的态度等方面分析了师生认识的差异性问题;在此基础上,提出了提升高校文科专业线上教学效果的相关路径选择。     

Teaching collaborative skills with a group leader computer tutor

This paper discusses how a group leader computer tutor may aid students in learning collaborative skills in a co-operative learning environment. However, students need to learn collaborative skills and practice using them. The group leader computer tutor discussed in this paper is designed on the principles of co-operative learning, intelligent tutoring systems and computer-supported collaborative work within an intelligent collaborative learning system (ICLS). The group leader aims to facilitate group work on the task level and to teach students how to use collaborative skills in the discussion level as students work on networked computers in the Jigsaw method of co-operative learning. The ICLS and its group leader were used by two classes at a liberal arts university. Qualitative research shows that the students' co-operative attitudes changed and academic achievement improved from pre- to post-treatment. Students, especially, used the communication skill of openness in comment type discussions. The students enjoyed working collaboratively through the ICLS and their teachers thought that the experience was valuable for them.     

Using learning styles theory in engineering education

Studies have shown that, while learning different concepts, people sometimes take different approaches (learning styles). Accordingly, their performance reflected differently in their academic studies. With the effect of globalisation to the educational environments, the influence of individual learning styles on educational performance is getting more significant. In this study, a learning style assessment tool was used to examine the relationship between students’ learning styles and their performance in engineering education programmes. At the beginning of the programme, 285 students’ learning styles were measured using a learning style assessment tool. Four years after the engineering education, their performance in the programme was compared with their individual learning styles. This study shows that most of the students are assimilators. Divergers and convergers follow the assimilators. The number of accommodators is very limited. The relationship between engineering students’ learning styles and their performance is found: assimilators and convergers performed better than the divergers and accommodators. The performance difference between assimilators and divergers is statistically significant. The results of this study show that the learning style theory is a potential tool for guiding the design and improvement of courses and helping students to improve their individual performance.     

美国本科教育的基本理念、改革思路及其启示——基于AAC&U的相关研究

美国大学与学院联合会(AAC&U)从2000年开始连续发布了有关美国本科教育改革的政策建议报告和本科教育质量的调查报告。通过对这些报告的梳理可以发现,缺乏对本科生学习目标的关注、过分聚焦狭隘的专业学习、对自由教育的理解过于局限,是AAC&U认为美国本科教育存在的主要缺陷。由此,AAC&U给出了如下改革建议:应设计具有贯通性的本科生学习目标,应给予每个学生充分的学业指导,让学生参与到大问题的学习中去,让学生学会创新和探究的艺术,让学习评价能促进学生的深度发展。本研究对我国高等教育的启示有,应从学习的视角考察本科教育质量问题,构建适切的本科学习目标贯通所有的本科课程,充分重视自由教育的价值与意义,提高教师的教学水平来促进学生的学习。     

文科物理课程定位及其教学的探讨

文科物理课程可以培养学生的科学素质,通过给出科学素质的涵义,并结合授课对象的认知等特点确定了课程更多是培养学生的科学思想方法和科学精神,强调了课程的通识教育性质。结合我校文科类物理素质选修课开设的实践,从课程的授课内容、教学方法、教学测评等方面给出了开设有特色的文科物理课程的建议。     

美术专业本科新生英语教与学情况分析与思考

与普通专业的本科生相比,艺体类学生英语基础较差,因此对他们的英语教学成了一个难题。本文结合自身的教学实际,以问卷调查的形式,分析了本校美术专业本科新生英语教与学的现状,就怎样提高学生的英语水平这一问题提出自己的思考与想法,以帮助学生们在英语学习方面取得相应的成绩。     

Concept maps for assessing change in learning: a study of undergraduate business students in first-year marketing in China

This paper explains the application of concept mapping to help foster a learning-centred approach. It investigates how concept maps are used to measure the change in learning following a two-week intensive undergraduate Marketing Principles course delivered to 162 Chinese students undertaking a Bachelor of Business Administration programme in China. Using four scoring procedures (breadth of knowledge, relational quality, structural quality and holistic quality), student learning is assessed in terms of prior and new knowledge, as well as improvement in knowledge structure. Concept map scores are correlated with conventional measures of overall student performance. The results provide strong evidence for improvement in students’ ability to externalise new learned concepts resulting from intensive instruction. Incorporating concept maps as a contemporary method of learning in the curriculum potentially enriches student learning, provides a measure of the impact of teaching on students’ learning and adds value to students’ higher education experience.     

The liberal arts college and humanist learning

What is liberal education? How do its aims differ from those of either grammar or vocational education? Does it truly deserve its own supporting institution? In response to these questions, Arcilla develops a defense of the liberal arts college. He observes that all projects of formal learning presuppose that the learner possesses answers to three fundamental, existential questions: What is one’s nature? What is the good for beings of this nature? What facilitates this good? We develop better responses to these questions by engaging in liberal learning. The mission of the liberal arts college, then, is first and foremost to support this learning. With this idea of liberal learning and its college in mind, we may nonetheless wonder whether the existential knowledge it seeks is really something that can be learned. Arcilla articulates a version of humanism that illuminates the conditions of possibility for liberal learning and affirms this learning’s intrinsic value. At the same time, this philosophical theory requires for its verification that we engage in liberal learning. Arcilla calls the symbiotic partnership formed by liberal learning and humanism “humanist learning,” and he points out that it is this learning, which is crucial to our other kinds of education, that would be lost if society ceased to support genuine colleges of the liberal arts.     

"seminar"教学范式的结构、功能、特征及其对中国大学文科教学的启示

“seminar”是西方发达国家大学文科教学的重要形式,它的出现,引起了西方大学文科教学范式的重大变化,即由过去的“讲授式”变为“讲授－讨论”的二元结构模式,这一变革,促使西方大学文科教学向以学生自主型学习的方向发展,并使“研究性”学习成为西方大学文科教学的改革方向。     

高三学生学习状况的校本调查与分析

本文运用“学习方法”与“学业压力”两个问卷对南京市天印高级中学高三学生进行了调查,以了解学生的学习状况,找出本校学生在学习上存在的困惑,进而帮助学生更好地应对高三学习。结果表明：高三学生在学习方法上,实验班优于平行班;在学习态度和习惯维度上,女生优于男生,文科生高于理科生,农村学生优于乡镇和城市学生。在学习压力上,平行班学生感受到的压力高于实验班,男生的自我发展压力高于女生,理科生的挫折压力高于文科生。     

艺术院校大学生英语自主学习能力的培养

英语学习的关键是自主学习,大学英语教学的目的不仅是要传授知识,更重要的是要培养学习者自主学习的能力,自主学习能力的强弱直接关系着英语学习的成效.本文分析了艺术类院校学生英语自主学习及大学英语教学过程中存在的问题,并对艺术类学生英语自主学习能力的培养提出若干建议.     

高师大学文科数学课程建设

大学文科数学课程建设是社会经济对复合型、应用型人才需要的新要求,是高师院校对学生进行素质教育的理想平台．在分析了目前高师大学文科数学教学中存在的问题的基础上,提出高师院校大学文科数学课程建设的主要思路和特点,探讨了改革教学内容、教学方法、教学手段等问题．特别强调在教学中加强渗透数学思想方法和数学文化,对积极调动学生学习大学文科数学的兴趣,培养学生的创新思维和良好的文化素质具有极大的促进作用．     

An examination of digital game-based situated learning applied to Chinese language poetry education

By gradually placing more importance on game-based education and changing learning motivation by applying game-playing characteristics, students’ learning experiences can be enhanced and a better learning effect can be achieved. When teaching the content of Chinese poetry in Taiwanese junior high schools, most teachers only explain the meaning of Chinese poetry, while it is difficult for students to understand why poets write these poems, resulting in learning confusion. This paper implemented a digital game-based situated learning system based on Tang Dynasty poems for learning Chinese poetry to simulate the situations of hardship encountered by poets when writing poetry in animated form to help junior high school students in Taiwan to have greater understanding when learning the content of Chinese poetry. The research results show that students who used the Gourd Tang Dynasty system in game-based instruction had significantly better learning achievements than students who underwent traditional narrative instruction. Among them, students in the low learning ability group improved in their grades significantly more than students in the high learning ability group in terms of their Tang Dynasty poetry learning. Furthermore, the authors examined the predictive relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and behavioural intention related to the digital game-based situated learning system for Chinese language poetry. The factor of perceived usefulness was a key factor in the students’ positive attitudes towards the digital game-based situated learning system. There were no significant differences with respect to individual characteristics (i.e. gender, online game experience and digital learning experience). The results demonstrate that this type of system can be widely accepted by students with different learning experiences.