Information retention’s relationships with flow,presence and engagement in guided 3D virtual environments

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation of different variables with information retention in guided 3D virtual learning environments by employing three experimental designs. In each experiments, different participants were included in the same population and different variables were considered. Information retention test, flow, presence, engagement scales were used as data collection tools. Namely measures of flow, presence and engagement were examined to see their correlation with retention in experiment 1, 2 and 3. As a result, not the total score of flow but focused attention, enjoyment and skill dimensions has a weak but significant correlation with information retention, while the challenge has a moderate and significant negative correlation. In the second experiment, retention had a significant, low-level relationship with teaching presence and cognitive presence, but it did not have a similar relationship with social presence. In the third experiment, information retention significantly correlated with affective and cognitive engagement, but not with behavioral engagement. Although the three studies’ participants were from the same population, It was seen that the differences in the level of relationship between information retention and the variables studied in each study. Nevertheless, it was found that the levels of flow, presence and engagement of students are important for information retention in a guided 3D virtual learning environment. The study is thought to guide researchers to design 3D virtual learning environments for different purposes, considering these variables.     

The impact of using mobile-supported learning management systems in teaching web design on the academic success of students and their opinions on the course

This research aimed to examine the impact of using mobile-supported learning management systems (LMS) in teaching web design on the academic success of students and their opinion on the course; and it was conducted on 70 volunteer students (35 experimental, 35 control) enrolled at Giresun University, Technical Sciences Vocational School, Computer Technologies Department, Program of Computer Programming in Spring 2015–2016. After the eight weeks long implementation of Mobile Moodle, which is a mobile-supported LMS, as a supplement to traditional learning methods; t-test was used in order to determine whether the methodology mentioned had a significant impact on the academic success of web design teaching. As a result of the t-test implemented; it was seen that there was a significant level of difference in favor of the experimental group; between the academic success of students in the experimental group where mobile-supported LMS is used and the academic success of the students in the control group where traditional learning methodologies are used. Also, it has been determined that using Mobile LMS has increased the students’ interest.