ERIC Number: EJ1062070
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Sep
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1360-2357
EISSN: N/A
On the Value of Second Life for Students' Engagement in Blended and Online Courses: A Comparative Study from the Higher Education in Greece
Pellas, Nikolaos; Kazanidis, Ioannis
Education and Information Technologies, v20 n3 p445-466 Sep 2015
Nowadays three-dimensional (3D) multi-user virtual worlds (VWs) are the most well-known candidate platforms in Higher education. Despite the growing number of notable studies that have presented VWs as valuable platforms for the e-Education, there is still a paucity of a comparative study in order to be determined the degree of the students' engagement in constructionist-collaborative learning scenarios. Concurrently, it seems imperative the need for educators and scholars to identify how can VWs influence students' engagement in contemporary and reliable instructional formats, mainly on blended or online settings for university-level courses. In this study the effects of students' achievements were measured by comparing the degree of students' engagement from two student groups (graduate and undergraduate) enrolled in two different instructional formats (blended/online) held in Second Life (SL) to become learning content developers. The purpose of the current research is to present results from the comparative study of one hundred twenty-five (125) students that finally attended in order to be measured their engagement overall as a multi-dimensional construct consisting of the emotional, behavioral and cognitive factors. The study findings from the quantitative analysis have disclosed that graduate students who participated in online courses achieved more positive learning outcomes and as a result the degree of their engagement was significantly increased than those who enrolled with the blended. In these circumstances there are raised some fundamental educational implications which are also discussed.
Descriptors: Blended Learning, Online Courses, Higher Education, Comparative Education, Virtual Classrooms, Computer Simulation, Constructivism (Learning), Electronic Learning, Learner Engagement, Academic Achievement, Graduate Students, Undergraduate Students, Cohort Analysis, Emotional Experience, Behavior Patterns, Cognitive Style, Teaching Methods, Student Attitudes, Educational Technology, Statistical Analysis
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2189
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A