Outdoor ubiquitous learning or indoor CAL? Achievement and different cognitive loads of college students

The purpose of the present study was to examine the differences in English listening achievement and three types (intrinsic, extraneous, and germane) of cognitive load between outdoor ubiquitous learning (u-learning) and indoor computer-assisted learning (CAL). Participants included 160 university students taking a freshman English course, with 53 males and 107 females. They were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (outdoor u-learning) with 80 participants or a control group (indoor CAL) with 80 participants. The instructional experiment lasted three weeks. The results showed that (a) the experimental group had significantly better English listening achievement than the control group; (b) the experimental group had significantly lower extraneous but higher germane cognitive load than the control group, and both groups did not have a significantly different intrinsic cognitive load; (c) there was a significantly negative relationship between English listening achievement and extraneous cognitive load, a significantly positive relationship between English listening achievement and germane cognitive load, but no significant relationship between English listening achievement and intrinsic cognitive load; and (d) among three types of cognitive loads, only extraneous and germane cognitive loads had a significant correlation. The study may provide some implications for English teaching and u-learning.     

Is single or dual channel with different English proficiencies better for English listening comprehension,cognitive load and attitude in ubiquitous learning environment?

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of English proficiency (low vs. high) and material presentation mode (single channel vs. dual channel) on English listening comprehension, cognitive load and learning attitude in a ubiquitous learning environment. An experimental learning activity was implemented using PDA as a learning tool to facilitate learning. A quasi-experimental design was employed with university students participating in the experiment. The results revealed that (a) high English proficiency learners had significantly better English listening comprehension and lower intrinsic and extraneous load than low English proficiency learners; (b) both high and low English proficiency learners learning with dual channel had significantly better English listening comprehension and held more positive attitude toward the ubiquitous learning environment than learners learning with single channel; (c) for learners learning with single channel, low English proficiency learners had significantly higher extraneous load than high English proficiency learners; and (d) for low English proficiency learners, learners who learned with dual channel possessed significantly lower extraneous load than learners who learned with single channel. The suggestions for educators and instructional designers were also discussed in the present study.     

The effects of a theory‐based summary writing tool on students' summary writing

This paper focuses on the design and evaluation of a theory‐based computer‐assisted summary writing learning environment called Summary Writing‐PAL (SW‐PAL). The SW‐PAL was developed based on four aspects: summarizing strategies, learning theories, prior knowledge, and cognitive load. A quasi‐experiment that involved 58 undergraduates majoring in Computer Science was conducted to examine the effectiveness of SW‐PAL in writing summaries. Two intact classes were selected with 28 and 30 students in control and experimental groups, respectively. The conventional teaching approach was employed in the control group, whereas the SW‐PAL was introduced to the experimental group. Pretest and posttest were administrated to both groups. The findings indicated that SW‐PAL improved students' summary writing performance. A significant variance was noted between intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load among students with varying levels of English proficiency in the experimental group, signifying that the SW‐PAL is more suitable for students with lower language proficiency.     

English outside the academic sphere: A mobile-based context-aware comparison study on collaborative and individual learning

Context-aware ubiquitous learning (CAUL) technology provides language learners with interactive learning environments and has been found to increase learning effectiveness and self-efficacy due to student interaction, discussion and evaluation of the entire learning process. This study used a mobile-based ubiquitous learning system combined with a collaborative learning approach to develop Fitness-specific English listening and reading, and fitness knowledge. The researchers recruited two groups of participants, an individual learning group (N = 31) and a collaborative learning group (N = 30), and evaluated their learning performance via pre-and post-tests. In addition, a questionnaire explored the perceived usefulness, usability, follow-up intention of using the system and self-efficacy regarding fitness-specific English. The results show that both groups improved fitness-specific English in terms of listening and reading comprehension. Moreover, collaborative learning was found to facilitate fitness-specific knowledge, and those in the collaborative learning group improved their self-efficacy more than those in the individual learning group.     

Context‐aware language‐learning application in the green technology building: Which group can benefit the most?

To assess the effects and learner perceptions of context‐aware ubiquitous language learning (CAULL), a green‐building English‐learning application (GBELA) employing sensing technology was created to develop participants' English listening and reading skills using smartphones and QR codes. This study investigated the effects of 40 participants' perceived ease of use, usability, usefulness, learner attitude, satisfaction with the use of GBELA, and self‐efficacy in smartphone and GBELA usage. Quantitative and qualitative data through pretest/post‐test, questionnaires, and semistructured interviews were collected with a focus on green building–based English (GBbE) reading and listening skills. Results proved the effectiveness of the GBELA for both high‐achievement (HA) and low‐achievement (LA) groups. Furthermore, correlations were found between the HA group and ease of use of the GBELA. The correlations among learner perceptions and self‐efficacy showed that a well‐designed context‐aware learning system can help learners enhance self‐efficacy in CAULL mode. Implications for the design of effective context‐ and knowledge‐specific ubiquitous learning systems are provided in the study.     

An alternative to language learner dependence on L2 caption‐reading input for comprehension of sitcoms in a multimedia learning environment

Most second/foreign language (L2) learners have difficulty understanding listening input because of its implicit and ephemeral nature, and they typically have better reading comprehension than listening comprehension skills. This study examines the effects of using an interactive advance‐organizer activity on the DVD video comprehension of L2 learners to provide an alternative to the scenario of L2 learners experiencing sensory overload in a multimedia learning environment that presents pictures, printed words and speech words. A total of 95 intermediate university‐level L2 learners with an average TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) score of 565 were placed in four conditions for an English‐language DVD viewing task, including an advance‐organizer group, a captions group, a captions plus advance‐organizer group, and a control group. The study concludes that using advance organizers as an instructional strategy facilitated participant listening comprehension and reduced participant dependence on L2 caption‐reading input by 50% for initial comprehension. Participants also held a positive attitude towards an interactive advance‐organizer activity. The details concerning the role of L2 captions in multimedia listening are also discussed. The findings provide insight into teaching listening to L2 learners who learn most of their L2 in a more reading‐dependent classroom setting and typically have enhanced L2 literacy skills.     

Facilitating comprehension of non‐native English speakers during lectures in English with STR‐texts

We provided texts generated by speech‐to text‐recognition (STR) technology for non‐native English speaking students during lectures in English in order to test whether STR‐texts were useful for enhancing students' comprehension of lectures. To this end, we carried out an experiment in which 60 participants were randomly assigned to a control group (i.e., 30 participants who learned without STR‐texts) and an experimental group (i.e., 30 participants who learned with STR‐texts). Our results showed that the participants in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group. Our second objective was to explore the effectiveness of STR‐texts on the learning performance of the experimental‐group participants with different levels of English as a Foreign Language ability, that is, high and low. The results showed that the low ability students had lower self‐efficacy than the high ability students. The results also showed no significant effect of STR‐texts on the post‐test scores of the low and high ability participants after controlling for the effect of English as a Foreign Language ability. No significant difference was found in cognitive load and anxiety of the low and high ability participants. Based on the implications of our findings, several suggestions are made for the teaching and research communities.     

The format of problem representation for in‐game learning supports

A promising method to support game‐based learning is to facilitate learners' externalization of cognitive and metacognitive processes. Externalizing Problem Representation (EPR) refers to a cognitive behaviour in which a learner constructs her own representations overtly. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether learning supports promoting EPR enhance qualitative understanding and quantitative proficiency in ratios and proportional relationships in a learning game (i.e., E‐Rebuild) context. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of representation format in problem representation on qualitative understanding and quantitative proficiency in a learning game context. The results of this study indicate that (a) symbolic learning supports better facilitate comprehension of math concepts and their relations than iconic learning supports in video game contexts, (b) symbolic learning supports better facilitate players' reflection for implicit understanding and promote their math problem‐solving skills, (c) participants in the symbolic learning support group increased significantly in qualitative understanding but not in quantitative proficiency after gameplay, and (d) participants in the iconic learning support group experienced significant growth in quantitative proficiency but not in qualitative understanding after gameplay.     

Do students benefit equally from interactive computer simulations regardless of prior knowledge levels?

The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of two types of interactive computer simulations and of prior knowledge levels on concept comprehension, cognitive load, and learning efficiency. Seventy-two 5th grade students were sampled from two elementary schools. They were divided into two groups (high and low) based on prior knowledge levels, and each group was divided into two treatment groups (a low-interactive simulation group and a high-interactive simulation group). The dependent variables were concept comprehension, cognitive load, and learning efficiency. The results showed that, for students with high prior knowledge levels, high-interactive simulations, rather than low-interactive simulations, resulted in significantly increased comprehension scores, decreased cognitive load scores, and higher learning efficiency. On the other hand, among students with low prior knowledge levels, the low-interactive simulation group did not demonstrate significantly increased comprehension scores, but they did show lower cognitive load scores and higher learning efficiency than the high-interactive simulation group.     

The impact of computer‐based instruction on the development of EFL learners' writing skills

The current study investigated the application and effectiveness of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in teaching academic writing to Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners by means of Microsoft Word Office. To this end, 44 sophomore intermediate university students majoring in English Language and Literature at an Iranian university who had enrolled in a course called Advanced Writing were randomly divided into two groups. As a pre‐test, a pen‐and‐paper writing task was given to both groups at the beginning of the semester. The control group including 24 male and female students was taught based on traditional approach while the experimental group including 20 male and female students was taught based on CALL. At the end of one semester, a pen‐and‐paper writing task was given to both groups. The results of the post‐test revealed that the students who were exposed to computer‐based instruction outperformed their counterparts in terms of using appropriate articles, tense, plural forms and spelling. Moreover, the students in the experimental group produced paragraphs of higher quality. The findings of this study confirmed the efficacy of computer‐based instruction in the development of EFL learners' writing skills.     

Inventing motivates and prepares student teachers for computer‐based learning

A brief, problem‐oriented phase such as an inventing activity is one potential instructional method for preparing learners not only cognitively but also motivationally for learning. Student teachers often need to overcome motivational barriers in order to use computer‐based learning opportunities. In a preliminary experiment, we found that student teachers who were given paper‐based course material spent more time on follow‐up coursework than teachers who were given a well‐developed computer‐based learning environment (CBLE), leading to higher learning outcomes. Thus, we tested inventing as an instructional method that may help overcome motivational barriers of teachers' use of computer‐supported tools or learning environments in our main experimental study (N = 44). As a computer‐based environment, we used the ‘Assessment of Learning strategies in Learning journals’. The inventing group produced ideas about criteria to evaluate learning strategies based on student cases prior to the learning phase. The control condition read a text containing possible answers to the inventing problem. The inventing activity enhanced motivation prior to the learning phase and assessment skills as assessed by transfer problems. Hence, the inventing activity prepared student teachers to learn from a CBLE in a motivational as well as cognitive way.     

Effects of a vocabulary acquisition and assessment system on students’ performance in a blended learning class for English subject

Vocabulary acquisition and assessment are regarded as the key basis for the instruction of English as a second language. However, it is time-consuming, fallible and repetitive for the school teachers and parents to assess the proficiency of the students’ vocabulary acquisition. We customized the open source course management system Moodle to build the individualized vocabulary review and assessment functions for English instruction. This web-based system was integrated into the regular English instruction of an experiment class of Grade three in a junior middle school, i.e. it was used in one school hour almost every week for an entire school term. Within this blended learning environment, the students’ performance of the experiment class in the ordinary and especially vocabulary examinations throughout the school term was improved gradually and was better than that of the control class, so that it achieved number one among sixteen classes in the same grade at the final term examination, compared with number eight before this experiment. The survey and interview with the students also demonstrated the system’s valuable functions for vocabulary acquisition and listening comprehension, and showed the students’ favor to such a kind of syllabus design with the intelligent course management system. The implication of this research is that the blended learning of English class with the individualized vocabulary acquisition and assessment system can improve the students’ performance in vocabulary acquisition and in ordinary test. This system can also be applied in other English classes.     

Promoting contextual vocabulary learning through an adaptive computer‐assisted EFL reading system

The study developed an adaptive computer‐assisted reading system and investigated its effect on promoting English as a foreign language learner‐readers' contextual vocabulary learning performance. Seventy Taiwanese college students were assigned to two reading groups. Participants in the customised reading group read online English texts, each of which was customised by the developed system to offer immediate and repeated meetings with previously encountered unknown words, while participants in the typical reading group read online texts without control on unknown word recurrence. After the 4‐week online reading treatment, the two groups of learners were tested by online immediate and delayed vocabulary tests, and the students from the customised reading group were also required to complete the questionnaire regarding system use. The results showed that the vocabulary mean scores from both immediate and delayed testing demonstrated significantly better results in word gain and word retention with the customised reading group and that the adaptive reading system was appealing for the students. The study demonstrated that by providing customised reading with word recurrence specific to individuals' unknown words, this adaptive computer‐assisted English as a foreign language reading system creates a more favourable condition for foreign language vocabulary growth.     

The effect of a graph‐oriented computer‐assisted project‐based learning environment on argumentation skills

The purpose of this quasi‐experimental study was to explore how seventh graders in a suburban school in the United States developed argumentation skills and science knowledge in a project‐based learning environment that incorporated a graph‐oriented, computer‐assisted application. A total of 54 students (three classes) comprised this treatment condition and were engaged in a project‐based learning environment that incorporated a graph‐oriented, computer‐assisted application, whereas a total of 57 students (three classes) comprised the control condition and were engaged in a project‐based learning environment without this graph‐oriented, computer‐assisted application. Verbal collaborative argumentation was recorded and the students' post essays were collected. A random effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted and a significant difference in science knowledge about alternative energies between conditions was observed. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted and there was a significant difference in counterargument and rebuttal skills between conditions. A qualitative analysis was conducted to examine how the graph‐oriented, computer‐assisted application supported students' development of argumentation skills and affected the quality of collaborative argumentation. The difference in argumentation structure and quality of argumentation between conditions might explain a difference in science knowledge as well counterargument and rebuttal skills (argumentation) between both conditions. This study concluded that a project‐based learning environment incorporating a graph‐oriented, computer‐assisted application was effective in improving students' science knowledge and developing their scientific argumentation skills.     

Measuring cognitive load in test items: static graphics versus animated graphics

The majority of multimedia learning studies focus on the use of graphics in learning process but very few of them examine the role of graphics in testing students' knowledge. This study investigates the use of static graphics versus animated graphics in a computer‐based English achievement test from a cognitive load theory perspective. Three hundred and three 7th‐grade students were randomly split into two groups and given the test questions either with static graphics or with animated graphics accompanied with text. Students' response time, response accuracy, self‐reported ratings on cognitive load and secondary task approach were used to measure their cognitive load. Findings revealed that animating graphics increased the response time and secondary task scores of the students but did not have any significant effect on their test success. Furthermore, no difference was observed in self‐reported cognitive loads. The relationship between the four different cognitive load measures was also examined in the study. No direct relation was found between self‐reported ratings and secondary task scores. On the other hand, self‐ratings and response accuracy were found to be more sensitive to intrinsic cognitive load, whereas response time and secondary task measures were found to be more sensitive to extraneous cognitive load in our testing environment.     

Could a mobile‐assisted learning system support flipped classrooms for classical Chinese learning?

In this study, the researcher aimed to develop a mobile‐assisted learning system and to investigate whether it could promote teenage learners' classical Chinese learning through the flipped classroom approach. The researcher first proposed the structure of the Cross‐device Mobile‐Assisted Classical Chinese (CMACC) system according to the pilot survey and reviewed literature, and then adopted a quasi‐experimental design to understand whether the developed system could promote and support flipped classroom learning for classical Chinese. A total of 56 eleventh graders from two classes participated in the experiment. The learners in the experimental group learned classical Chinese with the flipped classroom learning strategy with the assistance of the CMACC system, while the control group adopted the flipped classroom learning strategy without using the CMACC system. The results reveal that all of the students improved their Chinese performance, but it was noticeable that the learners who used the CMACC system showed better motivation in terms of self‐directed preview learning, while those who only learned with the traditional textbooks tended to be more passive. In sum, the mobile‐assisted learning system added value in providing learners with opportunities to achieve anytime and anywhere flipped classroom learning. The integration of ubiquitous mobile learning technology and the flipped classroom strategy can be viewed as a critical factor leading to students achieving self‐regulated learning. It is also suggested that instructors should carefully take the targeted learners' cultural background and the availability of supporting learning devices into consideration so as to prevent the flipped classroom from exacerbating the digital divide. Other suggestions for educators and instructional designers are also proposed.     

Internet cognitive failure and fatigue relevant to learners' self‐regulation and learning progress in English vocabulary with a calibration scheme

To determine the factors of learning effectiveness in English vocabulary learning when using a calibration scheme, this study developed a freshman English mobile device application (for iPhone 4) for students with low levels of English proficiency to practise vocabulary in the beginning of their Freshman English course. Data were collected and validated from 243 subjects for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The findings revealed that Internet cognitive failure (i.e., trait cognitive disability) was positively correlated to Internet cognitive fatigue (i.e., state cognitive disability). Both types of Internet cognitive disability were negatively correlated to self‐regulation in English vocabulary learning (SREVL). SREVL was positively correlated to the degree of learning improvement. The findings implied that the use of a calibration design for mobile English vocabulary learning could benefit students with low levels of Internet cognitive disability but high levels of SREVL.     

Exploring demographic and motivational factors associated with hypertext reading by English as a foreign language (EFL) students

This study investigates nontraditional students’ of English as a foreign language self-reports of the hypertext learning experience. It determines whether factors such as gender, age, proficiency level, and hypertext learning experience influence predicting hypertext reading achievement. The subjects of this study were 23 nontraditional English majors (9 males and 14 females). Their learning efficiency was rated as low to intermediate. The primary investigation found that students generally perceived that they should have control in operating the designed hypertext system because most did not find it difficult. In addition, students could accomplish the reading tasks more quickly and easily without much mental effort. Females, older adults, and low-proficiency learners expressed more positive feedback and willingness to use the hypertext system in future compared with the other groups, although no significant differences were observed among those variables on hypertext learning experience. Hypertext comprehension performance was significantly influenced only by the factor of proficiency level. Its impact was negative and moderate. Therefore, it is suggested that the use of hypertext system demonstrated the tendency to particularly improve low-proficiency learners’ reading comprehension. Limitations and recommendations for future research are presented and discussed in light of the results of the study.     

A prompt-based annotation approach to conducting mobile learning activities for architecture design courses

In this study, a prompt-based annotation approach is proposed for developing mobile learning systems for architecture design courses. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted by assigning 56 freshmen randomly to an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group adopted the mobile learning approach with a prompt-based annotation strategy, while those in the control group learned with the conventional in-field instruction and annotations. From the experimental results, it was found that the proposed prompt-based annotation strategy not only promoted the students' self-efficacy, but also improved their learning achievements. In the meantime, it is interesting to find that the experimental group students had medium cognitive load during the field trip, while the control group had rather low cognitive load. This implies that the prompt-based annotation approach engaged the students in mobile learning tasks with reasonable challenges and efforts.