Design of affectively evocative smart ambient media for learning

This study proposes a teaching and research initiative, named SAMAL (Smart AMbience for Affective Learning) that will provide a unique ambient mediated environment for integrating cognitive and affective approaches to enhance learning. Also, this study illustrates a design of SAMAL classroom with affectively evocative scenarios for learning de Bono’s six-hat thinking in a course of information management, and proposes a research model to examine the enabling effects of the SAMAL environment on learners’ affective experience, learning engagement and creativity. Our empirical results show that SAMAL environment can positively influence the affective experience perceived by learners, encourage their learning engagement, which in turn positively influence their creativity. In particular, the results show that the effect of SAMAL environment on students’ learning engagement was mediated by the affective experience they perceived.