Design and Evaluation of a Learner-Centric Immersive Learning

Environment for Physics Education

Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media (IICM)

Faculty of Informatics – Graz University of Technology, Austria

Johanna Pirker, Christian Gütl, John Winston Belcher, Philip H. Bailey

SouthCHI Conference 2nd July, 2013

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 2

Agenda

• Introduction

• Background and Motivation

• Technology-Enables Active Learning (TEAL) support Physics Education

• Virtual TEAL Environment

• Future Work

© 2012 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 3

Advanced Educational Media Technologies Group

• Remote & Collaborative Learning

• Adaptive e-learning systems

• Virtual learning environments

• E-Assessment

• Computer-based assessment

• Peer assessment

• Virtual Environments & Setups

• Virtual 3D World Infrastructure

• End devices (immersive … mobile)

• Multimedia IR and NLP

• Access to learning repositories

• Pre-processing of content

Physics Education (1)

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 4

Physics Education (2)

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 5

“I hear and I forget.

I see and I remember.

I do and I understand.”

Confucius

Technology-Enabled Active Learning

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 6

• Approach

• Collaborative Learning

• Mini lectures

• Hands-on experiments

• Simulations & Visualizations

• Quizzes and discussions

• Special Designed Classroom

• Small working groups

• Shared Computers

• Desktop Experiments

• $ 1.5 Mio / classroom

http://mit.edu/jbelcher/www/categories/education/index.htm

Virtual TEAL World - Motivation

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 7

• Motivation • On-campus extension to Prepare, re-visit, reflect

• Affordable Environment (TEAL classroom $1.5 MIO each)

• Distance learning experience for

• Geographically dispersed learning groups

• Part-time students

• Handicapped

• MOOC (Massive open online course) extension as Social motivator and Collaboration possibilities

• Main Issues of VWs • Technical Demands

• Technical Know-How

• User Acceptance

Virtual TEAL World - Motivation

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 8

• Design • Focus on advantages of VWs in comparison to

conventional E-Learning Systems

• 3D, Immersion, Collaboration, Presence, Active Participation,…

• Reduce issues of VWs by good Design (Technical demands, Technical know-how, User Acceptance)

• Raise the acceptance (Interactivity, Collaboration, Assessability)

• Avoid steep learning curves

• Usability of Virtual World Environment and In-World Tools

Workflow

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 9

Virtual TEAL Model

Implementation of the required components

Preparation & Evaluation of a

pilot environment

Raise the acceptance

• Interactivity

• Collaboration

• Assessability

Avoid steep learning curves

• Usability

• Adaptation and improvement of the existing TEALsim-Module

• Creation of the Concept Question-Module

• Creation of a Web-Interface as link to the Concept Question-Module

• Faraday’s Law course

• Two experiments with two stakeholder groups

Virtual TEAL World - Model

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 10

Technology-Enabled Active Learning

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 11

Virtual TEAL World – Faraday’s Law

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45pw4jEJ5MM

Evaluation (1/3)

Objectives • Usability of VTW and in-world tools

• Learning progress within the Faraday‘s Law scenario and it‘s assessability

• Motivational aspects of students, such as interactivity and collaboration

Setup • 2 experiments with 2 stakeholder groups

• 2 physics experts with pedagogical background

• 8 students

• Pre-questionnaire with demographical data

• Experiment (Learning roundtrip)

• Post-questionnaire • Experience, usability (SUS), motivation (CES),..

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 13

Evaluation (2/3)

Learning Progress • Experiment: Students learned through discussion and

learning content

• Self-assessment: Faraday‘s law (M=1.625 SD=0.86); 7/8 learned something new

Collaborative activities

• Students likes „solving questions with other people“

• 3/8 students changes their answer after the discussion

Assessability • Both SHGs were satisfied with the assessability (M=2.5;

SD=0.92) „It is similar to real life group assignments. You never know who contributed to the assignment“

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 14

Evaluation (3/3)

Interactivity • M=1.6 (SD=0.66) „Such a playful animation can motivate

also students, which are not really interested in the topic“

Usability • 8/10 SUS score 70+; Avg 73.89 (SD=22.81)

• TEALsim-Module M=2. (SD=0.5)

Motivation • According to CES

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 15

Conclusion & Future Work

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 16

Current and future Work

• Further improvements (Performance, Usability, Interactivity,… )

• Integration to LMS such as Moodle

• Integration of a game-based approach

• Further user studies

Conclusions

• Motivational and acceptance issues can be minimize

• Interactivity, Collaboration, Assessability

• Technical issues will remain the next years (ref. Gartner’s

Hype Cycle)

Publications

Pirker, J., Berger, S., Gütl, C., Belcher, J., & Bailey, P. H. (2012). Understanding Physical Concepts using an Immersive Virtual Learning Environment. European Immersive Education Summit. Paris.

Pirker, J. & Gütl, C., (2013). Design and Evaluation of a Learner-Centric Immersive Virtual Learning Environment for Physics Education. SouthChi Conference. Maribor. [accepted]

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 17

© 2013 - Johanna Pirker 24/09/2013 18

Questions & Contact Information

Thank you for your Attention!

Questions are welcome!

Further Information:

Johanna Pirker

jpirker@iicm.edu