Agent technology can be incorporated into virtual learning environments to potentially address core issues of interest and engagement in learning. This paper proposes a learning companion agent to stimulate students’ curiosity in a virtual learning environment. Curiosity is the intrinsic motivation for learning and has been shown in educational studies to promote deep learning. The curious lear...

Learning from virtual objects may be more cognitively and perceptually demanding than learning from real objects. Although, it is often assumed that virtual learning objects are as good as their real-world counterparts (Reznick & MacRae, 2008), which explains the growing trend to use interactive, virtual objects, to augment and even replace real-world experiences in classrooms and workplaces (B...

The problems of providing a real, physical specialist laboratory to teach computer networking such as, the lack of funding and physical space and the risks and threats to the network environment and infrastructure, can be solved by the use of a virtual learning environment. Velnet is such a virtual learning environment that we have developed and used successfully. Velnet consists of one or more...

This article examines the concept of virtual learning community as a hybrid learning place. It is argued that a hybrid place experience could provide a conceptual vantage point to better understand the origins of virtual learning communities in higher education context. With some empirical observations it is demonstrated what may constitute students’ experiences of hybridity during a web-based ...

This research investigates whether information technologies, such as automated question answering (QA), can add interactivity into a multimedia-based e-learning system, as well as how this type of virtual interaction affects the effectiveness of e-learning. Based on a review of multiple learning theories and technologies, an exploratory model for studying the effectiveness of interactive e-lear...

Prior conducted research revealed that the auditory icons could contribute in supporting the virtual lecturers in presence of full body animation while delivering the learning content in e-learning interfaces. This paper presents further empirical investigation into the use of these supportive auditory icons by comparing three different e-learning interfaces in terms of usability aspects; effec...

With the recent developments in information and communication technologies, 3D virtual worlds have the potential to make a major contribution to design education as a constructivist learning environment. Considering the changing trend in design education, we have been employing virtual world technologies in our design teaching, allowing students to collaborate within the 3D virtual environments...