Self-, peerand collaborative-assessment are three innovative methods aiming to integrate learning and assessment and promote the active engagement of learners in the assessment process and in knowledge construction. This paper presents a web-based environment, referred to as PECASSE, which supports these assessment methods. In addition to the basic functions of uploading learners’ activities/re...

Learners may develop expertise by experiencing numerous different but relevant situations. Computer games and virtual simulations can facilitate these training opportunities, however, because of the relative difficulty in authoring new scenarios, the increasing need for new and different scenarios becomes a bottleneck in the learning process. Furthermore, a one-size-fits-all scenario may not ad...

This chapter discusses design challenges encountered when developing a conversational pedagogical agent. By tracing the historical roots of pedagogical agents in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), we discern central developments in creating an agent that is both knowledgeable and fosters a social relationship with the learner. Main challenges faced when attempting to develop a pedagogical agen...

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform designs, such as those of edX and Coursera, afford linear learning sequences by building scaffolded knowledge from activity to activity and from week to week. We consider those sequences to be the courses’ designed learning paths. But do learners actually adhere to these designed paths, or do they forge their own ways through the MOOCs? What are the im...

Among foreign language educators interest in extensive reading is growing along with questions about learner motivation to read. Maintaining learner motivation over long periods of time is influenced by many variables suggesting that multiple means of stimulating motivation is needed. The psychological theory of flow has been suggested to influence motivation and engagement in reading. This stu...

Gamification has become an increasingly important design paradigm for information systems, impacting both research and practice. Effective gamification requires designers to tap into intrinsic motivations by framing tasks in ways that evoke positive attitudes through challenge and friendly competition. These positive attitudes can lead to greater engagement and encourage help-seeking behavior, ...

This paper presents a customizable system used to develop a collaborative multi-user problem solving game. It addresses the increasing demand for appealing informal learning experiences in museum-like settings. The system facilitates remote collaboration by allowing groups of learners to communicate through a videoconferencing system and by allowing them to simultaneously interact through a sha...

In-process assessment of trainee learners in game-based simulators is a challenging activity. This typically involves human instructor time and cost, and does not scale to the one tutor per learner vision of computer-based learning. Moreover, evaluation from a human instructor is often subjective and comparisons between learners are not accurate. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an automate...