Navigation paths and performance in educational virtual worlds

Jesse de Haan, Deborah Richards

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Virtual Worlds are being used to provide interactive experiential learning. The ability to explore is one of the benefits, but also runs the risk of students becoming lost or unfocussed. It is important that students remain engaged as they navigate around the world in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes. This paper looks at student academic engagement, measured through the number of correct answers they obtain at the end, behavioural engagement through analysis of navigation paths and psychological and cognitive engagement via the Student Engagement Instrument. Twelve students participated in the study. We found that participants exhibited many different navigational patterns, but the paths of the best performing participants showed purposeful navigation and were close to the optimal path through the environment. These results could be used to predict performance of users of a virtual environment and give feedback during or after interaction.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 21th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS 2017)
Place of PublicationAtlanta, Ga
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
Pages1-7
Number of pages7
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Event21st Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems: Societal Transformation Through IS/IT, PACIS 2017 - Langkawi, Malaysia
Duration: 16 Jul 201720 Jul 2017

Publication series

NamePacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS)
ISSN (Electronic)2689-6354

Conference

Conference21st Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems: Societal Transformation Through IS/IT, PACIS 2017
Country/TerritoryMalaysia
CityLangkawi
Period16/07/1720/07/17

Keywords

  • Virtual worlds
  • Learning
  • Student engagement
  • Navigation paths

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