Po-Han Wu

An interactive concept map approach to supporting mobile learning activities for natural science courses

Mobile and wireless communication technologies not only enable anytime and anywhere learning, but also provide the opportunity to develop learning environments that combine real-world and digital-world resources. Nevertheless, researchers have indicated that, without effective tools for helping students organize their observations in the field, the mobile learning performance could be disappointing. To cope with this problem, this study proposes an interactive concept map-oriented approach for supporting mobile learning activities. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school natural science course to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only enhances learning attitudes, but also improves the learning achievements of the students.

An online game approach for improving students' learning performance in web-based problem-solving activities

In this paper, an online game was developed in the form of a competitive board game for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. The participants of the game determined their move by throwing a dice. Each location of the game board corresponds to a gaming task, which could be a web-based information-searching question or a mini-game; the former was used to guide the participants to search for information to answer a series of questions related to the target learning issue, while the latter was used to provide supplementary materials during the gaming process. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach not only significantly promoted the flow experience, learning attitudes, learning interest and technology acceptance degree of the students, but also improved their learning achievements in the web-based problem-solving activity.

Location-Based Adaptive Mobile Learning Research Framework and Topics

Location-based adaptive mobile learning utilizes a unique feature: location awareness of mobile devices in regards to other online learning to implement location-based functionalities or features to create adaptive and collaborative learning in mobile learning environment. There are many important research issues and technical challenges in the location-based adaptive mobile learning systems, including the assessment of learning in the mobile environment. In this paper, we present the research framework and topics related to the undergoing research project at Athabasca University towards the development of robust and effective location-based adaptive mobile learning systems. In addition, we also brief some the major research outcomes achieved so far within the project’s research framework.

An Efficient and Effective Approach to Developing Engineering E-Training Courses.

In developing traditional learning materials, quality is the key issue to be considered. However, for high technical e-training courses, not only the quality of the learning materials but also the efficiency of developing the courses needs to be taken into consideration. It is a challenging issue for experienced engineers to develop up-to-date e-training courses for inexperienced engineers before further new technologies are proposed. To cope with these problems, a concept relationship-oriented approach is proposed in this paper. A system for developing e-training courses has been implemented based on the novel approach. Experimental results showed that the novel approach can significantly shorten the time needed for developing e-training courses, such that engineers can receive up-to-date technologies in time.

An Investigation on Students' Cognitive Load and Learning Achievements for Participating in a Local Culture Mobile Learning Activity

The advancement of mobile device and wireless communication technologies has a great influence on the design concept of learning activities. The effects of new technologies on learning have also been widely discussed. In this research, we attempt to integrate field study into the digital mobile learning model, and build a mobile learning environment with both physical and virtual resources. The investigation of this research focuses on the effects of this mobile learning model on students’ cognitive load and learning achievements. Fifty-one sixth-graders participated in this research in either the experiment or the control group. From the pre- and post-tests as well as the cognitive load questionnaire, the research found that those students who received blended mobile learning instruction had better learning achievements and less cognitive load than those learning from human tour guidance. Therefore, this research concludes that the blended mobile learning model has positive effects on elementary students in local culture learning.

A Computer-Assisted Collaborative Approach for E-Training Course Design

The subject materials of most enterprise e-training programs were mainly developed by employees of the enterprises; therefore, it becomes a challenging issue to efficiently and effectively translate the knowledge and experiences of the employees to computerized subject materials, especially for those who are not an experienced teacher. In addition, to develop an e- training course, personal ignorance or incorrect concepts might significantly affect the quality of the course if only a single employee is asked to develop the subject materials. To cope with this problem, a multi- expert e-training course design model is proposed in this paper. Accordingly, an e-training course development system has been implemented. Moreover, a practical application has showed that of the novel approach not only can improve the quality of the e- training course, but also help the experts to organize their domain knowledge.

From Traditional to Digital: Factors to Integrate Traditional Game-Based Learning into Digital Game-Based Learning Environment

Traditional game-based learning is widely used as pedagogy to motivate students more and attract them in learning process. Digital game-based learning is a new trend in instruction. With high-tech equipments we are able to bring novel experience to learners. Both of game-based learning strategies are with their own advantages. However, the previous difficulty of game-based learning is to integrate these two kinds of learning strategies and strike a balance between them. Therefore, this study aims to utilize activity theory as an analytics tool to analyze the factors of each game-based learning status. After the analysis, we discussed the contradiction of each activity system. Furthermore we had also some suggestions for the instructors and learning activity designers to make game-based learning more useful and meaningful.

Dog Detective - An Experience of Game-Based Ubiquitous Learning in Elementary School Science Experiment Class

In this paper, we use the concept of game-based learning and ubiquitous learning to help science experiment learning in elementary school. After the experiment we found the scores of two groups are almost the same but the behavior and attitude toward the science experiment are quite different. Student who learning in the formal ubiquitous learning environment thinks experiment progress is an extension of learning but experiment set think it is part of game. We discuss these phenomenons happened in the experiment and conclude some issues for future researches.

Knowledge verification for fuzzy expert systems

Abstract The introduction and use of fuzzy logic has strengthened knowledge representation and reasoning capability in expert systems; nevertheless, it also increases the complexity and difficulty of knowledge verification, which is known to be an important issue for building reliable and high performance expert systems. In the past decade, knowledge verification problems, e.g., redundancy, conflict, circularity and incompleteness of knowledge, have been widely discussed from the viewpoint of using binary logic; nevertheless, the issue of verifying fuzzy knowledge is seldom discussed. In this paper, we attempt to detect potential structural errors among fuzzy rules by proposing a fuzzy verification algorithm. Moreover, a system for verifying fuzzy knowledge base has been developed based on the novel approach.