Wim Westera

Using reflection triggers while learning in an online course

Verpoorten, D., Westera, W., & Specht, M. (2012). Using reflection triggers while learning in an online course. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(6), 1030-1040. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01257.x

Infusing reflective practice in eLearning courses – can widgets help?

The paper investigates the potential of using widgets-based reflection amplifiers in e-learning courses. Reflection amplifiers are structured opportunities for students to examine and evaluate aspects of their learning experience. The paper deliberately chooses a non-technical viewpoint. It takes the teachers voices as a starting point. The study reports the results of a survey that asked open educational resources (OERs) course creators about their opinions on different types of reflection amplifiers. The outcomes demonstrate that several reflection techniques are recognised and acknowledged by these practitioners as being of relevance for their courses. Yet, practical application in their courses is quite rare. Results of the survey are subsequently used to inspect possible contributions of widgets technology to the implementation and dissemination of a selection of reflection techniques. The set-up of an experiment intended to test feasibility and relevance of widgets-based reflection amplifiers is eventually outlined.

Introducing Serious Games with Wikis: Empowering the Teacher with Simple Technologies

Despite the continuous and abundant growth of the game market the uptake of games in education has been hampered by the general impression that games require complex technologies and that games are difficult to organise and to embed in education curriculums. This article explores to what extent a simple serious game scenario that can be easily adopted and adapted by individual teachers and that only uses a common, relatively simple technology can leverage the adoption of serious games. It discusses the design of such a game, Argument, based on a Wiki and its use in a six weeks trial by students of a Master of Learning Sciences Programme. The results indicate that, even though a Wiki has clear limitations, it is a useful instrument to build game alike educational activities, to gain experience with and as a first step to use (more) complex serious games.

A quest for meta-learning gains in a physics serious game

This paper describes how a short, repeated and structured opportunity to reflect was integrated in the storyline of a serious game in order to stimulate the development of a meta-cognitive skill: the ability to self-assess the degree of confidence in own answers. An empirical validation of the approach, conducted with 28 secondary school pupils, delivers an uncommon pattern: while the cognitive benefits—the acquisition of academic knowledge in optics—are negligible and mixed up, the meta-cognitive gains present a raising tendency. The experiment also demonstrates that reflection does not necessarily hamper the game flow, if certain conditions, discussed in the paper, are met.

Structured reflection breaks embedded in an online course – effects on learning experience, time on task and performance

The purpose of this article is to gain an insight into the effects of practicing short, frequent, and structured reflection breaks interspersed with the learning material in a computer-based course. To that end, the study sets up a standardized control trial with two groups of secondary school pupils. The study shows that while performance is not affected by these embedded “reflection rituals,” they significantly impact time on task and perceived learning. The study also suggests that the exposure to such built-in opportunities for reflection modifies the engagement with the content and fosters the claimed readiness for application of a similar reflective approach to learning in other occasions.