We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Animal companions: Fostering children's effort-making by nurturing virtual pets.
- Authors
Chen, Zhi‐Hong; Liao, Calvin; Chien, Tzu‐Chao; Chan, Tak‐Wai
- Abstract
Virtual character is a significant application in the research field of technology-enhanced learning. In this study, the concept of animal companions, 'non-smart' virtual characters, is proposed as a way to encourage students to promote effort-making learning behaviours. The two underpinning design rationales are first discussed followed by the description of the development of a practical application, the My-Pet v2 system. A preliminary experiment was conducted to examine the system usability in terms of cognitive, affective and time-on-task characteristics. The results reveal that participants in the group using a complete version of My-Pet v2 showed better quality of effort-making learning behaviours. Some implications and future research directions are also discussed.
- Subjects
EDUCATIONAL technology research; VIRTUAL pets; USER interfaces; PSYCHOLOGY of students; COMPUTER assisted instruction; MATHEMATICAL models of learning; TEACHING models
- Publication
British Journal of Educational Technology, 2011, Vol 42, Issue 1, p166
- ISSN
0007-1013
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.01003.x