The interest-driven creator (IDC) theory is being developed as a group endeavor by Asian researchers to articulate a holistic learning design theory for future education in Asia. The theory hypothesizes that students, driven by interest, can be engaged in the creation of knowledge (generating ideas and artifacts). By repeating this creation process in their daily learning routines, they will excel in learning performance, develop twenty-first-century competencies, and form creation habits. We hope that with such practices in education, our future generations will ultimately become lifelong interest-driven creators. In IDC Theory, there are three anchored concepts, namely, interest, creation, and habit. Each anchored concept comprises three component concepts which form a concept loop. For example, the creation loop consists of three component concepts—imitating, combining, and staging. Imitating is concerned with taking in (or inputting) an abundant amount of existing knowledge from the outside world to form one’s background knowledge. Combining refers to delivering (or outputting) new ideas or artifacts prolifically by synthesizing existing information encountered in the world and thoughts arising from the students’ background knowledge. Staging relates to frequently demonstrating the generated ideas or artifacts to the relevant communities and receiving feedback from these communities to improve the novelty and value of the demonstrated outcomes while gaining social recognition and nurturing positive social emotions. This paper focuses on describing the three components of the creation loop. We provide three case studies to illustrate the creation loop at work, as well as how it intertwines with both the interest and habit loops in supporting students to develop their creation capabilities. In presenting this iteration of the creation concept, an anchored concept in IDC theory, we acknowledge the roles played of imitation, combination, and staging in different learning and education contexts—indeed, there are multiple theories that inform and intersect with it.

In science education, building models of dynamical systems is a promising method for understanding various natural phenomena and artifacts with scientific concepts. It is, however, difficult to learn skills and concepts necessary for modeling. Though several model-building learning environments (MBEs) have been developed with potentially useful methods for assisting students, the verification of them has been limited so far. Most studies evaluated their effectiveness by measuring the degree of model completion by students, or total learning effect that consists of several types of assistance. In this study, we investigated how students learn modeling skills and concepts of system dynamics through modeling dynamical systems, focusing on how students’ behavior and understanding are influenced by the type of assistance and students’ prior knowledge. We implemented the function that detects the difference of a model by students from the correct model and gives one of the two types of feedback: structural explanation indicates structurally erroneous parts of a model by students to promote students’ model completion, while behavioral explanation suggests erroneous behavior of a model by students to promote students’ understanding about the cause of error. Our experiment revealed the following: (1) Students assigned to structural explanation showed high model completion, but their understanding depended on whether they used the feedback appropriately or not. (2) Students assigned to behavioral explanation showed less model completion, but once they completed models, they acquired a deeper understanding.

It is a common practice to issue a summary of a learner’s learning achievements in form of a transcript or certificate. However, detailed information on the depth of learning and how learning or teachings were conducted is not present in the transcript of scores. This work presents the first practical implementation of a new platform for keeping track of learning achievements beyond transcripts and certificates. This is achieved by maintaining digital hashes of learning activities and managing access rights through the use of smart contracts on the blockchain. The blockchain of learning logs (BOLL) is a platform that enable learners to move their learning records from one institution to another in a secure and verifiable format. This primarily solves the cold-start problem faced by learning data analytic platforms when trying to offer personalized experience to new learners. BOLL enables existing learning data analytic platforms to access the learning logs from other institutions with the permission of the learners and/or institution who originally have ownership of the logs. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate how learning records could be connected across institutions using BOLL. We present an overview of how the implementation has been carried out, discuss resource requirements, and compare the advantages BOLL has over other similar tools.

This exploratory case study focuses on how pairs of students can build a shared understanding and acquire collaborative problem-solving (CPS) practices during an online assessment of CPS skills, which is seen in the context of the CPS construct, in a symmetrical and asymmetrical task type. Even though CPS is widely recognised as a core twenty-first-century competency, its nature is not yet well understood. Also, until recently, most of studies have focused on the individual’s solution to a problem or on the skills individuals bring into a problem-solving space. This study extends from an individual- to group-level focus in CPS, emphasising the role and quality of the social aspects in CPS processes and outcomes. Focusing on the group level because it mediates multiple levels of learning, including individual cognition and socio-cultural practices, may provide us with a better understanding of how pairs establish CPS practices. Because of the complexity of CPS and the general challenges of remote collaboration in an online context, the study relies on the triangulation of multiple data sources and phases of analysis. In this paper, the aim is to explore and visualise through contrasting case-based portraits of two pairs how micro-interaction processes evolve at the pair level. The results show that despite students’ similar CPS performance outcome scores and task designs aimed to facilitate collaboration, variations in micro-interactions occur across pairs, for example as individual and joint solution endeavours and as balanced and unbalanced dynamics of group interactions. Studying these patterns at the pair level may provide new insights into CPS and support strategies for acquiring these practices.

At the heart of university education, there must be an emphasis on students developing academic integrity and ethics (AIE), which is essential for their personal development and future professional careers. This paper reports on a project which employs an augmented reality (AR) interface accessed on mobile devices to bring AIE scenarios alive for students in everyday campus contexts. Mobile learning paths called ‘Trails of Integrity and Ethics’ (TIEs) have been created on Hong Kong university campuses, with students walking through study locations where ethical dilemmas might arise, and using an AR app to learn about, consider and respond to a range of problematic scenarios. In addition, subject-specific TIEs have been developed in which students face ethical dilemmas specific to their disciplines, and are tasked with responding according to professional norms and standards.After the first 2 years of this 4-year funded project, more than 1000 students have participated in the TIEs. Analysis of data from their mobile device clickstreams, pre- and post-trail reflective texts and user experience surveys has led to encouraging initial findings. There is some early evidence suggesting that the mobile AR trails have helped students to become more active and engaged in their learning of abstract conceptual knowledge about AIE, and that their perspectives on AIE have changed as they have begun to link ethical dilemmas on the TIEs with their everyday realities.

The research team has developed a web-based multiplayer trading card game to allow teachers choosing cards as rewards for students who actively participate in discussions and classroom activities as well as perform well in terms of doing assignments and writing exams or quizzes. In order to verify the effectiveness of the use of in-game cards as rewards, the research team integrated the trading card game into a web-based English vocabulary learning system. Students can receive cards as rewards every time after they use the learning system. A 6-week experiment had been conducted at an elementary school with 172 fifth-grade students. The results showed that boys have higher intention of getting the in-game cards as rewards. The research also showed that the use of the in-game cards as educational rewards not only motivates students to use the vocabulary learning system but also improves their learning outcome. The research result supported the recommended process for teachers to adopt the trading card game in their courses.

This research aims to investigate the relationship between self-regulated learning awareness, learning behaviors, and learning performance in ubiquitous learning environments. In order to conduct this research, psychometric data about self-regulated learning and log data, such as slide pages that learners read, marker, and annotate, was collected. The accessing activity of device types that stored the learning management system was collected and analyzed by applying path analysis and correlation analysis using data divided into high and low performers. The results indicated that the slide pages which learners read for a duration of between 240 and 299 s had positive effects on the promotion of annotation and the learning performance directly, and albeit indirectly, the enhancement of self-efficacy was affected by other self-regulated learning factors. The results of the correlation analysis indicated that self-efficacy and test anxiety are a key factor that has different effects on the number of the read slide pages in both high and low performers.

The research on mobile learning in science lacks in-depth investigation of the learning process. In this paper, we describe the implementation of a mobile technology-supported science curriculum developed by design-based approach. The long-term data collection and trace of learning process enable the exploration of students’ participation and identifying potential factors in mobile learning. Employing mixed research methods, the study presents the differences of students’ engagement in mobile activity. It was found out that the participation of students in doing the mobile activities varied regarding the types of mobile tools, topics, class levels, and teacher feedback. The findings unfolded the factors affecting student activity participation behavior in mobile science learning and the problems encountered by the mobile science curriculum implementation. The results could potentially inform curriculum design and implementation supported by mobile technology, as well as support professional development of science teachers.

Computational thinking (CT) parallels the core practices of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and is believed to effectively support students’ learning of science and math concepts. However, despite the synergies between CT and STEM education, integrating the two to support synergistic learning remains an important challenge. Relatively, little is known about how a student’s conceptual understanding develops in such learning environments and the difficulties they face when learning with such integrated curricula. In this paper, we present a research study with CTSiM (Computational Thinking in Simulation and Modeling)—computational thinking-based learning environment for K-12 science, where students build and simulate computational models to study and gain an understanding of science processes. We investigate a set of core challenges (both computational and science domain related) that middle school students face when working with CTSiM, how these challenges evolve across different modeling activities, and the kinds of support provided by human observers that help students overcome these challenges. We identify four broad categories and 14 subcategories of challenges and show that the human-provided scaffolds help reduce the number of challenges students face over time. Finally, we discuss our plans to modify the CTSiM interfaces and embed scaffolding tools into CTSiM to help students overcome their various programming, modeling, and science-related challenges and thus gain a deeper understanding of the science concepts.

In this paper, we assess the feasibility of using a retooled mobile and ubiquitous computer system to facilitate knowledge dissemination between users during the process of acculturation. Focused on the foreign population of a Japanese post-graduate university, the system provides a platform on which to study not only the behavior of participants but also the process of acculturation dynamically in context. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed, with quantitative data being obtained through the use of survey instruments based on proven instruments in the field of acculturation and qualitative data obtained via the use of semi-structured interviews. The results of this study demonstrate that the retooled mobile and ubiquitous computer system used had measurable benefit in aiding participants undergoing the process of acculturation.