Virtual Interactive Student -Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE): Design and application.

摘要

Designed to make use of the immense power of World Wide Web (WWW) and facilitate a paradigm shift in education, VISOLE (Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment) is a new game-based situated learning paradigm which aims to enable student-centered learning taking place in a game-based interactive virtual environment. Briefly speaking, the VISOLE approach is composed of 3 phases in which students have to (Phase 1) preliminarily acquire some high-level knowledge in specific subject domains through teachers' scaffolding; (Phase 2) actively participate as a game character in a game-based virtual interactive environment to construct knowledge and skills from their near real-life game-play experiences; (Phase 3) reflect and generalize their game-based learning experiences through teachers' debriefing.;Under the present theoretical context of learning, digital games and game-based learning, this dissertation exploited and reinforced the VISOLE learning paradigm. It also delineated the design and development of the first VISOLE game---"Farmtasia" and presented the empirical research on investigating the educational realization and accomplishment of VISOLE.;Based on the specificity of educational technology research, "Development Research Method" was adopted as the methodological framework in the whole study. Under this framework, a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed for data collection and analysis, including the knowledge pre- and post-test, generic-skill test, perception survey, in-depth interviews as well as artifacts of students' reflective journals, reports and game-playing records. All of these intensively focused on investigating students' and teachers' perceptions, students' learning motivation, behaviors, effectiveness with respect to the VISOLE approach and researching the design strategies for situated educational games.;In the present research, most of the teachers and students were basically positive towards VISOLE, Farmtasia as well as the respective learning resources. It was empirically found that most of the students were much motivated during the entire learning process, in conducting active learning, collaborative learning and inquiry-based learning. Moreover, it was also found that after the VISOLE process, the students gained their self-constructed subject knowledge, enhanced generic skills for problem solving and improved non-intelligent skills, particularly in terms of attitudes and emotions.;In accordance with the philosophy of "Development Research Method", the theoretical context and the research findings, besides developing and further enhancing the VISOLE approach, a framework for designing constructivist situated educational games was also theorized in the present study.;In spite of the research limitation in the present study, I believe that the issues explored, the proposed educational-game design strategies and the research methodological innovation discussed are vital references for the researchers, teachers and educational-policy makers in designing, researching, applying as well as considering and making related educational policies in the area of game-based learning.