Papers by Tassos A. Mikropoulos
Θέματα Επιστημών Αγωγής
Educational scenarios enactment under the “Partnerships for Science Education – PAFSE” project
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1. Abstract Many have elaborated on the potential of VR in learning. This chapter attempts at org... more 1. Abstract Many have elaborated on the potential of VR in learning. This chapter attempts at organizing the literature in this issue in order to better identify indicators that can account for future valid trends and seeks to bring to attention how authors who wrote about the future of VR in education confused futures' terms and produced excessive expectations about its applicability in learning. The majority of writers missed the difference between probable trends and possible trends as well as between wild and preferable scenarios. Therefore, ...
Brain Function Assessment in Learning, 2017
Decision-making can be regarded as a cognitive process integrated in our interaction with the env... more Decision-making can be regarded as a cognitive process integrated in our interaction with the environment. This interaction comprises of a plethora of sensory or mental stimuli. Among them, visual awareness and semantic recognition during decision-making tasks are of main importance. Nowadays, disaster education becomes a part of the curricula to foster a more resilient population, and relevant research emerges. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate visual awareness and semantic recognition during a visual decisionmaking task concerning earthquakes, by measuring brain activity and especially event-related potentials. The task consisted of digital images, representing useful and non-useful items constituting a survival kit in case of an earthquake. The subjects, seven adult males, had to distinguish between those useful and nonuseful items. A late positive component (P300) and an early posterior negativity (N200) were studied since they are the most prominent components for categorization tasks. Our results suggested that participants distinguished the useful items in a series of non-useful stimuli based on their semantic content. These preliminary results indicate that these stimuli could be integrated in an educational digital environment concerning disaster preparedness.
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, Mar 23, 2016
Although problem-based learning (PBL) has many advantages, it often fails to connect to the real ... more Although problem-based learning (PBL) has many advantages, it often fails to connect to the real world outside the classroom. The integration with the laboratory setting and the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been proposed to address this deficiency. Multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) like Second Life (SL) are 3D collaborative virtual environments that could act as complementary or alternative worlds for the implementation of laboratory PBL activities offering low-cost, safe, and always available environments. The aim of this study was to compare a simple laboratory PBL activity implemented in both the real and virtual worlds, in terms of learning outcome, satisfaction, and presence. The sample consisted of 150 undergraduate university students. The results show that the MUVE provided similar learning outcome and satisfaction to the real-world condition. Presence was positively correlated to satisfaction but not to the learning outcome. Finally, there are indications that the MUVE was perceived as more pleasurable and informal learning environment, while reality was perceived as more stressful.
Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, Jun 19, 2023
Immersive technologies support educational activities and provide motivating contexts which are i... more Immersive technologies support educational activities and provide motivating contexts which are increasingly implemented in special education settings. Augmented Reality (AR) seems to improve the level of engagement in teaching and learning processes for all students, including students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). However, there is a lack of research that investigates AR learning environments where students with ID can be involved in inquiry-based activities and acquire academic content linked to real situations. The purpose of this study was to implement a single-subject design and evaluate the effects of an AR system on students’ performance on the microscopic level of the structure of matter and especially the phase-states of water. A functional relationship was found between students’ correct responses during probe sessions and the AR inquiry-based intervention. In addition, a social validity assessment indicated that the AR glasses helped students with ID to acquire physics concepts, as well as inquiry skills in a vivid experience. The students also reported satisfaction from using the AR glasses. Suggestions for future research include the design of AR-based interventions for other science concepts for students with ID as well as other special educational needs.
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion
Immersive technologies offer benefits with great potential in special education. A limited number... more Immersive technologies offer benefits with great potential in special education. A limited number of publications have been found regarding the design of immersive educational environments for special education and especially for students with disabilities. This study proposes MILES-D, a model for the design of effective immersive educational environments for students with disabilities. MILES-D comprises two dimensions by incorporating the affordances of immersive technologies and the Universal Design for Learning model, to propose a series of learning tasks afforded in immersive environments for students with disabilities. A systematic literature review regarding students with intellectual disability revealed that researchers do not seem to use any model for the design of their educational environments. Nevertheless, studies incorporating certain affordances, develop immersive environments which follow the proposed by MILES-D tasks. This is a first indication that MILES-D works and empirical studies are needed to validate it. CCS CONCEPTS • Software and its engineering → Software notations and tools; Development frameworks and environments; • Applied computing → Education; Computer-assisted instruction; • General and reference → Cross-computing tools and techniques; Design; • Social and professional topics → User characteristics; People with disabilities.
2022 8th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN)
Education and Information Technologies, 2019
International Journal of Sediment Research, 2013
Education and Information Technologies, 2011
For helping us deliver timely decisions to our authors, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher would l... more For helping us deliver timely decisions to our authors, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher would like thank the following individuals who contributed reviews from 2010 through June 2011. We applaud your efforts and dedication to the community. ... Educ Inf Technol (2011) 16:321–322 DOI 10.1007/s10639-011-9172-x ... Pavlo Antonenko Aasim Azooz Konstantinos Baltzis Moshe Barak Georges-Louis Baron M. Bessagnet Mithun Bhaskar Ben Blake T. Brinda Cathy Burnett Ana Paula Couceiro Figueira Eva Dakich Bill Davey Lin Deng Helen Drenoyianni ...
Education and Information Technologies
Students with disabilities are being encouraged to achieve high academic standards in science edu... more Students with disabilities are being encouraged to achieve high academic standards in science education to understand the natural world, acquire life skills, and experience career success. To this end, digital technology supports students with disabilities in order for them to achieve science literacy. While relevant research has presented evidence-based practices to teach science content, the role of technology has yet to be clearly defined in teaching and learning processes. This article presents a systematic literature review on the contribution of technology in science education for students with disabilities. A total of 21 journal articles, during the 2013–2021 period, were identified after an exhaustive search in academic databases. The educational context and learning outcomes of these 21 empirical studies were analyzed. The results show that increased motivation was the main contribution for using digital technology in science education. Positive learning outcomes likely dep...
2021 International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT)
The number of students with Intellectual Disability (ID) enrolled in general classes increases. T... more The number of students with Intellectual Disability (ID) enrolled in general classes increases. They appear to meet difficulties in acquiring basic science literacy skills and addressing grade-aligned curriculum. Digital technology seems to contribute to this challenge by engaging students in augmented and virtual environments, especially by enabling 3D representations of abstract and difficult to visualize physical magnitudes and phenomena. This work investigates design issues regarding the development of digital learning environments that contribute to Science Education for students with ID. In this phase, the study explores the perceptions of different groups of professionals and a student with ID regarding the structure of matter. They interacted with different versions of both an augmented and a virtual environment simulating the water vapor in microscopic view. A focus group discussion revealed important data concerning presence, simulator sickness, acceptance and satisfaction for the two environments. The results show that professionals prefer engaging, rather than scientifically aligned representations. The choice between augmented and virtual reality seems to depend on the instructional objectives and strategies based on the specific academic profile of each student with ID.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2019
The biggest challenge for the Digital Educational Games Design refers to how to integrate game me... more The biggest challenge for the Digital Educational Games Design refers to how to integrate game mechanics and learning mechanics into the gameplay in order to enhance motivation and engagement and improve learning outcomes. This study is the pilot phase of a Delphi method that proposes guidelines for the design of Digital Educational Games. The participants of the Delphi study were academic experts from the scientific field of Digital Educational Game Design. In the first round of the study, a questionnaire of six open-ended questions was sent. The second round questionnaire consisted of 46 closed-ended questions in order to estimate agreement between the participants. The third round questionnaire consisted of one open-ended question. According to the results of the study, the learning and game mechanics elements that have been suggested by the participants as the most important elements are those that promote constructivism, authentic learning environments, personalized learning, and fun. The experts mentioned as very important and challenging element, the way learning mechanics should be integrated into the context of the gameplay. What is proposed to achieve the learning objectives and bring the maximum extent of engagement into the game, is that the learning objectives should be included in activities that do not clearly reveal the learning objectives themselves but incorporate them into symbolic representations of everyday life experiences and examples, that are fun for the users and motivate them for high interaction during the gameplay.
Interactive Learning Environments, 2021
Learning computer programming can be challenging for primary school students due to its abstract ... more Learning computer programming can be challenging for primary school students due to its abstract concepts. While teachers seek effective ways to introduce such concepts, the application of learning...
Numerous studies suggest that digital technology has an important role to play in physical and me... more Numerous studies suggest that digital technology has an important role to play in physical and mental functioning and generally in the quality of life of elderly people. Many digital serious games have been developed to enhance cognitive functions. These games incorporate a multitude of multimedia elements that are perceived as sensory stimuli. To implement an effective digital environment, all sensory representations have to be investigated in order to be compatible with the visual, acoustic and tactile perception of the user. An effective way to examine those stimuli is to study the users’ brain functioning and especially the electric activity by using electroencephalographic recording systems. In recent years, there has been a growth of low-cost EEG systems. These are used in various fields such as educational research, serious games, mental and physical health, entertainment, etc. This study investigates whether a wireless low-cost EEG system (EPOC EMOTIV) can deliver qualitativ...
Educational data mining is an emerging research field concerned with developing methods for explo... more Educational data mining is an emerging research field concerned with developing methods for exploring the unique types of data that come from educational context. These data allow the educational stakeholders to discover new, interesting and valuable knowledge about students. In this paper, we present a new user-friendly decision support tool for predicting students’ performance concerning the final examinations of a school year. Our proposed tool is based on a hybrid predicting system incorporating a number of possible machine learning methods and achieves better performance than any examined single learning algorithm. Furthermore, significant advantages of the presented tool are that it has a simple interface and it can be deployed in any platform under any operating system. Our objective is that this work may be used to support student admission procedures and strengthen the service system in educational institutions.
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Papers by Tassos A. Mikropoulos