Mazzucato, Annaleda (2023) Technology enhanced learning: a study on factors impacting on student's experience using virtual and mixed reality. [Tesi di dottorato]

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It is largely acknowledged that the implementation of ICT in education offers the opportunity to introduce novel approaches to learning, while preparing students for the information society. It is expected, that the incorporation of technology-based assessment prototypes, tutoring systems, and instructional models, into the educational curriculum design, will consolidate innovative teaching practices, and enrich the learning experiences. Certainly, technologies support some fundamental dimensions, such as connectivity (access to globally available information), flexibility (learning occurring at any time and in any place), and interactivity (active exchange with peers and mentors and real-time evaluation of autonomous learning), but which are the technologies so far investigated in the context of education, and from with point of view? Chapter one explores the interdisciplinary studies focusing on technology enhanced learning, in order to draw a state of the art related to the use of technology based tools for educational purposes, while capturing the most relevant findings regarding the impact they are proved to have on learning. The impact of ICTs on learning is only recently attracting the debates involving psychologists and learning scientists. In chapter two, this study outlines the most significant theoretical frameworks underpinning the analysis so far conducted to investigate the numerous factors implied. While chapter three will particularly focus on the key constructs, and their relationships with learners’ perceived impact on learning, identifying the model to ground the empirical study presented in chapter four and five. Chapter four, provides details about the theoretical frameworks that initiated the conceptualization of embodied knowing underpinning the development and use, in the context of higher education, of a game based application called EULALIA. It supports the deployment of an embodied and experiential approach to learning, and it has been designed to operate in both virtual (VR), and Mixed Reality modality (MR); this latter, characterized by the embodiment of knowledge within physical objects (Smart Objects or Tangible User Interfaces – TUIs) that mediate the interaction between the learner and the digital interface, to extend the learning experience, connecting it to manipulable physical elements associated with real life contexts. The design methodology of the prototype used in the empirical study is also described, as well as the co-design approaches used to develop the Open Educational Resource (OER) in form of game based scenarios. These are in fact the playground of the study presented in chapter five, that aims to explore students perceived impact on learning of Virtual and Mixed Reality, and the differences between the two interaction modalities. The study findings, are discussed in the attempt to contribute to a still recently explored field of technology enhanced leaning, that related to the use of virtual and mixed reality, as well as of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs), considered among the most innovative, while not fully explored in educational context.

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