tailieunhanh - Lecture Notes in Computer Science- P37

Lecture Notes in Computer Science- P37:This year, we received about 170 submissions to ICWL 2008. There were a total of 52 full papers, representing an acceptance rate of about 30%, plus one invited paper accepted for inclusion in this LNCS proceedings. The authors of these accepted papers | Motivating Students through On-Line Competition 169 In another line Kim and Sonnenwald 12 use the scale of learning preferences of Owens and Barnes to identify three learning styles cooperative competitive and individualized. The cooperative learning style indicates a preference for achieving individual goals while working in group students work together to maximize their own and each other s learning. The competitive learning style indicates a preference for learning in competition with others often achieving individual goals students work against each other to achieve a good grade and only some of them succeed. Lastly the individualized learning style indicates a preference for working by oneself to ensure that one s own learning meets a present criterion independently from the efforts of the other students 13 . Moreover Grasha and Riechmann have developed the Student Learning Styles Scale to measure the preferences of students in interacting with teachers and other students where they determine six categories participative avoidant collaborative competitive independent and dependent 14 . It would seem logical to think that for example competitive and independent students feel more motivated through competition than through collaborative learning. The idea of competition is usually linked to gaming and games are often pleasing for any kind of student In fact the intention of incorporating gaming elements into learning has received increasing attention recently 15 16 . So for example Siddiqui Khan and Katar 17 present a case of application of simulation games. They tested a supply chain simulator and observed a higher sense of competition amongst students. In addition their results clearly showed a significant increase in students motivation. Games have a number of characteristics that make them attractive from a pedagogic and instructional point of view. Therefore there are some systems that implement games as an effective method to capture student interest .