Interactive learning environments : The effects of interactivity in online learning environments

• Main Authors: Ihlström, Joakim, Westerlund, Fredrik
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik 2013
• Subjects: e-learning; interactivity; constructivism; education; Informatics; Informatik
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-73182

We live in an era where interactivity is gradually becoming more available, yet our schoolsare not catching up to this trend, instead we are faced with passive learning environmentswhere active construction of knowledge is limited. In this study we looked at theconstructivist approach to learning and compared it to the objectivist approach that iscommonly used in most schools of today. We looked at other successful interactive learningenvironment and how they may look like. We developed a passive educational video and aprototype of an interactive learning environment, where the interactive environmentworked as a supplement to the educational video. We further conducted a quantitative testthrough a questionnaire on these environments to see if the learning outcome of theinteractive learning environment outperformed the learners of the educational video. Thedata we collected did not show any significant difference between passive and interactivelearning, it did, however, show some interesting trends such as younger participants ingeneral performed better than older participants in our interactive learning environment.