An Innovative Educational Environment Based on Virtual Reality and Gamification for Learning Search Algorithms
Abstract
Search algorithms constitute an important domain of computer science and is considered necessary for students and freshmen to get a deep and complete understanding of their operation. In this work, we present an innovative 3D virtual reality educational environment that aims to assist tutors in teaching and students in better learning the search algorithms. The educational environment utilizes innovative educational infrastructure and pedagogical approaches based on visualization of procedures and learning activities that rely on gamification to promote deeper understanding of the challenging concepts of blind and heuristic search algorithms. Algorithm visualization approaches in the virtual environment aim to help students connect abstract concepts and procedures to concrete experiences and examples which promotes robust learning. Learning activities based on the principles of gamification was designed to actively engage students and make learning more entertaining and efficient. The educational environment has been evaluated in real classroom conditions and the evaluation results indicate that the utilization of suitable learning activities in terms of students' active engagement and can motivate students and improve learning efficiency.
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Three studies (Wasson et al. 2013; Grivokostopoulou et al. 2016; Sanmugam et al. 2016) were excluded from the analysis to avoid bias after the forest plot showed extraordinarily large effect sizes.
“Three of the studies (Wasson et al. 2013;Grivokostopoulou et al. 2016;Sanmugam et al. 2016) were excluded from the analysis to avoid bias after the forest plot; displaying the effect sizes for the analysis of cognitive learning outcomes showed that the corresponding effect sizes were extraordinarily large (see Fig. 2).”
From The gamification of learning: a meta-analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Grivokostopoulou et al. 2016
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- Authors
- Grivokostopoulou, F., Perikos, I., & Hatzilygeroudis, I.
- Affiliations
- University of Patras (GR)
- Venue
- 2016 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2016-12
- Pages
- 110-115
- OpenAlex
- W2579521448
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5
- FWCI
- 13.20
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE International Conference on Technology for Education (T4E) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Multimedia Learning Systems
- Keywords
- virtual reality, gamification, search algorithms, algorithm visualization, blind search, heuristic search, student engagement, computer science education, learning efficiency
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