Exploring the effect of learning styles on learning achievement in a u-Museum

ABSTRACT

In recent years, mobile technology has been developing rapidly and has been widely used. There are many successful cases of mobile technology applied greatly in today’s teaching and even combined with sensing devices to overcome the limitations of traditional learning environment. In order to make teaching more diversified, teachers currently treat field trips as one of the major ways to aid traditional classroom teaching. Based on Keller’s ARCS motivation model, this study used the natural disaster section in the sixth graders’ Natural Science-Taiwan subject as an example and application of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in mobile devices to develop a context-aware ubiquitous learning system to be applied in the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan. With the guide of the system, learners can use mobile carriers to receive content information displayed in the Museum for learning. This study conducted experiment in the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan to explore whether using the system for learning significantly improves learning outcomes and motivation in comparison to traditional navigation learning. Felder & Silverman’s theory of learning style was incorporated to explore whether there exists differences in learning performance and outcome among learners with different learning styles so design and strategies for future teaching system can be improved.

KEYWORDS:

• ARCS motivation model
• learning style
• context-aware ubiquitous learning environment
• interactive learning environments
• u-museum
• learning achievement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Chia-Chen Chen is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. Her current research interests include RFID, context awareness, wireless and sensor network, e-learning, and smart living. Dr. Chen's research is published or is forthcoming in Information Sciences, Information Fusion, Computers and Education, Journal of Educational Technology & Society, The Electronic Library, International Journal of Mobile Communications, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of Information Technology and Management, and a number of national and international conference proceedings.

Chien-Yi Chen is a graduated student of Management Information Systems at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. His current research interests include context awareness and e-learning.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China for financially supporting this research [Contract No. MOST104-2511-S-005-003], and [MOST105-2511-S-005-001-MY3].