This article reviews theory and research relevant to the development of digital immersive virtual environment-based instructional computing systems. The review is organized within the context of a multidimensional model of social influence and interaction within virtual environments that models the interaction of four theoretical factors: theory…

In instructional communication settings, instructional explanations play an important role. Despite the very common use of instructional explanations, empirical studies show that very often, they have no positive effects on learning outcomes. This ineffectiveness might be due to mental passivity of the recipient learners that leads to shallow…

Numerous studies have evaluated the effects of pedagogical agents on students' learning outcomes, but so far, beneficial effects have not been consistently demonstrated. The ambiguous results might partly be due to the strong emphasis on cognitive outcomes, which is characteristic for research in teaching and learning. The paper suggests a shift…

Social factors play an important role in determining whether instructional communication in computer-supported settings will be successful. "Social presence" is a social factor, specifically addressing the feeling of being present with another person in a virtual environment. This article describes possibilities to influence the feeling of social…

To maximize the effectiveness of instructional explanations, they should be tailored to an individual learner. However, instructors are often not able to collect diagnostically relevant information about a learner to individualize their explanations. This is particularly true in computer-mediated settings where it is more difficult to thoroughly…

Research on computer-supported collaborative learning has shown that students need support to benefit from collaborative activities. While classical collaboration scripts have been effective in providing such support, they have also been criticized for being coercive and not allowing students to self-regulate their learning. Adaptive collaboration…

Over the last few years, cognitive load theory has progressed and advanced rapidly. The articles in this special issue, which document those advances, are based on contributions to the 3rd International Cognitive Load Theory Conference (2009), Heerlen, The Netherlands. The articles of this special issue on cognitive load theory discuss new…

In cognitive load theory, element interactivity has been used as the basic, defining mechanism of intrinsic cognitive load for many years. In this article, it is suggested that element interactivity underlies extraneous cognitive load as well. By defining extraneous cognitive load in terms of element interactivity, a distinct relation between…

Example-based learning has been studied from different perspectives. Cognitive research has mainly focused on "worked" examples, which typically provide students with a written worked-out didactical solution to a problem to study. Social-cognitive research has mostly focused on "modeling" examples, which provide students the opportunity to observe…

The development of flexible, transferable problem-solving skills is an important aim of contemporary educational systems. Since processing limitations of our mind represent a major factor influencing any meaningful learning, the acquisition of flexible problem-solving skills needs to be based on known characteristics of our cognitive architecture…

Traditional research on collaborative learning employs a "black box" approach that makes it difficult to gain a deeper understanding of the differential effects of collaborative learning. To make the black box transparent, researchers have studied the process of collaboration, in order to establish which interaction features are likely to make…

Interdisciplinary higher education aims to develop boundary-crossing skills, such as interdisciplinary thinking. In the present review study, interdisciplinary thinking was defined as the capacity to integrate knowledge of two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement in ways that would have been impossible or unlikely through single…

A primary goal of educational systems is to provide learners with the information, skills, and dispositions needed to be an effective member of a complex and information-rich society. To effectively address this goal, educators and educational psychologists need to understand both the ability and the willingness of learners to grapple effectively…

Parent support for reading is one of the many elements that may play a role in the development and sustainment of children's reading motivation; to date, however, research has focused much more on the role that parents play in their preschool and primary-grade children's reading than in their older children's reading. Thus, this paper examines the…

Within psychological and educational research, self-report methodology dominates the study of student motivation. The present review argues that the scope of motivation research can be expanded by incorporating a wider range of methodologies and measurement tools. Several authors have suggested that current study of motivation is overly reliant on…