THE EFFECTS OF 2D AND 3D REPRESENTATIONS IN SECOND LIFE ON STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND PERFORMANCE IN LEARNING JAVA PROGRAMMING IN SAUDI ARABIA
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Date
2014-08
Authors
ZAID ASLM, BASSFAR
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Abstract
The researcher found that most computer science’s students have a limited understanding of the main concepts of Java and have difficulties in visualizing learning spaces. The researcher aims to study the ability of students to understand the concepts of learning Java when writing codes. This study examined the attitudes, perceptions, motivations, self-efficacies, and achievements of the students in the Teachers’ College, Saudi Arabia by comparing the contributions of a three dimensional (3D) representation to such factors with the contributions of a two dimensional (2D) representation. The 2D and 3D representations are constructed in Second Life (SL) by simulating a complex information space. Students in the 3D content representation used the outcome of Java after creating models, objects or testing their theories about their modeled concepts. By contrast, students using 2D representation only used the slides of Java contents. Hence, learners acquire new experiences by watching new actions presented in 2D or 3D representations. These actions help learners devise solutions for their programming problems and help them investigate 2D and 3D representations to abstract and to consolidate their newly acquired experiences. A true-experimental design was adopted in this research, a posttest only equivalent-groups design. The study involved 77 students, who were assigned randomly into two groups. The students from the control group used 2D representation, whereas those from the experimental group used 3D representation. Results showed that the 3D representation of content in SL significantly improved the attitudes, perceptions, motivations, self-efficacies, and achievements of the students in learning Java. Most students with one year experience in Java actively participated in the 3D more than in 2D representation. Moreover, students without any experience in 2D representations possessed higher attitudes, perceptions, motivations, self-efficacies, and achievements than the experienced students. Overall, the use of 3D representation in SL is highly suitable for students with little experience. This finding is in line with the principles of simulation theory adapted in this study.
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THE EFFECTS OF 2D AND 3D REPRESENTATIONS IN SECOND LIFE