Friday J . Agbo
University of Eastern Finland, School of Computing, Graduate Student
Recently, virtual reality (VR) technology has shown great potential in advancing education with many pedagogical benefits for building the 21st-century teaching and learning experience. This study conducted a formative evaluation of an... more
Recently, virtual reality (VR) technology has shown great potential in advancing education with many pedagogical benefits for building the 21st-century teaching and learning experience. This study conducted a formative evaluation of an immersive VR expedition application with the aim of understanding users' learning processes and how the application facilitates higher education students' computational thinking skills. Six participants were randomly selected to conduct this evaluation. A mixed research approach consisting of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. The study quantitatively analyzed users' scores from gameplay to understand how the intervention supported computational thinking skills. Participants were also interviewed to collect data after playing the mini-games to investigate users' experiences. The study showcases players' computational thinking competency, assessed automatically during gameplay. Further, this study used inductive content analysis to demonstrate users' reactions to prototyped VR mini-games. The qualitative findings suggest that users found the VR mini-games interactive and immersive, which provided an opportunity to foster learners' computational thinking skills. The quantitative analysis revealed that student's computational thinking competency can be enhanced through consistent playing of the mini-games. Moreover, the expedition aspect of the VR game stimulated learners' curiosity, which sustained their learning progress. Furthermore, users gained new knowledge and found the mini-games educative. Nevertheless, several aspects of the VR mini-games need improvements, according to users' perceptions. This study contributes to the knowledge in terms of the affordances of VR in education research and provides relevant insights that can shape future studies, for example, the recent hype of metaverse in education.
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Recently, virtual reality (VR) technology has shown great potential in advancing education with many pedagogical benefits for building the 21st-century teaching and learning experience. This study conducted a formative evaluation of an... more
Recently, virtual reality (VR) technology has shown great potential in advancing education with many pedagogical benefits for building the 21st-century teaching and learning experience. This study conducted a formative evaluation of an immersive VR expedition application with the aim of understanding users' learning processes and how the application facilitates higher education students' computational thinking skills. Six participants were randomly selected to conduct this evaluation. A mixed research approach consisting of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. The study quantitatively analyzed users' scores from gameplay to understand how the intervention supported computational thinking skills. Participants were also interviewed to collect data after playing the mini-games to investigate users' experiences. The study showcases players' computational thinking competency, assessed automatically during gameplay. Further, this study used inductive content analysis to demonstrate users' reactions to prototyped VR mini-games. The qualitative findings suggest that users found the VR mini-games interactive and immersive, which provided an opportunity to foster learners' computational thinking skills. The quantitative analysis revealed that student's computational thinking competency can be enhanced through consistent playing of the mini-games. Moreover, the expedition aspect of the VR game stimulated learners' curiosity, which sustained their learning progress. Furthermore, users gained new knowledge and found the mini-games educative. Nevertheless, several aspects of the VR mini-games need improvements, according to users' perceptions. This study contributes to the knowledge in terms of the affordances of VR in education research and provides relevant insights that can shape future studies, for example, the recent hype of metaverse in education.
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Researchers are increasingly exploring educational games in immersive virtual reality (IVR) environments to facilitate students’ learning experiences. Mainly, the effect of IVR on learning outcomes has been the focus. However, far too... more
Researchers are increasingly exploring educational games in immersive virtual reality (IVR) environments to facilitate students’ learning experiences. Mainly, the effect of IVR on learning outcomes has been the focus. However, far too little attention has been paid to the influence of game elements and IVR features on learners’ perceived cognition. This study examined the relationship between game elements (challenge, goal clarity, and feedback) as pedagogical approach, features of IVR technology (immersion and interaction), and learners’ perceived cognition (reflective thinking and comprehension). An experiment was conducted with 49 undergraduate students who played an IVR game-based application (iThinkSmart) containing mini games developed to facilitate learners’ computational thinking competency. The study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling to investigate the effect of educational game elements and learning contents on learner’s cognition. Findings show ...
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Enrollment in courses is a key performance indicator in educational systems for maintaining academic and financial viability. Today, a lot of factors, comprising demographic and individual features like age, gender, academic background,... more
Enrollment in courses is a key performance indicator in educational systems for maintaining academic and financial viability. Today, a lot of factors, comprising demographic and individual features like age, gender, academic background, financial capabilities, and academic degree of choice, contribute to the attrition rates of students at various higher education institutions. In this study, we developed prediction models for students' attrition rate in pursuing a computer science degree as well as those who have a high chance of dropping out before graduation using machine learning methodologies. This approach can assist higher education institutions in creating effective interventions to lower attrition rates and raise the likelihood that students will succeed academically. Student data from 2015 to 2022 were collected from the Federal University Lokoja (FUL), Nigeria. The data was preprocessed using existing WEKA machine learning libraries where our data was converted into at...
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Many empirical studies have shown that educational games and recent technologies impact education and increase learning effectiveness, students’ motivation and engagement. The overall aim of this study is to evaluate the usability of... more
Many empirical studies have shown that educational games and recent technologies impact education and increase learning effectiveness, students’ motivation and engagement. The overall aim of this study is to evaluate the usability of Imikode, a virtual reality (VR) game that was developed to introduce the concepts of object-oriented programming to novices. The improved version of the Imikode VR game consists of three features: An artificial intelligence component designed to provide real-time error feedback to users, an intelligent agent that guides and teaches users how to play the game and finally, the integration of multiple game play that gives learners more opportunities to explore the VR environment for greater immersive learning experience. This study adopted a survey approach and recruited first-year computer science students to measure learner satisfaction with educational virtual reality games and examined the correlations among the attributes of the Usefulness, Satisfacti...
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Immersive virtual reality (VR) is a technology that can be effective for procedural skills training through game-based simulations such as serious games. The current study describes the instructional design, development, and evaluation of... more
Immersive virtual reality (VR) is a technology that can be effective for procedural skills training through game-based simulations such as serious games. The current study describes the instructional design, development, and evaluation of the FSCHOOL fire preparedness serious game in a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE-VR) for elementary school teachers. The main game mechanics include a storytelling scenario, enhanced realism, freedom of movement, levels, and points corresponding to the learning mechanics of instruction, action, simulation, discovery, repetition, and imitation. The game was developed in Unity 3D with the help of the Fire Dynamics Simulator and a script to emulate and visualize fire propagation. The game featured three levels to respond to school fire safety regulations and was evaluated by elementary school teachers (N = 33) in Greece. A comparative quantitative study was conducted with experimental and control groups. The results indicate that the VR seriou...
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Social media has become an important platform where users share, comment, discuss, communicate, interact, and play games. Aside from using social media for personal, social, and business purposes, the use of social media has gained... more
Social media has become an important platform where users share, comment, discuss, communicate, interact, and play games. Aside from using social media for personal, social, and business purposes, the use of social media has gained attention, particularly for collaborative learning in the educational sector. This paper examines the role of social media in computing education based on the use of WhatsApp social media group. Additionally, the study explores how social media usage by students influences their perceived learning outcomes. Given these aims, the study formulated four research hypotheses and tested using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling. With the participants of three hundred and thirteen (n=313) students, the study found a positive relationship between social media usage for computing education and perceived learning outcomes. In addition, the study found a linear relationship between communication ingroup and perceived learning outcomes. Finally, the st...
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The growth in education, research, and development in developing economies cannot be compared with their developed counterparts. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which have played a key role in nations'... more
The growth in education, research, and development in developing economies cannot be compared with their developed counterparts. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which have played a key role in nations' socio-economic development, can leverage developing economies. The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) emerged to promote research and development using ICT in developing nations. The emergence has, over the years, churned out significant scientific publications. This review intends to commemorate the late IJEDICT founding editor and investigate the contribution of academic papers published in the journal to develop education using ICT in developing countries and the thematic growth of the publication forum. The paper presents a bibliometric content analysis of 692 studies published in IJEDICT from inception, 2005 until January 2021. Findings from this review suggest useful implications for ...
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This research paper examined theories, pedagogics, and contents explored by studies focusing on promoting computational thinking (CT) in higher education institutions (HEIs). CT has become a fundamental approach to building... more
This research paper examined theories, pedagogics, and contents explored by studies focusing on promoting computational thinking (CT) in higher education institutions (HEIs). CT has become a fundamental approach to building problem-solving skills, which requires a thought process. The field of CT is generally still maturing, and the use of CT as an approach to introduce freshmen to introductory programming courses in HEIs has been gaining scholars' interest in the recent past. To appreciate the strategies explored to promote teaching and learning of CT in HEIs; evaluate scholarly discussions, contributions, and potential impact of studies in this field, there is a need to ground the theoretical constructs that build the foundation for the field. A literature review methodology was adopted in this study. The data collected from the Web of Science, the Scopus, ACM, and ProQuest databases were analyzed to provide answers to the research questions. The findings from this study suggest that constructionism and constructivism are the prevailing learning theories explored by scholars in this field to deploy CT in HEI. Additionally, the study revealed that activity-based learning, problem-based learning, automatic assessment-based learning, and self-regulated or self-reflective learning are the prominent pedagogies used by educators. These findings provided a strong foundation for research in this growing field. Besides, the findings also create an opportunity for positioning CT in HEI's educational curriculum regarding how CT should be taught in that context.
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The concept of ubiquitous computing allows the seamless: anywhere, anytime, anyone interaction of computing devices and technology. Ubiquitous commerce simply known as u-commerce is an evolution of commerce based on recent innovations and... more
The concept of ubiquitous computing allows the seamless: anywhere, anytime, anyone interaction of computing devices and technology. Ubiquitous commerce simply known as u-commerce is an evolution of commerce based on recent innovations and advancement in computing technology. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of ubiquitous computing technologies on users, with a special focus on ubiquitous commerce. The study used the quantitative method and targeted the mobile device users for online shopping in Nigeria with convenience sampling technique. The data collected was analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0 with partial least square structural equation modelling. The study results confirmed the significant role of trust as a mediator between the reputation and u-commerce user’s experience, and usability and privacy directly predict the ubiquitous commerce user’s experience. The study advances with managerial implications and finally pinpoint the limitations and propose future studies.
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This study investigated the role of virtual reality (VR) in computer science (CS) education over the last 10 years by conducting a bibliometric and content analysis of articles related to the use of VR in CS education. A total of 971... more
This study investigated the role of virtual reality (VR) in computer science (CS) education over the last 10 years by conducting a bibliometric and content analysis of articles related to the use of VR in CS education. A total of 971 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and conferences were collected from Web of Science and Scopus databases to conduct the bibliometric analysis. Furthermore, content analysis was conducted on 39 articles that met the inclusion criteria. This study demonstrates that VR research for CS education was faring well around 2011 but witnessed low production output between the years 2013 and 2016. However, scholars have increased their contribution in this field recently, starting from the year 2017. This study also revealed prolific scholars contributing to the field. It provides insightful information regarding research hotspots in VR that have emerged recently, which can be further explored to enhance CS education. In addition, the quantitative meth...
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Research Interests: Perception and Medicine
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This study examines the research landscape of smart learning environments by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the field over the years. The study focused on the research trends, scholar’s productivity, and thematic... more
This study examines the research landscape of smart learning environments by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the field over the years. The study focused on the research trends, scholar’s productivity, and thematic focus of scientific publications in the field of smart learning environments. A total of 1081 data consisting of peer-reviewed articles were retrieved from the Scopus database. A bibliometric approach was applied to analyse the data for a comprehensive overview of the trend, thematic focus, and scientific production in the field of smart learning environments. The result from this bibliometric analysis indicates that the first paper on smart learning environments was published in 2002; implying the beginning of the field. Among other sources, “Computers & Education,” “Smart Learning Environments,” and “Computers in Human Behaviour” are the most relevant outlets publishing articles associated with smart learning environments. The work of Kinshuk et al., ...
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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the different layers of vulnerabilities within systems across different political, socio-economic, educational and cultural contexts, so much that even the most advanced economies are... more
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the different layers of vulnerabilities within systems across different political, socio-economic, educational and cultural contexts, so much that even the most advanced economies are struggling to check the impact of the ravaging Corona virus. However, not much is known about the impact of the disruptions in higher educational systems in developing contexts particularly in Nigeria. This study adopted a qualitative research design using a validated semi-structured interview to provide evidence-based data on the impact of the pandemic on the university system from the university lecturers’ perspectives. Using purposive and snowballing techniques, seven lecturers in five universities located in three geographical zones of Nigeria were interviewed using the Zoom and Skype platforms. The results of this study show that COVID-19 had a huge negative impact on the university system in Nigeria. Nonetheless, there are a few exceptions as a fe...
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This study examined how computational thinking (CT) has been used to teach problem-solving skills and programming education in the recent past. This study specifically (i) identified articles that discussed CT approach for programming... more
This study examined how computational thinking (CT) has been used to teach problem-solving skills and programming education in the recent past. This study specifically (i) identified articles that discussed CT approach for programming education at higher education institutions (HEIs), (ii) classified the different CT approaches and tools employed for programming education at HEIs, (iii) synthesised and discussed results that are reported by relevant studies that utilized CT for teaching programming at HEIs. A systematic literature review methodology was adopted in this study. Out of 161 articles retrieved, 33 of them that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Our study revealed that the use of CT at HEIs for programming education began in 2010; many studies did not specify the context of use, but the use of CT is found to be gaining grounds in many contexts, especially the developed countries; course design approach was mostly employed by educators to introduce CT at HEIs for pr...
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The concept of ubiquitous computing allows the seamless: anywhere , anytime, anyone interaction of computing devices and technology. Ubiquitous commerce simply known as u-commerce is an evolution of commerce based on recent innovations... more
The concept of ubiquitous computing allows the seamless: anywhere , anytime, anyone interaction of computing devices and technology. Ubiquitous commerce simply known as u-commerce is an evolution of commerce based on recent innovations and advancement in computing technology. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of ubiquitous computing technologies on users, with a special focus on ubiquitous commerce. The study used the quantitative method and targeted the mobile device users for online shopping in Nigeria with convenience sampling technique. The data was analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0 with partial least square structural equation modelling. The study results confirmed the significant role of trust as a mediator between the reputation and u-commerce user's experience, and usability and privacy directly predict the ubiquitous commerce user's experience. The study advances with managerial implications, pinpointed limitations, and propose future studies.
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In this research, we aggregated students log data such as Class Test Score (CTS), Assignment Completed (ASC), Class Lab Work (CLW) and Class Attendance (CATT) from the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science Unit, Usmanu Danfodiyo... more
In this research, we aggregated students log data such as Class Test Score (CTS), Assignment Completed (ASC), Class Lab Work (CLW) and Class Attendance (CATT) from the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science Unit, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. Similarly, we employed data mining techniques such as ID3 & J48 Decision Tree Algorithms to analyze these data. We compared these algorithms on 239 classification instances. The experimental results show that the J48 algorithm has higher accuracy in the classification task compared to the ID3 algorithm. The important feature attributes such as Information Gain and Gain Ratio feature evaluators were also compared. Both the methods applied were able to rank search method and the experimental results confirmed that the two methods derived the same set of attributes with a slight deviation in the ranking. From the results analyzed, we discovered that 67.36 percent failed the course titled Introduction to Computer Programming, w...
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In this research, we aggregated students log data such as Class Test Score (CTS), Assignment Completed (ASC), Class Lab Work (CLW) and Class Attendance (CATT) from the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science Unit, Usmanu Danfodiyo... more
In this research, we aggregated students log data such as Class Test Score (CTS), Assignment Completed (ASC), Class Lab Work (CLW) and Class Attendance (CATT) from the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science Unit, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. Similarly, we employed data mining techniques such as ID3 & J48 Decision Tree Algorithms to analyze these data. We compared these algorithms on 239 classification instances. The experimental results show that the J48 algorithm has higher accuracy in the classification task compared to the ID3 algorithm. The important feature attributes such as Information Gain and Gain Ratio feature evaluators were also compared. Both the methods applied were able to rank search method and the experimental results confirmed that the two methods derived the same set of attributes with a slight deviation in the ranking. From the results analyzed, we discovered that 67.36 percent failed the course titled Introduction to Computer Programming, w...
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Citation: Agbo, F.J.; Sanusi, I.T.; Oyelere, S.S.; Suhonen, J. Application of Virtual Reality in Computer Science Education: A Systemic Review Based on Bibliometric and Content Analysis Methods. Educ. Sci.
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This study examines the research landscape of smart learning environments by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the field over the years. The study focused on the research trends, scholar's productivity, and thematic... more
This study examines the research landscape of smart learning environments by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the field over the years. The study focused on the research trends, scholar's productivity, and thematic focus of scientific publications in the field of smart learning environments. A total of 1081 data consisting of peer-reviewed articles were retrieved from the Scopus database.
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This study examined how computational thinking (CT) has been used to teach problem-solving skills and programming education in the recent past. This study specifically (i) identified articles that discussed CT approach for programming... more
This study examined how computational thinking (CT) has been used to teach problem-solving skills and programming education in the recent past. This study specifically (i) identified articles that discussed CT approach for programming education at higher education institutions (HEIs), (ii) classified the different CT approaches and tools employed for programming education at HEIs, (iii) synthesised and discussed results that are reported by relevant studies that utilized CT for teaching programming at HEIs. A systematic literature review methodology was adopted in this study. Out of 161 articles retrieved, 33 of them that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Our study revealed that the use of CT at HEIs for programming education began in 2010; many studies did not specify the context of use, but the use of CT is found to be gaining grounds in many contexts, especially the developed countries; course design approach was mostly employed by educators to introduce CT at HEIs for programming education. Furthermore, this study pointed out how CT approach can be explored for designing a smart learning environment to support students in learning computer programming. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → computational thinking