Abstract
Virtual learning environments are receiving a growing interest due to exponential advancements in technology alongside the millennial users' preference for more modern rather than traditional means of studying. This chapter narrows down on optimizing edutainment in the classroom by strategically using the methods of flipped classroom, team-based learning, and the IDEAS method. The study provides an explained framework that highlights what needs to be implemented on behalf of the instructor and what outcomes can be expected as a result. An experimental study was conducted on students within a course at the graduate level in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The main objective is to study the effect of virtual learning environment that incorporates the use of flipped classroom, Team-based learning and IDEAS methods on students' academic performance.
TopBackground
As will be highlighted, this book chapter will initially contribute to the field by aligning all the fields of research that are relevant to immersive education. The proposed framework from the preliminary research was introduced and later supported by experimental evidence. Ultimately, based on this field research, the chapter justifies a unified solution to these predicted problems by proposing a disruptive edutainment model.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Design: The ability to envision and construct an object or process that meets the goals and requirements of a particular user.
Improvisation: The ability to make effective real-time decisions in new and complex situations.
Immersive: A digital technology or images or activities that actively engage one's senses and may create an altered mental state to make one fully engaged with the environment.
Augmented Reality: Interactive computer-generated experience that occurs in a simulated environment that makes the experience closer to the real world. It adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback, and smell to the natural world as it exists.
Virtual Reality: Interactive computer-generated experience that occurs in a simulated environment.
Strength: The multiple intelligences possessed by all people that can be targeted for development and creative expression.
Experiment: The ability to decide between two competing goals, courses of action or viewpoints by designing a process that yields sufficient information to rank each choice according to certain criteria.
Aesthetic: The feelings and thoughts invoked of certain criteria such as beauty.
Critical Thinking: The skill of thinking about your thinking. It requires the mental control for situational assessment and context.
Creativity: Looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.