Jon Pearce | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)

Papers by Jon Pearce

One of the challenges in encouraging learning through play is to design online environments that ... more One of the challenges in encouraging learning through play is to design online environments that are playful yet not distracting; that encourage interaction and exploration with specific learning goals while minimising the distraction of 'bell and whistles'. This paper presents the application of theories of play and flow in the design of a highly interactive and playful online system that has been used as a research tool to explore students' exploration and interaction within such environments. We present applications of the system to several different contexts such as choosing university subjects, and solving puzzles. We describe a particular experiment that helped us to identify deficiencies of the system, discuss students' interactions with it, and describe follow-up work that is both currently underway and also planned for the future.

… of the 20th Australasian Conference on …, Jan 1, 2008

It's easy to attract someone's attention on the web -seductive animations using software such as ... more It's easy to attract someone's attention on the web -seductive animations using software such as Flash make this all too easy. But how do you retain their interest and, more importantly, keep their focus on the task at hand? We have approached this question by producing a research tool called iFISH that enables us to quickly construct environments in which users explore a range of outcomes based on their dynamic changes to personal preference settings, together with reflections on the consequences of these changes. We first describe a study using this tool in the context of students given the task of making a selection from a large range of university subjects, and later we introduce other uses of such a system.

Proceedings of OZCHI, Jan 1, 2001

This paper describes an AUDF funded project to produce a Java applet to help with the teaching of... more This paper describes an AUDF funded project to produce a Java applet to help with the teaching of physics. The applet, called MotionWorkshop, allows students to track the motion of an object in a video clip, display the resulting data in a spreadsheet and manipulate graphs representing the motion. The spreadsheet supports the generation of a numerical model of the motion that can then be compared with the actual video data. Innovative features of the program let the student manipulate the spreadsheet in a manner that facilitates exploration of the model. The use of QuickTime with embedded Flash tracks is described as a convenient way of adding comments and help information to the program.

AMCIS 1999 Proceedings, Jan 1, 1999

... 12-31-1999 Designing a Web-based learning environment to maximise interactivityJon Pearce The... more ... 12-31-1999 Designing a Web-based learning environment to maximise interactivityJon Pearce The University of Melbourne, Australia Michelle Livett The University of Melbourne, Australia This material is brought to you by ...

inter-disciplinary.net

Interest, as a motivational construct, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for engagement... more Interest, as a motivational construct, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for engagement . If this is the case, then an examination of interest and its dimensions may be useful in the planning of engagement strategies. The purpose of the My Interests Now for Engagement (MINE) intervention is to develop, test and validate a tool to measure and profile interests in secondary school students using the four-phase model of interest development . The four-phase model of interest development distinguishes between those interests in objects, activities and ideas that are related to situations, and those that are integrated into the individual. The differing cognitive and affective states that are implied by this distinction may have implications relating to the design of engagement strategies. For example, those students who have a new or recently triggered interest may benefit from engagement strategies that are mentored, inter-personal and structured. In contrast, individuals who have a pre-existing well-developed interest that is personally integrated may benefit from engagement strategies that foster autonomy, curiosity and allow freedom of choice. The measurement of interest will be facilitated by using interactive, playful and exploratory online software (MINE), based upon the work of Jon Pearce (Pearce, 2008) at the University of Melbourne. The MINE tool allows for the triggering of new situational interests as well as the reporting of pre-existing individual interests. The tool has been developed with 100 first year students from the University of Melbourne and 100 students from secondary schools. This facility is in contrast to survey approaches that currently exist. This paper will examine the implications that the cognitive and affective dimensions of interest have for the design of engagement strategies, as well as report upon the design, development, testing, validation and preliminary results of the MINE tool.

Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the …, Jan 1, 2010

SmartGardenWatering is a free online simulation to advise gardeners about how to water their gard... more SmartGardenWatering is a free online simulation to advise gardeners about how to water their garden with the objective of sustainable use of water. We have redesigned this software to incorporate social networking features and, in so doing, indentified several important issues relating to the use of social networking to effect change, in a sustainability context. We describe the changes that we have made to the original software and then discuss several research questions that need to be addressed.

Proceedings of OZCHI, Jan 1, 2001

The proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference, Jan 1, 2004

In a fast-paced world in which TV, DVDs, MP3s, mobile phones, and the Internet present a ready su... more In a fast-paced world in which TV, DVDs, MP3s, mobile phones, and the Internet present a ready supply of distractions, the art of enticing students to become deeply engaged in online learning materials is becoming more and more difficult. One approach to exploring such engagement is through the use of 'flow theory'. Flow is a term first coined by to describe an experience that is highly engaging and enjoyable for its own sake ('autotelic'). Such an experience will present challenges that are demanding of the person's skills, present clear goals, and provide timely and appropriate feedback. During such experiences the person often reports a loss of self-consciousness and a loss of a sense of time. Flow has been researched in many facets of life, and many have suggested that it is an ideal state for learning -yet little research has explored this link between flow and learning.

ASCILITE, Jan 1, 1997

The advantages of computer-based teaching and learning fall into the broad categories of increasi... more The advantages of computer-based teaching and learning fall into the broad categories of increasing student access, improving the quality of the educational outcomes and increasing cost effectiveness. A review of proceedings of ASCILITE meetings over the last five years demonstrates that the approach to computer-based teaching and learning is in rapid transition.

Opportunistic challenges: Teaching and …, Jan 1, 2002

Learning With ICT: The Role Of Interactivity And Student Motivation Jon Pearce and Mary Ainley In... more Learning With ICT: The Role Of Interactivity And Student Motivation Jon Pearce and Mary Ainley Introduction It is generally accepted that individual students experience specific learning tasks in different ways. This is no less true for multimedia learning or learning using the internet ...

Proceedings of the 21st …, Jan 1, 2009

SmartGardenWatering is an innovative software tool that advises gardeners on watering schedules a... more SmartGardenWatering is an innovative software tool that advises gardeners on watering schedules and watering use. In this paper we investigate how expert and novice gardeners respond to advice from this piece of computer software. Do they readily accept it and adapt their activities accordingly, or do they override it with their own local knowledge? We describe the project to develop the simulation, including the design of the user interface, and a study of 20 gardeners using the tool. The focus of the study was to identify factors in the design of the software that influence how well it might intervene in ongoing gardening practice. The findings focus on what brings confidence or a lack of trust in the underlying horticultural model and its application to a particular garden. Finally, we consider how these findings might inform ongoing development of the software.

Proceedings of the 20th Australasian …, Jan 1, 2008

We describe a project to design an internet-based application to support gardeners reasoning abou... more We describe a project to design an internet-based application to support gardeners reasoning about the water demands and water supply for their gardens. This application is identified here as an instance of 'everyday simulation'; implying the use of simulation techniques for non-specialist users. Design strategies for everyday simulations are discussed including: the characteristic of simulations of inverting inputs and outputs; simulation by refinement; the embodiment of material constraints; and the educational aspect of simulation for nonspecialists.

Apple University …, Jan 1, 1998

... These pages are maintained by Jon Pearce ( jonmp@unimelb.edu.au), Department of Information S... more ... These pages are maintained by Jon Pearce ( jonmp@unimelb.edu.au), Department of Information Systems. The opinoins on them do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Melbourne. Tel: (613) 8344 1495 Fax: (613) 9349 4596. Last update: September 16, 2003 .

Finding information in a large database can be challenging, especially when students are not fami... more Finding information in a large database can be challenging, especially when students are not familiar with the information domain. Even when information has been retrieved, it often marks the end of the process rather than the beginning of a reflective process that supports learning. The highly original system described here, iFISH, addresses this problem by presenting a playful and explorative environment to students. The aim is to engage students to explore more widely and for longer than when using a conventional system and to reflect on their findings in terns of the inputs they used to obtain them. Preliminary research informing the development of iFISH is described as well as a description of the design prototype.

Computers in Human Behavior, Jan 1, 2005

Past research has suggested that Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory describes a state that should be ... more Past research has suggested that Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory describes a state that should be supportive of a student's learning. This article reports on research that uses the constructs of flow to explore learning in an online environment. An experiment was carried out in which students worked through a learning sequence in the physics domain that had varying degrees of interactivity. Their interactions and flow states were monitored throughout the learning task. The experimental data suggest that flow can be more usefully regarded as a process rather than just an overall state. This process is represented by flow-paths that plot each student's progress through challenge-skill space. Some flow patterns are identified that relate to the learning outcomes of the students. While there is some conflict between this process representation and outcome measures for flow, this flow-path portrayal has provided fresh insights into students' interactions in online learning environments.

British Journal of Educational …, Jan 1, 2002

In this paper we present an online, collaborative process that facilitates usability evaluation o... more In this paper we present an online, collaborative process that facilitates usability evaluation of web sites. The online workspace consists of simple and effective proformas and computer-mediated discussion space to support usability evaluation. The system was designed and used by staff and students at two universities. Students, working in small teams, at each university, developed web sites and then evaluated the usability of web sites developed at the other university, using the results to improve their own sites. Our project evaluations show that the process provides valuable feedback on web site usability and provides students with the experience of usability evaluation from two important perspectives: those of a user and of a developer. Further, students develop important generic skills: the ability to participate in and critique computer supported cooperative work environments. Nielsen J (1994) Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics CHI'94 Proceedings ACM 152-158. Nielsen J (1997 date of viewing) Ten Usability Heuristics http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/ heuristic_list.html Spool J M, Scanlon T, Schroeder W, Snyder C and DeAngelo T (1999) Web Site Usability: A

One of the challenges in encouraging learning through play is to design online environments that ... more One of the challenges in encouraging learning through play is to design online environments that are playful yet not distracting; that encourage interaction and exploration with specific learning goals while minimising the distraction of 'bell and whistles'. This paper presents the application of theories of play and flow in the design of a highly interactive and playful online system that has been used as a research tool to explore students' exploration and interaction within such environments. We present applications of the system to several different contexts such as choosing university subjects, and solving puzzles. We describe a particular experiment that helped us to identify deficiencies of the system, discuss students' interactions with it, and describe follow-up work that is both currently underway and also planned for the future.

… of the 20th Australasian Conference on …, Jan 1, 2008

It's easy to attract someone's attention on the web -seductive animations using software such as ... more It's easy to attract someone's attention on the web -seductive animations using software such as Flash make this all too easy. But how do you retain their interest and, more importantly, keep their focus on the task at hand? We have approached this question by producing a research tool called iFISH that enables us to quickly construct environments in which users explore a range of outcomes based on their dynamic changes to personal preference settings, together with reflections on the consequences of these changes. We first describe a study using this tool in the context of students given the task of making a selection from a large range of university subjects, and later we introduce other uses of such a system.

Proceedings of OZCHI, Jan 1, 2001

This paper describes an AUDF funded project to produce a Java applet to help with the teaching of... more This paper describes an AUDF funded project to produce a Java applet to help with the teaching of physics. The applet, called MotionWorkshop, allows students to track the motion of an object in a video clip, display the resulting data in a spreadsheet and manipulate graphs representing the motion. The spreadsheet supports the generation of a numerical model of the motion that can then be compared with the actual video data. Innovative features of the program let the student manipulate the spreadsheet in a manner that facilitates exploration of the model. The use of QuickTime with embedded Flash tracks is described as a convenient way of adding comments and help information to the program.

AMCIS 1999 Proceedings, Jan 1, 1999

... 12-31-1999 Designing a Web-based learning environment to maximise interactivityJon Pearce The... more ... 12-31-1999 Designing a Web-based learning environment to maximise interactivityJon Pearce The University of Melbourne, Australia Michelle Livett The University of Melbourne, Australia This material is brought to you by ...

inter-disciplinary.net

Interest, as a motivational construct, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for engagement... more Interest, as a motivational construct, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for engagement . If this is the case, then an examination of interest and its dimensions may be useful in the planning of engagement strategies. The purpose of the My Interests Now for Engagement (MINE) intervention is to develop, test and validate a tool to measure and profile interests in secondary school students using the four-phase model of interest development . The four-phase model of interest development distinguishes between those interests in objects, activities and ideas that are related to situations, and those that are integrated into the individual. The differing cognitive and affective states that are implied by this distinction may have implications relating to the design of engagement strategies. For example, those students who have a new or recently triggered interest may benefit from engagement strategies that are mentored, inter-personal and structured. In contrast, individuals who have a pre-existing well-developed interest that is personally integrated may benefit from engagement strategies that foster autonomy, curiosity and allow freedom of choice. The measurement of interest will be facilitated by using interactive, playful and exploratory online software (MINE), based upon the work of Jon Pearce (Pearce, 2008) at the University of Melbourne. The MINE tool allows for the triggering of new situational interests as well as the reporting of pre-existing individual interests. The tool has been developed with 100 first year students from the University of Melbourne and 100 students from secondary schools. This facility is in contrast to survey approaches that currently exist. This paper will examine the implications that the cognitive and affective dimensions of interest have for the design of engagement strategies, as well as report upon the design, development, testing, validation and preliminary results of the MINE tool.

Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the …, Jan 1, 2010

SmartGardenWatering is a free online simulation to advise gardeners about how to water their gard... more SmartGardenWatering is a free online simulation to advise gardeners about how to water their garden with the objective of sustainable use of water. We have redesigned this software to incorporate social networking features and, in so doing, indentified several important issues relating to the use of social networking to effect change, in a sustainability context. We describe the changes that we have made to the original software and then discuss several research questions that need to be addressed.

Proceedings of OZCHI, Jan 1, 2001

The proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference, Jan 1, 2004

In a fast-paced world in which TV, DVDs, MP3s, mobile phones, and the Internet present a ready su... more In a fast-paced world in which TV, DVDs, MP3s, mobile phones, and the Internet present a ready supply of distractions, the art of enticing students to become deeply engaged in online learning materials is becoming more and more difficult. One approach to exploring such engagement is through the use of 'flow theory'. Flow is a term first coined by to describe an experience that is highly engaging and enjoyable for its own sake ('autotelic'). Such an experience will present challenges that are demanding of the person's skills, present clear goals, and provide timely and appropriate feedback. During such experiences the person often reports a loss of self-consciousness and a loss of a sense of time. Flow has been researched in many facets of life, and many have suggested that it is an ideal state for learning -yet little research has explored this link between flow and learning.

ASCILITE, Jan 1, 1997

The advantages of computer-based teaching and learning fall into the broad categories of increasi... more The advantages of computer-based teaching and learning fall into the broad categories of increasing student access, improving the quality of the educational outcomes and increasing cost effectiveness. A review of proceedings of ASCILITE meetings over the last five years demonstrates that the approach to computer-based teaching and learning is in rapid transition.

Opportunistic challenges: Teaching and …, Jan 1, 2002

Learning With ICT: The Role Of Interactivity And Student Motivation Jon Pearce and Mary Ainley In... more Learning With ICT: The Role Of Interactivity And Student Motivation Jon Pearce and Mary Ainley Introduction It is generally accepted that individual students experience specific learning tasks in different ways. This is no less true for multimedia learning or learning using the internet ...

Proceedings of the 21st …, Jan 1, 2009

SmartGardenWatering is an innovative software tool that advises gardeners on watering schedules a... more SmartGardenWatering is an innovative software tool that advises gardeners on watering schedules and watering use. In this paper we investigate how expert and novice gardeners respond to advice from this piece of computer software. Do they readily accept it and adapt their activities accordingly, or do they override it with their own local knowledge? We describe the project to develop the simulation, including the design of the user interface, and a study of 20 gardeners using the tool. The focus of the study was to identify factors in the design of the software that influence how well it might intervene in ongoing gardening practice. The findings focus on what brings confidence or a lack of trust in the underlying horticultural model and its application to a particular garden. Finally, we consider how these findings might inform ongoing development of the software.

Proceedings of the 20th Australasian …, Jan 1, 2008

We describe a project to design an internet-based application to support gardeners reasoning abou... more We describe a project to design an internet-based application to support gardeners reasoning about the water demands and water supply for their gardens. This application is identified here as an instance of 'everyday simulation'; implying the use of simulation techniques for non-specialist users. Design strategies for everyday simulations are discussed including: the characteristic of simulations of inverting inputs and outputs; simulation by refinement; the embodiment of material constraints; and the educational aspect of simulation for nonspecialists.

Apple University …, Jan 1, 1998

... These pages are maintained by Jon Pearce ( jonmp@unimelb.edu.au), Department of Information S... more ... These pages are maintained by Jon Pearce ( jonmp@unimelb.edu.au), Department of Information Systems. The opinoins on them do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Melbourne. Tel: (613) 8344 1495 Fax: (613) 9349 4596. Last update: September 16, 2003 .

Finding information in a large database can be challenging, especially when students are not fami... more Finding information in a large database can be challenging, especially when students are not familiar with the information domain. Even when information has been retrieved, it often marks the end of the process rather than the beginning of a reflective process that supports learning. The highly original system described here, iFISH, addresses this problem by presenting a playful and explorative environment to students. The aim is to engage students to explore more widely and for longer than when using a conventional system and to reflect on their findings in terns of the inputs they used to obtain them. Preliminary research informing the development of iFISH is described as well as a description of the design prototype.

Computers in Human Behavior, Jan 1, 2005

Past research has suggested that Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory describes a state that should be ... more Past research has suggested that Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory describes a state that should be supportive of a student's learning. This article reports on research that uses the constructs of flow to explore learning in an online environment. An experiment was carried out in which students worked through a learning sequence in the physics domain that had varying degrees of interactivity. Their interactions and flow states were monitored throughout the learning task. The experimental data suggest that flow can be more usefully regarded as a process rather than just an overall state. This process is represented by flow-paths that plot each student's progress through challenge-skill space. Some flow patterns are identified that relate to the learning outcomes of the students. While there is some conflict between this process representation and outcome measures for flow, this flow-path portrayal has provided fresh insights into students' interactions in online learning environments.

British Journal of Educational …, Jan 1, 2002

In this paper we present an online, collaborative process that facilitates usability evaluation o... more In this paper we present an online, collaborative process that facilitates usability evaluation of web sites. The online workspace consists of simple and effective proformas and computer-mediated discussion space to support usability evaluation. The system was designed and used by staff and students at two universities. Students, working in small teams, at each university, developed web sites and then evaluated the usability of web sites developed at the other university, using the results to improve their own sites. Our project evaluations show that the process provides valuable feedback on web site usability and provides students with the experience of usability evaluation from two important perspectives: those of a user and of a developer. Further, students develop important generic skills: the ability to participate in and critique computer supported cooperative work environments. Nielsen J (1994) Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics CHI'94 Proceedings ACM 152-158. Nielsen J (1997 date of viewing) Ten Usability Heuristics http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/ heuristic_list.html Spool J M, Scanlon T, Schroeder W, Snyder C and DeAngelo T (1999) Web Site Usability: A