Technological advancements have provided heritage with new learning environments via the use of virtual and augmented reality, which can foster the accessibility and understanding of culture and propose new ways of interacting with heritage. Therefore, in this study, a systematic evaluation is carried out of n=197 heritage education programs listed in the database of the Observatorio de Educación patrimonial en España (OEPE) (the Spanish Heritage Education Observatory–SHEO) which, in their descriptions, integrate the use of virtual environments and/or augmented reality to promote learning on the part of the user. The objectives of this study are: (1) to analyse the state of the art, (2) to evaluate the quality of their educational designs via the “analysis and assessment sequential method for heritage education programs” (SAEPEP-OEPE) and (3) to identify variables which can be improved or which have a significant influence on the quality of the programs. Highlights of the results include: (a) the increasing implementation of these technologies in heritage education programs, with the greater presence of virtual resources than of learning environments, (b) the low level of the scope of educational quality in their designs, particularly their assessment, and (c) the inclusion of advanced technologies slightly decreases the specificity of the educational design.
Keeping students engaged can improve their learning. Gamification is a technique that has been shown to improve engagement, transferring the positive effects of videogames. However, the mobile games industry has identified that player retention decreases quickly over time, but it is unclear if this decreasing retention pattern transfers to gamification activities. To check if the behavioral engagement was stable over a 14‐week engineering course, we gamified an existing virtual learning environment (VLE), conducting an observational study for two semesters. Actions performed by students within the VLE were used to measure behavioral engagement, which allows us to track student behavior weekly. To analyze the gamification effect, we divided user actions into two groups: academic and gamified. The results showed that the gamified actions performed by students in the VLE decreased every week, which was significantly higher than the decrease in academic actions. This shows that the decreasing retention pattern seen in mobile games was also present in this study. These results suggest that, just like in mobile games, to sustain the behavioral engagement over a long period of time in a gamified class, additional modern game‐design techniques should be considered.
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