The development of the Metaverse has drawn much attention in education. Roblox, as an important platform in the Metaverse, attracts millions of young users, which raises the question of how its effectiveness as a learning environment can be maximized. This study aims to synthesize the available evidence to provide an overview of the current research on learning in Roblox by exploring its benefits, challenges, and existing gaps. In line with PRISMA and assisted by LDA topic modeling, we included 40 studies that were analyzed to answer our questions. The research findings show that: (1) Roblox could be combined with social interactive learning or collaborative learning environments, provide a VR environment that supports learning, and be of benefit to programming in STEM education; (2) the use of Roblox in learning has the advantages of attracting a large number of student users, eliciting the positive attitudes of students, and promoting students’ cognitive and noncognitive learning abilities; and (3) there are also challenges such as cyberbullying, cybersecurity, lack of adequate teaching design, etc. Empirical studies on this topic have only begun to emerge, and more future research is needed into different pedagogical scenarios to explore the effects, factors, outcomes, designs, etc.
Distance education has been widely used in universities due to the outbreak of Covid-19. SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) have high enrollment and completion rates in higher education due to their ability to provide students with personalized deep learning. This study aims to investigate the learning effect of SPOCs and further explores the reasons that affect its effectiveness. The study found that: a) there is a certain difference in the learning effect between SPOCs and face-to-face courses; b) the learning effect in SPOCs can be effectively improved by enhancing the interest in learning, and c) the teacher’s internal and external assistance can significantly improve the learning effect. The study suggested that the “Hard-Pure” SPOCs needs more detailed course design, enhancing students’ motivations and learning interests in SPOC courses, and strengthening teachers’ assistance to students in and out of class.
The National Science Foundation has promoted the development of education in the U.S., and its establishment reflects the trend of education development. This study collects the data on 2360 NSF educational projects over the last three years to answer two research questions: What are the major research topics of NSF educational projects? What are the key projects doing? Through Latent Dirichlet allocation topic modelling, content analysis is carried out on the titles and abstracts of the 2360 projects, and eight topics are obtained from them, including top-notch innovative talent cultivation, STEM education for low-income groups, undergraduate education, vocational education, cutting-edge technology education, big data-driven technology, artificial intelligence, and teacher development.
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