Repositório Aberto

Universidade Aberta Scientific Repository

About the Repository

The Open Repository is the institutional repository of Universidade Aberta and was built with the aim of storing, preserving, disseminating, and providing access to UAb's intellectual production in digital format. The goal is to gather, in one place, the entirety of UAb's scientific publications, thereby contributing to the increase of its visibility and impact while ensuring the preservation of its intellectual memory.

Política de Acesso Aberto da UAb

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Recent Submissions

Learn, earn, and game on: integrated reward mechanism between educational and recreational games

Publication . Tarigan, Jos Timanta; Zendrato, Niskarto; Isaías, Pedro; kommers, Piet

Rewards play a key role in gamifying education, especially when learners perceive them as valuable. However, in many educational games, rewards often lack a meaningful impact or long-term appeal, which limits their ability to motivate user performance effectively. This study introduces a novel integrated reward system designed to increase the perceived value of educational rewards by allowing them to be used in a separate recreational game. The system was implemented using two Android-based applications: EduGym, a microlearning quiz-based educational game, and EduShooter, a top-down action shooter recreational game. Coins earned in EduGym quizzes can be used to upgrade characters and unlock content in EduShooter, forming a cross-game incentive. A user study involving 48 participants demonstrated that those with access to the integrated system responded more positively to EduGym’s reward mechanism and rated their overall game experience favorably. The reward system also enhanced learners’ perception of their educational achievements by linking them to meaningful in-game benefits. These findings suggest that integrating educational and entertainment games through a cross-game currency system can significantly strengthen the motivational appeal and perceived value of rewards in these games.

2025-09-11Journal article

Open access

Student perspectives and usage of adaptive learning technology in the university physiology course, and the association with question design

Publication . Abe, Haruna; Colthorpe, Kay; Isaías, Pedro

To improve the online learning experience, adaptive learning technologies are being used to personalise learning content to suit individual learning needs, with learning analytics being integrated to collect data about the student usage behaviour on the platform. Research indicates that the adaptive learning platforms promote a supportive learning environment, but in order to examine the impact of specific aspects of the platform on student learning, more detailed research is needed regarding the students’ perspective of using the platform, and the learning analytics data related to the platform. The participants were students who were enrolled in the physiology courses at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Students accessed the Smart Sparrow adaptive learning platform, or modules, typically during the practical (laboratory) class. The student feedback and learning analytics data were then collected and analysed with respect to Action Potentials and Vestibular Function modules in 2019. The results for the Vestibular Function module showed that students commonly mentioned visual features and questions and activities as helpful for learning. On the contrary, students commonly reported that learning was hindered by the need to answer questions to proceed to the next slide, and the module not being able to recognise correct responses for short answer questions. In addition, there was a noticeable decline in the percentage of students attempting questions as it approached the latter part of both modules. These study findings will support instructors when designing or reassessing their online learning platforms, and by suggesting ways to enhance the student learning experience.

2025-06-05Journal article

Open access

Implementation and evaluation of a Chatbot in a business course in higher education

Publication . Isaías, Pedro; Hoque, Tania Tanzin; Miranda, Paula

While the higher education sector is continuously searching for innovative technologies, the use of chatbots requires extensive research and careful consideration of their pedagogical value. The lessons learned from lecturers who experiment with chatbots can constitute important evidence to support their use. This paper presents a chatbot specifically designed for a Higher Education course, named RESOURCEbot, its mechanics and workflows. This chatbot was used in a university course to assist the students with recommendations of relevant research papers. It is also presented the chatbot´s evaluation. The evaluation of the RESOURCEbot derived from a questionnaire that was distributed among the students to assess their opinions about the experience of using a chatbot, its performance and their intention to use chatbots in educational settings. The results highlighted some of RESOURCEbot’s limitations, such as some difficulty in understanding the students’ prompts, but overall they reflected the students’ positive opinions concerning its ease of use, and the value and pertinence of its recommendations.

2024-10-26Conference object

Open access

Por um mundo mais igual

Publication . Abelha, Marta

2025Book part

Open access

"Para que é que serve a arte?” na inserção de jovens estrangeiros não acompanhados (JENA): estudo de caso de um curso EFA

Publication . Sousa, Lúcio; Seabra, Filipa; Abelha, Marta

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o modo como as práticas artísticas foram incorporadas como estratégia pedagógica num curso de Educação e Formação de Adultos (EFA) dirigido a jovens estrangeiros não acompanhados (JENA) e os resultados alcançados com a sua implementação na integração deste grupo de estudantes. O trabalho, de índole qualitativa, foi realizado através de observação no espaço escolar, com entrevistas a responsáveis do centro Qualifica e a duas docentes do curso, a mediadora da turma e a mediadora intercultural. Os principais resultados desta pesquisa ressaltam o caráter voluntarioso dos envolvidos, os dilemas que sentem no seu desenvolvimento, assim como o orgulho que sentem nos resultados alcançados, nomeadamente na capacitação social e pessoal dos envolvidos, estudantes e docentes. Todavia, este tipo de atividade está muito dependente da capacidade de preparar atempadamente o ano escolar, nomeadamente os recursos humanos afetos, e, em particular, a dependência, no caso das práticas artísticas, da possibilidade de dar continuidade ao trabalho.

2025-12Book part

Open access