IWM Tübingen Poster

Can user interface’s features impact anxiety in digital educational settings?

If it is possible to reduce anxiety in learning environments by educational interventions, can these interventions be translated to digital educational environments?

 Jun.-Prof. Dr Steffi Zander
 Vanessa Yepes, vanesa.yepes[at]uni-weimar.de

Despite there are well-established guidelines to design learning materials based on cognitive features, design heuristics based on affective features are less well known. Among these affective features that influence learning, anxiety is recognised as a factor that can impact performance. If it is possible 
to reduce anxiety in learning environments by educational interventions, can these interventions be translated to digital educational environments? Spatial abilities training, known as a source of anxiety, it is a good starting point to look for answers. 

Experiment Design and More Results 

Zander, S., Montag, M., Wetzel, S., & Bertel, S. (2017). A gender issue? - Motivation while solving rotation tasks on touch-based mobile devices. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.

Zander, S., Wetzel, S., & Bertel, S. (2016). Rotate it!–Effects of touch-based gestures on elementary school students’ solving of mental rotation tasks. Computers & Education, 103, 158–169.

References

Alana E. Foley, Julianne B. Herts, Francesca Borgonovi, Sonia Guerriero, Susan C. Levine, & Sian L. Beilock. (2017). The Math Anxiety-Performance Link: A Global Phenomenon. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(1), 52–58. doi.org/10.1177/0963721416672463

Calvo, R. A., & D’Mello, S. (Eds.). (2011). New perspectives on affect and learning technologies. New York ; London: Springer.

LeDoux, J. E. (2015). Anxious: Using the brain to understand and treat fear and anxiety. Penguin.

Moreno, R. (2006). Does the modality principle hold for different media? A Test of the method‐affects‐learning hypothesis. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22(3), 149–158.

Neuburger, S., Jansen, P., Heil, M., & Quaiser-Pohl, C. (2011). Gender differences in pre-adolescents’ mental-rotation performance: Do they depend on grade and stimulus type?, 50(8), 1238–1242. doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.017

Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic Emotions in Students’ Self-Regulated Learning and Achievement: A Program of Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Educational Psychologist, 37(2), 91–105. doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3702_4

Perry, R. P., Hall, N. C., & Ruthig, J. C. (2005). Perceived (academic) control and scholastic attainment in higher education. In Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (pp. 363–436). Springer.

Ramirez, G., Chang, H., Maloney, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2016). On the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement in early elementary school: The role of problem solving strategies. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 141, 83–100. doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.014

Zander, S., Montag, M., Wetzel, S., & Bertel, S. (2017). A gender issue? - Motivation while solving rotation tasks on touch-based mobile devices. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.

Zander, S., Wetzel, S., & Bertel, S. (2016). Rotate it!–Effects of touch-based gestures on elementary school students’ solving of mental rotation tasks. Computers & Education, 103, 158–169.

Zeidner, M. (2007). Test Anxiety in Educational Contexts: Concepts, Findings. Emotion in Education, 165.