Developing A Web-Based Flow For Reducing Anxiety And Improving Self-Regulation Among University Mathematics Students

• Main Author: Jebur, Ghassan Thabit
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: QA76.575 Multimedia systems and Internet
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/48123/1/GHASSAN%20THABIT%20JEBUR_cut.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/48123/
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

The current concept of increasing students’ awareness about their cognitive and metacognitive abilities in online learning environments has received a little attention by researchers, system designers, and developers, especially mechanisms for overcoming or reducing individuals’ anxiety which is yet to be fully characterized in online learning activities. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the potential of integrating the concept of flow into the design of online learning environments as an attempt to reduce anxiety and promote self-regulation among students. An online adaptive learning system that is named MetaRegulation System based on flow theory was developed. The design of MetaRegulation was established by balancing between the challenge of the task and an individual's skills for different levels of complexity. The customization of task complexity was carried out based on two modes. The first mode is the self-adjustment mode, which allows the student to determine the level of task or subject difficulty. The second mode is provided by the system, in which the level of challenge is customized based on the results of the student’s progress with the task. This is calculated by aggregating students’ performance in previous learning sessions. A total of 300 university students were invited to use the MetaRegulation system for three weeks and then a questionnaire was administrated to them to examine the relationship between sense of control, balance between challenge and skills, and telepresence on their experience in terms of enjoyment and concentration on task at hand.