Student’s Engagement In Computer-Based Learning: Skill-Challenge Balancing Technique for Learning Programming

Abstract

Students’ engagement in computer-based learning activity is hard to regulate and maintain at an optimal level. Hence, many students do not benefit from it, and they tend not to use it again after the first attempt. This is a challenge towards ensuring the sustainability of future computer-based learning. In order to overcome this issue, this research proposed skill-challenge balancing (SCB) as a technique to help students to engage in the computer-based learning activities. The technique was employed in a web-based learning tool named LearnJava. An experimental study was conducted using LearnJava for learning a two-hour basic Java lesson. Prior to the interaction, the students were given with a pre-test and post-test questions related to the topic as a mechanism to measure learning. Then a self-administered questionnaire was given to the student as an instrument to measure engagement. The results of the study suggested that learning process happened when the students interacted with LearnJava. Further, the students were engaged in the learning activities offered in LearnJava. The finding of this study can be beneficial for computer-based instructional designers for designing applications that can help students to engage with the learning process.