Abstract
Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs) have emerged as an almost limitless source of education, challenging not only students but also education providers; teaching and learning in these virtual environments requires greater self-regulation of learning. More research is needed in order to assess how self-regulation of learning strategies can contribute to better performance. This study aims to report how an Intelligent Tutoring System can help students both with and without learning difficulties to self-regulate their learning processes. A total of 119 university students with and without learning difficulties took part in an educational experiment; they spent 90 min learning in a CBLE specifically designed to assess and promote self-regulated learning strategies. Results show that as a consequence of the training, the experimental group applied more self-regulation strategies than the control group, not only as a response to a system prompt but also self-initiated. In addition, there were some differences in improvement of learning processes in students with and without learning difficulties. Our results show that when students with learning difficulties have tools that facilitate applying self-regulated learning strategies, they do so even more than students without learning difficulties.
Highlights
Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs) have emerged as an ubiquitous source of education, able to overcome the spatiotemporal constrictions of classroom education [1], and institutions of higher education have incorporated CBLEs as a means of expanding their activity [2]
There is no knowledge about the specific difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities (SLDs) in learning processes involving CBLE, nor specific intervention actions in this sense to reduce the effect of these self-regulatory requirements [16], bearing in mind that those disabilities have some commonality in terms of metacognitive and self-regulatory malfunctioning [17,18,19,20]
We must discard our hypothesis; contrary to our expectation that the Intelligent Tutoring System would increase the use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies only in the Students with No Learning Disabilities (SNLD) group, we found that it increased the use of SRL strategies in the SLD group
Summary
Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs) have emerged as an ubiquitous source of education, able to overcome the spatiotemporal constrictions of classroom education [1], and institutions of higher education have incorporated CBLEs as a means of expanding their activity [2]. There is abundant empirical evidence suggesting that learners do not successfully adapt their behavior to the self-regulatory demands of CBLE environments [3,12,13,14], and that students lacking self-regulation skills might experience cognitive overload, usability problems, and distractions potentially resulting in lower learning gains [15] In this scenario, there is no knowledge about the specific difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities (SLDs) in learning processes involving CBLE, nor specific intervention actions in this sense to reduce the effect of these self-regulatory requirements [16], bearing in mind that those disabilities have some commonality in terms of metacognitive and self-regulatory malfunctioning [17,18,19,20]. Research has shown that they might overcome some of their difficulties, most continue to manifest behaviors characteristic of learning difficulties as adults [26]
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