According to previous studies, traditional laboratory safety courses are delivered in a classroom setting where the instructor teaches and the students listen and read the course materials passively. The course content is also uninspiring and dull. Additionally, the teaching period is spread out, which adds to the instructor's workload. As a result, students become less motivated to learn. In contrast, artificially intelligent educational robots (AIERs), help students learn while lessening the workload on instructors by enhancing teaching strategies, using robots to substitute for teachers, giving students access to a variety of instructional content, and improving interaction with students through the use of intelligent voice interactions and Q&A systems to promote student engagement in learning. If the robot is used for a long time for learning, it may lead to a decrease in students' interest in learning. Therefore, this study introduces the GAFCC model (the theory-driven gamification goal, access, feedback, challenge, collaboration design model) as an instructional design model to guide the development of a gamified AIER system, aiming to improve students' motivation and learning effectiveness for laboratory safety courses. To test the effectiveness of the system, this study conducted an experimental study at a university in China in the summer of 2022. 53 participants participated in the research, with a random sample taken from each group. Each participant was able to choose the time of their free time to engage in the experiment. There were 18, 19, and 16 participants in experimental group 1, experimental group 2, and the traditional group, respectively. Students in experimental group 1 learned using the gamified AIER system, students in experimental group 2 learned on a general anthropomorphic robot system and the control group received traditional classroom learning. The experimental results showed that compared to the other two groups, the gamified AIER system guided by the GAFCC model significantly improved students' learning achievement and enhanced their learning motivation, flow experience, and problem-solving tendency. In addition, students who adopted this approach exhibited more positive behaviors and reduced cognitive load in the learning process.

In recent years, several researchers have introduced spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) into classroom teaching to help students learn different subjects. In SVVR learning, learners are typically presented with great autonomy over their learning process. Therefore, learners should engage in self-regulated strategy (SRS) learning in order to successfully study in SVVR. However, learners often struggle to self-regulate their learning. Therefore, we implemented a SRS intervention in SVVR. In this study, a SVVR environment was developed to situate students in art history contexts; moreover, the SRS was employed to guide students to improve their performance and to make reflections on their own performance. In order to evaluate the proposed approach’s effectiveness, we carried out an experiment in a university art history class. The experiment results reveal more positive effects of the SRS-based SVVR approach compared with the non-SRS-based SVVR approach in terms of the learners’ learning achievements, self-regulation, meta-cognitive awareness, as well as self-efficacy. In addition, this study specified that this approach would not have an effect on students’ cognitive load. As a result, the SRS-based SVVR approach proposed in the current study was effective in art history education.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, campuses are closed, and many schools are forced to transition to online instruction. There are many problems in landscape architecture education during the pandemic such as students’ decreased attention, poor self-regulation, low proactivity, and difficulty in grading. In addition, situational effects are required for landscape architecture education, but online education lacks the necessary case scenarios for courses during the pandemic. In order to solve these problems, the present study adopted a more accessible, and interactive spherical video-based immersive virtual reality (SV-IVR) approach, developed a landscape architecture SV-IVR learning system, and conducted a quasi-experimental study to examine its effectiveness. The results indicated that the experimental group students showed more positive results in their learning achievements, learning attitudes, and self-regulation than the control group. Besides, it was found that students required more time to develop their self-efficacy and that this system would not have an effect on students’ cognitive load.