Due to the challenges of all-round development, higher-education students are increasingly demanding more flexible learning that goes beyond the on-campus/online dichotomy. However, university students miss learning opportunities because of the conflict of time and space. Blended learning is an effective way to create more learning opportunities and support university students’ flexible learning, but its implementation varies across contexts. This study proposed an alternative blended teaching and learning approach to solve practical problems defined in the context of a traditional classroom in a university in Hong Kong when students pursue flexible learning and global learning. A three-round action research approach was used to improve the effects of blended synchronous teaching and learning. Data collection and analysis in each round showed that the students positively rated the implementation of blended learning according to their needs, the quality of the technologies adopted, and the benefits gained. This blended synchronous teaching and learning mode was structured based on the implementation of different actions in three rounds, bridging the gap between research and practice in blended synchronous learning.

E-learning has been an important learning approach in the information era by providing flexible environments and rich resources for learners. However, it also faces several challenges, the biggest one being that students need to have strong self-regulation competence to control and manage their e-learning. As gamification has been widely used in primary education to facilitate children’s learning motivation and engagement, it is valuable to explore the impacts of gamification on children’s self-regulated learning. In this study, the role of gamification in children’s English learning in Hong Kong was investigated through a gamified e-learning system. A quasi-experiment with pre-test/post-test design was conducted among primary level 3 students over a semester. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through academic tests, questionnaires, and interviews to provide comprehensive insights into the research questions. The key findings enable the identification of: (1) students’ gaining of self-regulated learning interest and academic performance from the gamified learning system; (2) students’ developed self-regulated learning strategies; and (3) the connection between gamification and students’ self-regulated learning. These findings have implications for e-learning designers and educators with regards to the practice of gamified learning to enhance students’ self-regulated learning and second language learning.

The information era puts higher requirements on current students’ learning methods to develop 21st-century skills. Project-based learning (PBL) and gamified learning have been two effective learning approaches, leading to an innovative exploration of combining both to improve learning outcomes. This study presents a systematic review of the literature published on “gamified PBL” (GPBL) over the past six years, focusing on GPBL approaches, learning outcomes, technical tools and theories. The results show that the gamified approaches of project-based learning can be divided into four types: gamify structure and procedure of PBL, gamify content of PBL, integrate prefabricated educational/serious games in PBL, and make a game as the activity of PBL. Most of the studies affirmed the positive effects of GPBL in enhancing students’ learning outcomes, especially for learning experience and motivation. Adopted techniques and theories in the reviewed studies were also summarized. In conclusion, we acquired four findings based on the discussion: the characteristics of GPBL are diverse; design-based learning are an innovative and creative method used in GPBL; studies of GPBL emphasized collection and description of the whole-process data; technical issues should be paid great attention to. In addition, a number of suggestions for future research are provided in this review.

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