Development and implementation of motivated strategies for a learning thinking maps tool among computing students

Abstract

This study emphasized the challenges in teaching and learning fundamentals of programming as a consequence of the lack of metacognitive awareness, which is associated with problem-solving abilities. These abilities can be enhanced through the use of thinking maps, but they are typically used only in school and under the supervision of a teacher. Additionally, the practice is conducted in a typical manner, with no interesting features incorporated into the process, and it does not promote the development of metacognitive awareness. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to produce a learning tool to train computing students using thinking maps in the multimedia environment to enhance their metacognitive awareness. The developed tool called Motivated Strategies Thinking Maps Tool (MoSTMaT) embeds multimedia principles as well as motivated strategies for learning theory to keep students motivated and able to learn in the self-regulated learning environment. The tool was developed using ADDIE instructional design model and was evaluated by the end user namely computing students. A set of questionnaires containing three parts was applied to measure the acceptance of students; 1) multimedia principles, 2) post-study system usability, and 3) motivated strategies for learning was applied to measure the acceptance of students. The result of this study indicated that students agreed that the multimedia application in the tool is suited for students’ usage, has adequate information on thinking maps, a user-friendly interface, and is suitable to be used in the self-regulated mood. The implication of this study is the conceptual framework for developing MoSTMaT can be a guide for developing instructional tools in self-regulated learning. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that multimedia principles and elements had a beneficial impact on motivation and self-regulation among computing students.

Keywords

• motivated strategies for learning
• metacognitive awareness
• thinking maps
• computing students
• instructional tool