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The Effectiveness of Educational Robotics Simulations in Enhancing Student Learning

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Robotics in Education (RiE 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 747))

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Abstract

This paper will compare two free versions of robotic simulation programs. All of them aim to offer an entrance into the world of robots in an easy way and with fewer resources. How can it enhance these student learning? This paper will compare two free versions of robotic simulation programs, IDE HedgeHog and Thymio Suite. One system is a web-based simulation in a web browser and does not need an installation. The other is a program on the computer; therefore, a program is to download and install on the computer. Both have different program languages, like text-based or visual-based programming languages, for different difficulty levels. A research design in which 124 students were asked to solve different tasks and responded to an online survey indicates that both simulations are user-friendly and helpful for beginners. They are useful tools to engage students in educational robotics activities or test programme codes in a virtual environment before they are transferred to physical settings.

The authors acknowledge the financial support by the Sparkling Science 2.0 program, an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, under grant agreement no. SPSC01141.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://ide.pria.at/.

  2. 2.

    https://www.thymio.org/.

  3. 3.

    Hedgehog simulator is available at http://ide.pria.at.

  4. 4.

    https://github.com/PRIArobotics/hedgehog-ide.

  5. 5.

    https://www.thymio.org/products/programming-with-thymio-suite/.

  6. 6.

    https://www.sdgwatch.at/en/about-sdgs/.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Automation and Control Institute, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Georg Jäggle & Markus Vincze

  2. Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Richard Balogh

Authors
  1. Georg Jäggle
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  2. Richard Balogh
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  3. Markus Vincze
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Balogh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Slovak University of Technology (STU), Bratislava, Slovakia

    Richard Balogh

  2. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    David Obdržálek

  3. University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Eftychios Christoforou

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Jäggle, G., Balogh, R., Vincze, M. (2023). The Effectiveness of Educational Robotics Simulations in Enhancing Student Learning. In: Balogh, R., Obdržálek, D., Christoforou, E. (eds) Robotics in Education. RiE 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 747. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38454-7_27

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