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Virtual Blocks: a serious game for spatial ability improvement on mobile devices

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel spatial instruction system for improving spatial abilities of engineering students. A 3D mobile game application called Virtual Blocks has been designed to provide a 3D virtual environment to build models with cubes that help students to perform visualization tasks to promote the development of their spatial ability during a short remedial course. A validation study with 26 freshman engineering students at La Laguna University (Spain) has concluded that the training had a measurable and positive impact on students’ spatial ability. In addition, the results obtained using a satisfaction questionnaire show that Virtual Blocks is considered an easy to use and stimulating application.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partially supported by the (Spanish) National Program for Studies and Analysis project “Evaluation and development of competencies associated to the spatial ability in the new engineering undergraduate courses” (Ref. EA2009-0025) and the (Spanish) National Science Project “Enhancing Spatial REasoning and VIsual Cognition with advanced technological tools (ESREVIC)” (Ref TIN2010-21296-C02-02)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dehaes Research Group, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Spain

    Norena Martin-Dorta, Isabel Sanchez-Berriel, Miguel Bravo, Juan Hernandez & Jose Luis Saorin

  2. Instituto de Bioingeniería y Tecnología Orientada al Ser Humano, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Manuel Contero

Authors
  1. Norena Martin-Dorta
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  2. Isabel Sanchez-Berriel
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  3. Miguel Bravo
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  4. Juan Hernandez
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  5. Jose Luis Saorin
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  6. Manuel Contero
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Correspondence to Norena Martin-Dorta.

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Martin-Dorta, N., Sanchez-Berriel, I., Bravo, M. et al. Virtual Blocks: a serious game for spatial ability improvement on mobile devices. Multimed Tools Appl 73, 1575–1595 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-013-1652-0

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