The Influence of Absorption and Need for Cognition on Students' Learning Outcomes in Educational Robot-Supported Projects

The field of educational technology has made significant strides, offering cost-effective multimedia tools and physical resources to facilitate both formal and informal teaching methods in computer science, with a particular emphasis on the development of computational thinking (CT) and programming skills. However, there is a lack of research focusing on practice-based tasks, such as Internet of Things (IoT) projects, for undergraduate students to demonstrate and program educational robots using digital and physical-supported instructional approaches. Specifically, there have been no studies examining the association between students' learning outcomes and their absorption and need for cognition on different platforms, such as Scratch and LEGO (R) WeDo. This study aims to provide empirical evidence by comparing the impact of two different platforms commonly used in programming courses to teach undergraduate students how to design, develop, and program IoT projects using educational robots. A quasi-experimental study was carried out to examine whether there were any significant variations in students' CT skills and programming development, as well as to evaluate their learning outcomes with regard to their need for cognition and absorption when they applied their coding expertise to real-world IoT projects. As a point of reference (control condition), twenty students (n = 20) utilized LEGO (R) WeDo robotics kits and Scratch for coding tasks, which is the most familiar instructional approach. In the intervention approach (experimental condition), thirty-seven students (n = 37) used LEGO (R) WeDo robotics kits and their software to learn how to code their educational robots. Participants from the latter group learned how to design and demonstrate the program and showed superior CT skills and programming skills development than their counterparts in the control group who used Scratch. Furthermore, the results indicate that students with higher levels of CT skills and programming execution reveal lower absorption but a higher need for cognition in educational robot-supported IoT projects.