Experience matters: Bridging the gap between experience- and functionality-driven design in technology-enhanced learning

Abstract

With the growing importance of digital technologies in learning and assessment, it is important to consider user experience (UX) to ensure that tools provide useful functionalities for learning without overwhelming users, to motivate users and ensure that they have positive learning experiences, and to allow users to realize their potential with the help of technology. Building on a case study of concept mapping for technology-enhanced learning, we combined experience-driven and functionality-driven approaches in co-design sessions in four school classes (67 students). We investigated the anticipated experiences that students imagined as well as the functionalities and characteristics they expected. We found that combining experience-driven and functionality-driven approaches is a valuable method for improving technology-enhanced learning.

Creating positive learning experiences with technology: A field study on the effects of user experience for digital concept mapping

“…The UEQ is based on the model of user experience by Hassenzahl (2001) but seeks to capture a balance of pragmatic and hedonic aspects ( Laugwitz et al., 2008 ). Thus, the UEQ is a good fit for our research questions, because both pragmatic and hedonic aspects are important for digital concept mapping tools ( Rohles et al., 2019 ). The UEQ consists of three subscales for pragmatic quality and two subscales for hedonic quality, with four items each.…”

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“…Together the papers show the wide variation in contexts in which co-creation approaches can be used by the TEL community. The papers include both school [3,4] and university-based [5,6] contexts in which the students are the co-creators, as well as professional learning environments in which the teachers, developers or tool users are the co-creators [7,8,9,10,11]. The contexts are not limited to formal education settings, but also include settings in which non-formal or informal learning [11,12] is the focus.…”

“…The rationale given for adopting a co-creation approach is often the belief that such an approach will lead to a more relevant and directly applicable TEL tool or platform with a higher fit to practical requirements [3,6,7,8,10,11,12], but many of these special issue papers also highlight the expected impact of the co-creation on participants themselves in terms of increasing their TEL literacy and, hence, selfconfidence [8,9] leading to more positive views of TEL or STEM [4,9] and supporting knowledge exchange [7,12].…”

“…Two other key issues are highlighted by the research in this special issue both of which relate to trying to capture the 'big picture'. One is the suggestion that researchers would benefit from adopting a range of co-creation approaches/techniques rather than relying on one approach [3,6,7]. These researchers suggest that different co-creation activities can capture different parts of the picture.…”