Pedagogical usability: A theoretical essay for e-Learning

The e-learning in Brazil has shown such intense development followed by its problems. Obstacles in the teaching learning permeate, among others, the use of virtual environments, production of teaching materials, pedagogical mediation, where the tutor has responsibility in these factors. In order to combine the use of technology with the nature of the pedagogical dimension, this theoretical essay discusses the concept of pedagogical usability from existing problems and presents explanations about the dimensions and criteria present in the literature.O Ensino a Distância no Brasil tem apresentado um crescimento tão intenso quanto os problemas que o acompanham. Os entraves no processo ensinoaprendizagem permeiam, dentre outros, o uso dos ambientes virtuais, a produção de material didático e a mediação pedagógica, tendo o professor particular responsabilidade nestes fatores. Com a finalidade de aliar o uso das tecnologias com a essencialidade da dimensão pedagógica, este ensaio teórico discute o conceito de usabilidade pedagógica a partir dos problemas existentes e apresenta explicações sobre as dimensões e critérios presentes na literatura

Latent Structures of Teachers and Students in Evaluating the Pedagogical Usability of E-Learning Materials for Language Teaching

The paper reports on a study which aimed to investigate how different the latent structures of teachers and students are in evaluating the pedagogical usability of e-learning materials for foreign language teaching. Factor analysis showed similarities between the two participant groups and a more consistent way of evaluation by teachers

The Assessment of the Usability of Digital Educational Resources: An interdisciplinary analysis from two systematic reviews

Producción CientíficaInternational reports analyzing current and future educational trends with an emphasis on technologies applied to education declare the importance of the design and application of digital educational resources. Guaranteeing its usability allows obtaining an adequate resource with a high pedagogical and technological quality. The objective of this paper is to analyze the empirical researches to determine if exists convergence between educational and computational researches on the assessment of the usability of digital educational resources. To fulfill the objective, the PRISMA protocol was used to carry out two systematic reviews and answer the two scientific questions. The results show that in few cases an adequate integration is achieved between: (1) the criteria for assessing usability as established by Software Engineering; (2) the methods and computational models to assess usability and, (3) the criteria established in pedagogical usability. Due to these shortcomings, a model for evaluating the usability of digital educational resources is proposed as future work. It concludes with the importance of interdisciplinary integration to assess the usability of digital educational resources

In-service teacher education course module design focusing om usability of ICT applications in science education

Peer reviewe

Developing web-based learning resources in school education: a user-centered approach

Web-based learning resources (WBLRs) are potentially powerful tools for enhancing teachingand learning processes in school education. They can provide teachers and learners with a widerange of new and exciting experiences that are not possible in a traditional classroom. However,WBLRs are still the domain of technical and software experts rather than teachers and learners.As a result, much of the development of WBLRs is carried out without a true understanding ofissues pertinent to learning and pedagogy. Also lacking is user involvement in the developmentprocess of WBLRs. The aim of this work is to propose a user-centered approach to the developmentof WBLRs to translate pedagogical issues into a software tool that supports effective learning.The article also reports on the application of the approach in school education

Investigating technical and pedagogical usability issues of collaborative learning with wikis

Wikis have been recently promoted as tools that foster collaborative learning. However, there has been little research devoted to the criteria that are suitable to address issues pertinent to collaborative learning. This paper proposes a set of criteria to explore technical and pedagogical usability issues of collaborative learning with wikis. The criteria are then used to evaluate students’ collaborative writing activities. The units of study are wikis that groups of students developed collaboratively using MediaWiki. This paper also reports on technical and pedagogical implications for the use of wikis as collaborative learning tools in teacher education

TOWARDS USABILITY INTEGRATION INTO E-LEARNING DESIGN

While e-learning use has sharply increased, the drop-out rate is high. This paper addresses some of the aspects that cause users to reject e-learning and not finish. It focuses on the concept of “usability”, especially pedagogical usability that is currently central to usability design. While the term is nebulous, it is identified by attributes such as learnability, efficiency and (subjective) satisfaction. Attributes can be measured and designers add new ones as the need arises. Satisfaction has become the focus of pedagogical usability experts who claim the term includes motivational and emotive factors and may be measured by psychometric testing. Currently, efforts are underway to integrate pedagogical usability into e-learning design and create attractive, flexible features that are easy to handle and available on demand. Efforts are also underway to design mobile learning that incorporates usability principles. Usability improvements have been incremental because the e-learning process is not clear to designers, but it is expected that awareness and innovations will correct this problem in the future

KOMPETENCIJE UČITELJA U OSNOVNIM ŠKOLAMA ZA PRIPREMU MATERIJALA ZA MULTIMEDIJSKO UČENJE

Advancement of computer hardware and software authoring tools has enabled wider use of multimedia learning materials in elementary education. Elementary education (lower level primary school) teachers should consider the advantages of multimedia learning materials. They are not just users of readymade multimedia learning materials, but also producers or disseminators. Teachers’ competency level in the application of multimedia learning materials is growing. Introductory courses and increased availability of educational technology equipment have changed the teaching paradigm. Even elementary teachers in primary schools should have competencies for creating e-learning materials. The differences between recommendation and reality can only be established with data, and in our case we use surveys. The work of elementary teachers as creators of multimedia learning materials and their motivation are discussed in this article. Our research is focused on teachers at lower levels of primary schools (elementary education) as they are the first step in the educational pyramid.Napredovanje računalnog hardvera i softvera, te autorskih alata omogućilo je širu uporabu materijala za multimedijalno učenje u osnovnom obrazovanju. Nastavnici u osnovnom obrazovanju ( niža razina osnovnoškolci ) trebaju razmotriti prednosti materijala za učenje multimedijskih sadržaja. Oni su ne samo korisnici gotovih materijala za multimedijalno učenje, nego i proizvođači ili širitelji. Nastavnička razina kompetencija u primjeni multimedijskih nastavnih materijala raste. Uvodni tečajevi i povećana dostupnost obrazovne opreme su promijenili nastavni paradigmu. Čak i nastavnici u osnovnim školama trebaju imati kompetencije za stvaranje e-learning materijals. Razlike između preporuka i stvarnosti mogu se utvrditi samo s podacima, a u našem slučaju koristimo se anketama. Rad nastavnika kao tvoraca multimedijalnih materijala za učenje i njihovu motivaciju promatra se u ovom članku. Naše istraživanje je usmjereno na nastavnika na nižim razinama osnovnih škola ( osnovno obrazovanje) jer su oni prvi korak u obrazovnoj piramidi

Educational use cases from a shared exploration of e-books and iPads

E-books and e-book readers are becoming increasingly widely available, particularly for the general reader, and there have been many studies on their adoption. However, less is known about their use for educational and academic purposes. We report here on work carried out on e-books and e-book applications using iPads by academic and teaching staff. After considering pedagogical issues and reporting survey results, we identify a spiral of six key use case areas for e-books. This spiral of use cases moves from basic e-book use, through situational reading, e-books and learning, using multiple learning resources, collaborative/group learning, to e-book production. We discuss each of these use case areas and provide guidelines that will be of interest to practitioners and researchers alike

A conceptual framework for using and evaluating web-based learning resources in school education

Web-based learning resources (WBLRs) have provided teachers with a wide range of new teachingexperiences that are not possible in traditional classroom. However, little research has beendone as to which approach to WBLRs is suitable to address issues that are pertinent to learning.This paper proposes a conceptual framework to explore the design and evaluation of WBLRs inschool education. The paper also examines the way in which the framework is used to evaluatestudents? and teachers? perceptions of WBLRs by means of survey questionnaires. Before developingthe framework, a literature review is undertaken to report on the state of research in the fieldof WBLRs. The literature review reveals a lack of design and evaluation of WBLRs in educationalsettings. Then, the framework is developed in three steps. First, the concept of WBLR isdefined as a learning object that exists at the intersection of content, pedagogy, and technology.Second, concepts of usability are analyzed, and a definition of technical and pedagogical usabilityis proposed. Technical usability is a self-evident requirement, but it is not sufficient for designingpedagogically usable WBLRs. The usability concept must be extended to capture issues that arefundamental to learning. Nevertheless, technical and pedagogical usability cannot be consideredas separate, disjointed activities. Finally, the context of use and evaluation is specified. The contextis the totality of relationships between students and surrounding elements within a teachingand learning situation. The WBLR can be considered as an element of the context, and as such, itbecomes a source of learning, by means of interaction with the students. To investigate the valueof the framework, a case study is undertaken in three classes. To this end, the framework wasused to inform the study, and the findings of the study were mapped back onto the framework inorder to identify additional features found in classroom settings and points in the conceptualframework that did not significantly impact the case study. The main factor that impacted the designand evaluation of WBLRs was the pedagogical usability. While students and teachers globallyagreed about technical usability, the findings indicate that they differed in their perceptionsof pedagogical usability. In addition, the conceptual framework and the findings of the case study differed to a certain degree regarding the connectedness of some pedagogical usability criteri