Towards a Holistic Understanding of Technology-mediated Learning Appropriation

Information technology in the learning process is one major success factor for innovative learning scenarios. A necessary pre-condition is the faithful appropriation of technology-mediated learning (TML) to ensure learning outcomes. However, research still lacks insights concerning determinants and consequences of a faithful TML appropriation. Therefore, this research-in-progress paper presents a mixed-methods research approach to gain a holistic understanding of TML appropriation. First, based on the insights of adaptive structuration theory, a theoretical model is developed considering objective and subjective measures for TML appropriation as well as antecedents and consequences of TML appropriation. Second, the mixed-methods approach is presented in order to evaluate the theoretical model. Our expected contribution to theory includes an extension of both TML and adaptive structuration theory with an in-depth view of TML appropriation. Expected practical contributions include the derivation of design implications for TML services that are faithfully appropriated to ensure learning success of TML participants

THEORY-DRIVEN DESIGN OF A MOBILE-LEARNING APPLICATION TO SUPPORT DIFFERENT INTERACTION TYPES IN LARGE-SCALE LECTURES

Universities face increasing numbers of students leading to increasingly large lectures, and decreasing interaction and collaboration, which are important factors for learning success and satisfaction. The use of IT can help overcoming this challenge by increasing the interaction in large-scale lectures without massively increasing the workload of lecturers. In this research-in-progress paper, we present the design and pre-test of a mobile-learning application aiming to increase the interaction in large-scale lectures and the learning success of learners. For designing our application, we follow a design science research approach. We rely on insights from interaction theory as well as requirements gathered from lecturers and students in a focus group workshop. A pre-test of our application showed high valus for Perceived Usefulness, User Satisfaction, and Perceived Presentation Quality for the overall application and moreover high valus for Performance Expectancy and Intention to Use of all but one functions. The results show that the application is ready for being used in large-scale lectures. As a next step, the application will be used in one of our large-scale lectures aiming to evaluate whether using our application has a positive impact on interaction, satisfaction and learning success

Forms of Formative Assessment in Virtual Learning Environments

One of the challenges in the contemporary education is improving learner’s learning capability during the learning period through formative assessment in virtual learning environments. The formative assessment process requires learner to be active participants in the learning process by communicating and interacting with the instructor. The formative assessment process accommodates learner responses that give an opportunity to support the learner in learning through feedback. In a virtual learning environment, formative assessment can be significantly improved by the use of information systems. In this research we explore forms of formative assessment in virtual leaning environments with a specific focus on the design dimension. Our analysis improves the understanding of formative assessment and the design dimension specific to forms of formative assessment in virtual learning environments. Our work informs the design of online learning environments to improve the effectiveness of formative assessment

How to Design Learning Applications that Support Learners in their Moment of Need – Didactic Requirements of Micro Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic is showing the limits of our traditional education systems that mainly build on classroom lectures with face-to-face interaction between teachers or trainers and learners. Now more than ever, there is a growing need for digital learning formats that make it possible to maintain teaching in universities, schools, and enterprises despite the spatial distance from the learners. To address these new conditions of learning, short and small learning units are a promising approach when it comes to demand-oriented learning solutions. However, the question of how to design didactically appropriate micro content is not yet answered by research. To close this research gap, we conducted a qualitative interview study with professionals in the field of instructional design and technology-enhanced learning-design. With this information, we were able to derive 20 requirements for designing effective micro content

Individual Appropriation of Learning Management Systems—Antecedents and Consequences

IT support in the learning process constitutes a key factor for the success of innovative teaching/learning scenarios. To ensure learning success in innovative teaching/learning scenarios, learners need to faithfully apply learning management systems (LMS). However, we lack theoretical insights into which factors affect whether they do so. To help solve this issue, we first used adaptive structuration theory to identify antecedents and consequences regarding faithful LMS appropriation and embed them into a theoretical model. Second, we conducted a survey study with 173 participants to evaluate the model. The results show that the perceived IT support, interactivity, and the task-technology fit significantly affect the degree to which learners faithfully apply a LMS. Moreover, the results indicate that faithful appropriation is a significant indicator of the learning process satisfaction as well as perceived learning success. The present paper thus theoretically contributes to the scientific discussion concerning technology-mediated learning processes while also making a practical contribution by deriving implications for LMS application

Evaluating the Quality of Technology-Mediated Learning Services

Technology-mediated Learning Services (TMLS) play an increasingly important role in the learning services industry. Despite the fact that the importance of a holistic evaluation of TMLS quality has been highlighted in the literature to derive transferable research results on multiple dimensions, it has not yet been examined. To address this gap, we first synthesize the existing insights on structure, recipients’ predisposition, process and results quality of TMLS and develop a comprehensive approach to measure TMLS quality. Afterwards, we develop our research model and examine the importance of the different constructs of TMLS quality. We rely on findings in the body of literature, a focus group workshop and a card-sorting exercise to develop our TMLS quality model. Thereafter, we collect data from 163 participants of TMLS software-training to empirically evaluate our scale and research model. Our core results are a TMLS quality model, including a newly developed TMLS process dimension