Learner-centered Design Research Articles

Training for Learner-Centred Pedagogy and Curriculum Design Agendas in Staff Development for Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Training for Learner-Centred Pedagogy and Curriculum Design Agendas in Staff Development for Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Once More, Into the Soup

In one of the earlier essays in this department, we discussed a number of acronyms all having to do with system design, and all having the form x-centered The purpose of that essay was to demonstrate a broad framework within which to understand human-centered computing (HCC), and also to show the various convergences and divergences of the communities of practice that have introduced their own x-centered-design designations. Among them are learner-centered design, client-centered design, designer-centered design, decision-centered design, and work-oriented design.

A Learner-Centered Design, Implementation, and Evaluation Approach of Learning Environments to Foster Acceptance

Most organizations donâ??t focus on what learners really do with their learning environments. Changing the perspective to the learner shows that they enlarge the organizational ones with their own technology-enhanced learning world, using a broad spectrum of technologies: company- and/or higher education-owned Learning Management Systems, social network platforms such as Facebook, mySpace, or Ning, search engines, open web services in the internet like blogs or wikis, and a lot more other applications. In this context, one of the challenges for todayâ??s organizations is how to create well-accepted and used learning environments that drive learnersâ?? success. As errors in requirements specifications have been identified as a major contributor to costly software project failures. Hence it may be highly beneficial if the designers and/or developers of learning environments could verify requirements by predicting learnersâ?? acceptance and usage based on evaluations during the earliest stages of the learning environment development phase. Previous findings of such an approach in the field of CRM software implementation showed that pre-prototype user acceptance tests did have almost equal informational value than their prototype counterparts that ensure hands-on experience with the system. More concrete, we focus on interventions of specific design features during the pre-implementation phase of learning environments. They may help minimizing learnersâ?? initial resistance by providing a realistic preview of the system to enable potential learners to develop accurate perceptions and find out how the system may help them to improve their learning process. The paper proposes a solution by examining the influence of specific design features of learning environments on user acceptance, particularly on the antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. We want to extrapolate the influence of specific design features on specific aspects of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in order to enhance designersâ?? and/or developers ability to identify and improve design features during learning environment implementation to enhance critical determinants. The goal of the current work is the improvement of design science in the topic of technology-enhanced learning. To ensure cross-organizational applicability, the approach suggests an application within higher education institutions as well as corporate organizations.

Applying Learner-Centered Design Principles to UML Sequence Diagrams

The Unified Modeling Language has been shown to be complex and difficult to learn. The difficulty of learning to build the individual diagrams in the UML, however, has received scant attention. In this article, we consider the case of the UML sequence diagram. Despite the fact that these diagrams are among the most frequently used in practice, they are difficult to learn to build. In this article, we consider the question of why these diagrams remain so difficult to learn to build. Specifically, we analyze the process of learning to build sequence diagrams in the context of cognitive complexity theory. Based on this analysis, and drawing on the theory of learner-centered design, we develop a set of recommendations for presenting the sequence diagram building task to the student analyst to reduce the complexity of learning how to build them.

The Dual Role approach: encouraging access to community radio

During the last two decades, community radio has achieved a legal status within the media system of many European countries. Although it is committed to giving a voice to the voiceless, one of its major weaknesses is a social and gender bias: many stations have difficulties in involving the target groups they aim to address, for example, women and so-called socially disadvantaged groups (people with a migrant background, with limited school education, elderly people, homeless etc.). Strategies to involve those target groups seem to be missing. Drawing on the experience and the evaluation of three EU-funded projects, this article describes a training approach, which aims to encourage the involvement of disadvantaged groups in community radio. This consists of a learner-centred design, which links learning with doing: the dual role of participants during the course, who are at the same time both trainees and also future trainers. The underlying theory of the approach action oriented media pedagogy is outlined and the role and importance of participatory evaluation (research) are discussed.

Development and deployment of an immersive learning environment for enhancing process systems engineering concepts

This work differentiates itself from most educational based multimedia resources by catering for two distinct audience groups. The first group is undergraduate process engineering students in a number of Australian institutions, whereas the second group represents operational staff at the industrial facilities covered by the interface. This presents challenges in pedagogy, educational pitch, industrial relations and project management. It has also added a sales driver to the project as we market the resource to industry as an operator training resource. The learning environment is based around spherical imagery of real operating plants coupled with interactive embedded activities and content. This virtual reality (VR) learning tool has been developed by applying aspects of relevant educational theory and proven instructive teaching approaches. Principles such as constructivism, interactivity, cognitive load and learner-centred design have been central considerations when constructing and structuring this resource. Structural challenges include determining a framework for the basic environment, the repository for the VR and activities, as well as the development of a learning platform arrangement to support self-directed learning in the interface. Some of the system's current functionality is demonstrated through snapshots of the screen configuration. Future developments within the interface are revealed.

Active learning: Effects of core training design elements on self-regulatory processes, learning, and adaptability.

This article describes a comprehensive examination of the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying active learning approaches; their effects on learning and transfer; and the core training design elements (exploration, training frame, emotion control) and individual differences (cognitive ability, trait goal orientation, trait anxiety) that shape these processes. Participants (N = 350) were trained to operate a complex, computer-based simulation. Exploratory learning and error-encouragement framing had a positive effect on adaptive transfer performance and interacted with cognitive ability and dispositional goal orientation to influence trainees' metacognition and state goal orientation. Trainees who received the emotion-control strategy had lower levels of state anxiety. Implications for development of an integrated theory of active learning, learner-centered design, and research extensions are discussed.

A learner-centred design of a location-aware learning reminder

To ensure the success of future mobile learning environments, it is essential to develop affordable and effective applications that are well matched to the characteristics of the users' (particularly, learners) learning experiences. As an early exploration of this line of study, this paper evaluates a location-aware learning organiser that can help university students to manage their learning activities through mobile devices. Empirical testing of the learning organiser revealed considerable benefits for students in the university context, and demonstrated some potential opportunities for them to be more engaged in further mobile learning activities.

Game2Learn

This paper presents Game2Learn, an innovative project designed to leverage games in retaining students in computer science (CS). In our two-pronged approach, students in integrative final-year capstone courses and summer research experiences develop games to teach computer science, which, in turn, will be used to improve introductory computing courses. Our successful model for summer undergraduate research and capstone projects engages students in solving the computing retention problem, allows them to quickly create games, and instructs students in user- and learner-centered design and research methods. Results show that this method of building games to teach engages students at multiple levels, inspiring newer students that one day their homework may all be games, and encouraging advanced students to continue on into graduate studies in computing.

The failure of e-learning: why should we use a learner centred design

Why do many e-learning courses fail? Distance learning is generating remarkable changes both in learning and teaching due to knowledge commercialisation and freedom from both spatial and temporal constraints. In spite of this success the educational software and environments did not help students to learn more and better than in traditional training contexts. Studies on human learning process via cognitive models are few; and this results in a more diffi cult investigation on how human-machine interface features adversely infl uence cognitive factors in the educational process. Namely several forces act in the complex scenario of the new formative settings, where the users try to simultaneously control the attention both for the lesson and for the interface manipulation. We claim that we must resort to Learner Centred Design principles, which establish a bridge between usability, accessibility and distance learning tools: if the user is involved in every phase of design, this will help to learn and to apply the Human Computer Interaction principles and reduce the evaluation costs. The aim of this contribution is to highlight a specifi c strategy that could guarantee a good web-based educational design, based on the utmost importance of learner centred design, while helping to solve the problem of assessment of educational process.

CARSS: A Framework for Learner-Centred Design with Children

Learner-centred design (LCD)is a nebulous concept. It can range from attempts to design with the needs of the learner at the forefront, to involving the learner at various stages of the design proc...

A proposal toward the development of accessible e-learning content by human involvement

Most of the existing efforts for supporting the design, preparation, and deployment of accessible e-learning applications propose guidelines that primarily address technical accessibility issues. Little, if any, consideration is given to the real actors involved in the learning experience, such as didactical experts and disabled learners. Moreover, implementing artifacts addressed to the e-learning world requires a wide range of particular skills which are related not only to technical but also to didactical, pedagogical, usability, and accessibility aspects of the produced material. This paper argues that the know-how of a number of stakeholders should be blended into a joint design activity, and that it should be possible to determine the role of each participant in the successive phases of the development lifecycle of e-learning applications. The paper sketches the methodological guidelines of a design framework based on involving the users with disabilities, as well as pedagogical experts, in the development process. The novelty of this proposal mainly stems from being built up around the core of strategies and choices specifically bound to accessibility requirements. Characteristic elements of learner-centered design are then further integrated into processes and methodologies which are typical of participatory and contextual design approaches. Following such guidelines, it will be possible to gain a deeper understanding of the requirements and of the operational context of people needing accessible material, either as learners or educators. The underlying objective is to increase the potential to realize learning systems that better meet different user needs and that provide a more satisfying learning experience. Moreover, when people get involved in the development process, they gain a sense of ownership of the system and are therefore more likely to accept and “promote” it.

Learner-Centered Arthurian Course Design

Students who take Arthutran courses are generally self-selected and highly motivated. By channeling this energy into learner-centered outcomes, we provide opportunities for students to understand Arthurian materials deeply while developing valuable lifelong learning skills.

IDEA: Identifying design principles in educational applets

The Internet is increasingly being used as a medium for educational software in the form of miniature applications (e.g., applets) to explore concepts in a domain. One such effort in mathematics education, the Educational Software Components of Tomorrow (ESCOT) project, created 42 miniature applications each consisting of a context, a set of questions, and one or more interactive applets to help students explore a mathematical concept. They were designed by experts in interface design, educational technology, and classroom teaching. However, some applications were more successful for fostering student problem-solving than others. This article describes the method used to mine a subset (25) of these applets for design principles that describe successful learner-centered design by drawing on such data as videos of students using the software and summaries of written student work. Twenty-one design principles were identified, falling into the categories of motivation, presentation, and support for problem solving. The main purpose of this article is to operationalize a method for post hoc extraction of design principles from an existing library of educational software, although readers may also find the design principles themselves to be useful.

Reflections on interdisciplinary team development for the design of a platform for computer supported collaborative play

The Constructed Narratives project has been designed for use in public spaces where there is the opportunity for individuals and groups of people, who are not acquainted with each other, to encounter the game and subsequently each other. The goal is to provide a platform that supports discourse in environments where ‘keeping comfortable distance’ between oneself and others is the norm. The system framework developed for this project can be applied for use in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL), and collaborative design activities in the tradition of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). The current domain explored in the Constructed Narratives project is computer systems designed to enable shared experience through play, or computer supported collaborative play (CSCP). This paper examines the learner-centred design methodologies used for the development of the physical artifacts and underlying software and hardware system architecture for the Constructed Narratives project. The design methodology demonstrates how an interdisciplinary team of artists, designers, and technologists can exploit the opportunities inherent in this ‘symmetry of ignorance’ to find solutions for multiple wicked design problems that can arise during the development of an integrated software and hardware system.

Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications

This article reviews the literature on the role that children can play in the design of information technology applications intended for young users themselves. It discusses several relevant design theories—user-centered design, contextual design (CD) or inquiry, participatory design (PD), cooperative inquiry, informant design, and learner-centered design—looks at usability issues in relation to design and children, and presents a number of studies in which children have been actively involved in the design both of software and Web portals. Designers are finding that children as well as adults can have a valuable and complementary role to play in the design process, although its precise nature is a matter of debate.

Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications

This article reviews the literature on the role that children can play in the design of information technology applications intended for young users themselves. It discusses several relevant design theories—user-centered design, contextual design (CD) or inquiry, participatory design (PD), cooperative inquiry, informant design, and learner-centered design—looks at usability issues in relation to design and children, and presents a number of studies in which children have been actively involved in the design both of software and Web portals. Designers are finding that children as well as adults can have a valuable and complementary role to play in the design process, although its precise nature is a matter of debate.

Designed for learners: applying software engineering to the development of scaffolded educational software

We have developed a software engineering process for the design of scaffolded work environments, or SWEets. This process is inspired by the principles of learner-centered design (LCD), which is an approach that recognises learners as a unique group of novice users who must be supported in learning the content and work practices of an unfamiliar domain. SWEets provide this support through the use of scaffolds, which are tools and techniques used to support learners in completing an activity that would otherwise be too difficult or complex. We describe our software engineering methodology for designing SWEets for any educational domain, and look specifically at two case studies of SWEets developed for desktop and handheld platforms. We describe the design of Symphony, a desktop SWEet that provides process scaffolding to support students engaged in complex scientific investigations, and discuss the results of a classroom study of the software. We also look at the development of Pocket PiCoMap, a tool to support students who are using handheld computers to create concept maps, and discuss an ongoing study of the use of mobile handheld devices with wireless internet access in a middle-school science classroom.

Developing a Reusable Resource for Teaching Task Analysis

Many of the skills required in the practice of human factors are “process-oriented” rather than “product-oriented”; this is challenging for human factors educators because it is often more difficult to teach process-oriented skills and concepts than product-oriented skills and concepts. The Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology [LT3] at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada is involved in developing learning objects (also known as “learnware”) to help faculty overcome instructional challenges associated with teaching processes. The learnware development model used by LT3, which enables learner-centered resources to be developed, for students, and by students, to teach about processes in various disciplines will be discussed. The Task Analysis learning object developed to overcome instructional challenges experienced by human factors professors in the department of Systems Design Engineering, will illustrate LT3's learnware development model. The development of Task Analysis learnware emphasizes how the application of iterative learner-centred design can aid in teaching fundamental concepts in human factors.

Scaling up a learning technology strategy: Supporting student/faculty teams in learner-centred design

The need for post-secondary institutions to think strategically about the application of learning technologies has been well documented. The strategy must plan to effect change in faculty approaches to teaching and learning, not just to 'add technology and stir'. An effective strategy will also address both content - the particular applications with the most leverage for institutional goals - and the process of obtaining commitment and moving forward (Daniel, 1996).DOI: 10.1080/0968776990070203