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6.3 Elements of Learner Experience with Educational Technology 97
(text, multimedia, images) as well as its structure, or information architecture. We
look to see how the information and content are structured regarding defined user
needs and client business requirements.
To help define the objectives and scope of user experience efforts, as well as
enable their meaningful measurement, Guo (2012) suggested a conceptual frame-
work that describes four distinct elements of user experience, including value,
usability, desirability, and adoptability, and how they interact with one another in
driving better product designs.
Learner experience in a learning environment with educational technology needs
to consider classroom as an integrated system with classroom furniture, equipment
and devices, software systems, and services. The four elements of user experience
for products can be used to express the learner experience with educational tech-
nology. While learner experience should consider the diversity of learners in a
learning environment, we use “adaptability” to replace “adoptability” to show the
diversity of needs from students. Also, the physical environment factors, such as
light, temperature, and acoustics, play a major role for experience. So “comforta-
bility” is also included in learner experience. Through the above analysis, the
elements of learner experience include value, usability, desirability, adaptability,
and comfortability, shown in Fig. 6.1.
As shown in Fig. 6.1, value is the core element for learner experience with
educational technology, which focuses on whether an educational product meets the
needs of learners and whether it is effective for learning. Usability deals with the
issue whether it is easy to use an educational product, services, resources, device,
etc. Adaptability focuses on the flexibility of an educational technology and deals
with the issue whether it adapts to learners’ different needs. Desirability asks for
whether an educational technology is fun and engaging for learners; and com-
fortability focuses on whether learners feel comfortable with the technology.
Desirability Usability
Is it fun and engaging in Is it easy to use content and
activity? devices?
Value
Does it meet learning
needs of learner?
Comfortability Adaptability
Is it comfortable in the
classroom? Does it adapt to learners?
Fig. 6.1 Five elements of learner experience with educational technology