Learning Experience Technology Usability Design framework

Abstract

Using information and communication technology (ICT) for learning purposes has become more ingrained in curriculums and students’ lives over the past decades. Commonly, the lack of understanding about learning and pedagogy, and more specifically their contexts, will lead to creating learning software that utilize outdated pedagogy or are lacking in critical aspects of pedagogical design. This has created a need to find cost efficient ways to address the multidimensional usability issues found in learning technology. Creating an engaging and pedagogically robust learning product is a complicated task that requires easily accessible knowledge about both the technological and learning related aspects in creating learning software. The aim of this study is to explore and present the dimensions of learning technology even further, to provide a reinforced framework for creating and evaluating learning technology. For this purpose, we have developed the Learning Experience Technology Usability Design Framework. LETUS Design has both practical and theoretically rich components that combine heuristic evaluation, pedagogical theories and findings from extensive learning technology design expert evaluations. This paper aims at offering a more definite framework for evaluating the usability of learning technology in a holistic way. This work will further elaborate especially on the contextual aspects of digital learning technology design in the LETUS Design framework.