Session Information
10 ONLINE 45 A, Virtual Excursions & Online Learning Environments
Paper Session
MeetingID: 932 3425 5120 Code: UkJf0U
Contribution
Due to the trend of teaching 4.0., digitalized alternatives to proven presence teaching methods such as excursions are prototyped and tested. Virtual excursions enable teachers to visit non-accessible locations with their students without leaving the classroom. However, the latest researched examples often require programming skills for preparing such virtual excursions. This required programming knowledge can create barriers for teachers from non-computer science fields to apply this technology in their lectures.
To lower the barrier, the development of authoring tools in this field is inevitable. Therefore, the aim of our current research activities in the MiReBooks project is to design an intuitive authoring tool that enables teachers to prepare virtual excursions without any additional programming skills. This raises the research question how self-explanatory the current design of the authoring tool is among teachers within engineering.
Within the MiReBooks project, several qualitative methods were applied in former project phases in order to develop a user-centered tool.
In the following paper, we will focus on user experience studies, which evaluate the intuitive usability of the interface design and the overall interaction experience with a mixed-methods approach. Higher education teachers were asked to think aloud while doing a set of lecture-preparation tasks with the authoring tool. They were observed in an online video call while sharing their screen during the tool interaction. Additionally, the participants filled questionnaires to assess the intuitive use of the tool as well as the usability. The results indicate that the authoring tool is quick to learn and comprehend for teachers and enables them to effectively prepare lectures for 360° virtual excursions with no previous programming skills.
Method
The main study focused on the user experience during the preparation of the virtual excursion. Therefore, the test group consisted of 14 engineering education teachers of different gender (4 female, 10 male). The study language was both German (9) and English (5). The observation team consisted of three people of different gender and scientific background (see graphic 2). Among the teachers, the named scientific fields were four participants with mining mechanical engineering, mining engineering, three with a geologist, two raw material engineers, two mechanical engineers and four participants from the humanities consisting of sociology, communication studies and psychology/didactic. The participants from the humanities were included in order to ensure that the software is universally understood throughout different scientific fields.
Expected Outcomes
The aim of the study was to evaluate the usability of the authoring tool with a focus on it is self-explainability. As the authoring tool has already been through a number of iterative user centered design steps, this user experience study marks the latest design step for the tool. In order to evaluate the tool a mixed-method approach was selected in order to have comparable measurement instruments and standard evaluation and the ability to further understand the nature of novel didactical and interaction concepts. Overall, the UX study among higher education teachers showed that the developed authoring tool is very intuitive and self-explanatory. The participants were able to recall the further steps to fulfill their tasks and perceived the tool as easy to learn. However, the observation revealed that there are still aspects that need to be reworked such as the terminology around learning experiences and MR, the ability to move in 3D spaces and other features such as the viewing angle that is only applicable in the context of virtual excursions. [...] The next step would be to add this tool in the preparation process of lectures and understand how the curriculum enhances. As the tool has proofed its usability among the target group, it would be now valuable from a didactical standpoint to see how the tool can be applied in a recurring preparation process. Also, the data sample was quite limited to a certain field of mechanical engineering, thus other study fields would further help to improve and add new additional features to the tool. Finally, this user experience study showed that the technology is not the barrier to prevent virtual excursions in lectures.
References
[4.]Blackler, A.L.; Hurtienne, J. (2007) Towards a unified view of intuitive interaction: Definitions, models and tools across the world. MMI-Interakt. 13, pp. 36–54. [5.]Bloom, B. S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill W. H., Krathwohl, D. R. (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals, Handbook I: Cognitive domain, New York: David McKay [7.]Borst, C.W.; Lipari, N.G.; Woodworth, J.W. (2018) Teacher-guided educational VR: Assessment of live and prerecorded teachers guiding virtual field trips. In Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), Tuebingen, Germany, 18–22 March 2018; pp. 467–474. [9.]Brooke, J. (2013) SUS - a retrospective. Journal of Usability Studies. pp. 29-40. [14.]Diefenbach, S.; Ullrich, D. (2015) An Experience Perspective on Intuitive Interaction: Central Components and the Special Effect of Domain Transfer Distance. Interacting with Computers 27/3, pp. 210–234. [15.]Hurtienne, J. and Naumann, A. (2010). QUESI - A questionnaire for measuring the subjective consequences of intuitive use. Interdisciplinary College 2010. Focus Theme: Play, Act and Learn. Sankt Augustin: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, 539. [16.]ISO 9241-210 (2010) ISO 9241-210. Ergonomics of Human-System Interaction-Part 210: Human-Centred Design For Interactive Systems. Génève: International Organization Standardization. [17.]Kalkofen, D, Mori, S, Ladinig, T, Daling, L, Abdelrazeq, A, Ebner, M, Ortega, M, Feiel, S, Gabl, S, Shepel, T, Tibbett, J, Laine, TH, Hitch, M, Drebenstedt, C & Moser, P (2020) Tools for Teaching Mining Students in Virtual Reality based on 360° Video Experiences. in Proceedings - 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VRW 2020: Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). Proceedings - 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VRW 2020, Atlanta, GA, USA, pp. 455-459, [18.]Kolb, D. A., Boyatzis, R. E. and Mainemelis, C. (2001) Experiential learning theory: Previous research and new directions, Perspectives on Thinking, Learning and Cognitive Styles, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 227-247. [19.]Khademi, M., Haghshenas, M., Kabir, H. (2011) A Review On Authoring Tools. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Distance Learning and Education, IPCSIT. pp. 40–44. IACSIT Press, Singapore [22.]Kieslinger, B., Holocher, T., Barra A., et al. (2013) Virtual Excursions: a new way to explore science in class. International Conference on New Perspectives in Science Education, 14/03/2013 - 15/03/2013, Florence, Italy. pp. 1-5. [23.]McKenzie, S., Rough, J., Spence, A., Patterson, N. (2019) Virtually There: The Potential, Process and Problems of Using 360° Video in the Classroom. In: IISIT 16, pp. 211–219.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.