[en] Electronic assessment (e-assessment) is becoming increasingly popular in modern education systems and is emerging as a major and relevant method for evaluating students. Among the variety of new approaches and tools that have been introduced for e-assessment, the absence of well-defined protocols for checking the fairness and reliability of evaluations for every student remains a major problem. To check the credibility of e-assessments, it is paramount to enhance the understanding of children's User Experience (UX), as learners possess limited cognitive resources, and substantial variations exist across different age groups. The interface's usability, characterized by its ease of comprehension, ease of use, and ease of learning, can guarantee a positive UX for children. Children can contribute to the legitimacy of assessment findings only when they are actively permitted to engage in the system and successfully demonstrate their expertise and skills. It is therefore essential to integrate user-centric technology into e-assessments to ensure equitable opportunities for all users. Thus, the primary objective of this doctoral dissertation is to enhance the methodological understanding of UX evaluation methods for young school-aged children in the context of e-assessments. As a first step, we conducted a systematic review (272 full papers) that allowed us to identify an absence of interaction design techniques that can provide an accurate assessment of the fundamental concepts of UX for students between the ages of 6 and 12 (Research Paper 1). Furthermore, we identified the need for methods that might be employed before or after the evaluation setting to prevent any interference with the children's performance during the assessment. When we began our investigation, we opted to utilize questionnaires as the principal instrument for evaluating children’s UX. Nevertheless, it became apparent that the scale—which must be carefully designed when aimed at children, particularly those in our age bracket—was restricted in range and thus required more careful assessment to improve its validity and reliability. Therefore, we decided to dedicate resources to analyzing the scale design as a first action (Research Paper 2) by conducting a cognitive interview study (N = 25) and administering a digital large-scale questionnaire in a real assessment scenario (N = 3,263). Upon scrutinizing the many biases present in this research, we decided to employ experts’ perspectives to tackle the issues effectively and provide a valuable contribution to integrating information in a multidisciplinary area (Research Paper 3). We derived 10 heuristics on the basis of an evidence-based corpus of 506 guidelines, the evaluation of several domain experts (N = 24), and one heuristic evaluation workshop (N = 2). These heuristics may be utilized to assess the UX and usability elements of e-assessments among children aged 6 to 12 years. Along with our studies, our inquiry found that the methods used to evaluate children's UX needed more careful examination. We advocate for the enhancement and advancement of scales that are both enjoyable and easy for children to use. Furthermore, we suggest that future research efforts incorporate various stakeholder roles for adults and children to promote a paradigm shift by pushing forward participatory design trends. Overall, with this doctoral dissertation, we provide an essential step for improving comprehensiveness and future approaches for evaluating children's UX in an e-assessment context.
Disciplines :
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
LEHNERT, Florence Kristin ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences > Team Pedro CARDOSO LEITE
Language :
English
Title :
MEASURING CHILDREN’S USER EXPERIENCE WITH E-ASSESSMENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR A BETTER INTERPRETATION OF UX EVALUATION METHODS FOR SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN
Defense date :
27 March 2024
Institution :
Unilu - Université du Luxembourg [Faculté des Sciences Humaines, des Sciences de l'Education et des Sciences Sociales (FHSE)], Luxembourg
Degree :
Docteur en Psychologie (DIP_DOC_0013_B)
Promotor :
CARDOSO LEITE, Pedro ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Cognitive Science and Assessment
President :
FISCHBACH, Antoine ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Education and Social Work (DESW) > Teaching and Learning
Secretary :
LALLEMAND, Carine ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Cognitive Science and Assessment
Jury member :
Reader, Gavin Sim; University of Central Lancashire