User experience of the LMS: Using an LXA-based heuristic to inform the pedagogical experience

Date

2019-05

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Abstract

Although user-centered pedagogical approaches are not necessarily new, the idea of applying learner experience architecture (LXA) principles at the faculty level in a learning management system (LMS) is. This user-centered design case study is guided by the research question in what ways does the application of an LXA-based heuristic, for instructional design in an online technical communication course environment, improve student user experience? For the purposes of this research, LXA—derived from the established fields of learning experience (LX) and Experience Architecture (XA)—is defined as a conglomeration of the following fields: user-centered design (UCD), user-experience (UX), instructional design, technical communication pedagogy, web design, and universal design. To explore this question, I have used the UCD-based RABBIT methodology to design an iterative process leading to an LXA-based heuristic. These iterations included four faculty focus group sessions in which to design and develop the various prototypes of the heuristic and two student user test sessions to test various components of the LXA-based heuristic during the design process but, more importantly, to fully understand the study user. Additionally, I ran several SUS surveys on the course set-up in the LMS during this process to gauge the baseline leading into the research study and the improvements throughout the research process. The data gathered from each of the student user testing sessions directly informed the faculty focus group sessions, which in turn informed the development of the beta version, version 1.0, and finally version 1.1 of the LXA-based heuristic. Due to time and scope limitations of this study, I was not able to fully test the final prototype of the heuristic, which would require running it over the course of a full semester using full activities and assessments for the students. However, the qualitative and quantitative data collected during the study strongly indicate that the design and development of the LXA-heuristic is moving in a direction that improves the student user experience in the LMS. This data was gathered qualitatively through the focus group discussions and think-aloud protocol used during the student user test sessions and gathered quantitatively during the time on task assessment during the user test sessions and the SUS surveys given to the students prior to the study and following each user testing session.

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Keywords

User-experience, User-centered design, Technical communication pedagogy, Learning management system (LMS)

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