Every time an interface or a system is used, the user is experiencing something towards the system. In order to get an idea how to design and improve systems in a best way possible, these user experiences and system’s usability should be studied. Understanding experiences of users, is also crucial in the field of learning analytics, where one of the most important groups of users is students. This case study focuses on the student experience of a university learning analytics system, Aalto Courses -mobile application, which collects data and feedback dynamically from students answers to items asked on the app, for instance student evaluate the difficulties of topics or reflect the learned things on a course.
The app is based on Dynamic Feedback System, theories of learning analytics and its features are designed to help students become self-regulated learners, so motivationally, metacognitively and strategically active in their own learning process. Therefore, the literature review of this study consists of learning analytics and self-regulated learning, as well as of user experience and usability. The chosen data collection method for this study was qualitative interviewing and the participants were students from a course that tested Aalto Courses- application. There was no previous research on the user experience of this specific application and moreover, there is a very little research on mobile applications supporting learning and giving feedback.
This study showed that the student experience of using Aalto Courses -application was mainly positive, but there was also room for improvement. Among the interviewed students, especially the ease of use, dynamic nature of giving feedback and simple look and functions, were liked. These things were valued in comparison to the traditional way of giving course feedback. However, there were also some minor problems in the functions, and there are still clearly some things to be developed regarding the content of this app. Now, some of the items asked in the app felt unnecessary or confusing and foremost, the connection between this app and students’ ability to become more self-regulated learners, was hardly visible at this point. In the future research, particularly those things that motivate and give students an incentive to use these kinds of systems regularly and properly, needs to be understood, elaborated on and used in the development of similar applications.
