Development and usability testing of a student mobile application for the aiche concept warehouse

Abstract

Incorporating user feedback is imperative for the adoption and continued usage of educational innovations in the classroom. We report on the development of an Android-based student mobile application, a user-suggested improvement for the AIChE Concept Warehouse. An Apple-based mobile application is also in development. Our intent is to share the applications’ development and improvement process in the hopes that other innovators can benefit from the lessons learned through our experience. The AIChE Concept Warehouse was developed with the intent of fostering a community of learning within chemical engineering. The Concept Warehouse is a web-enabled database infrastructure that is designed to promote concept-based instruction through the use of concept questions. These concept questions are used in core curriculum courses like Material/Energy Balances, Thermodynamics, Transport Phenomena, Kinetics and Reactor Design, and Materials Science. Availability of high quality concept questions can lower the barrier for faculty to use concept-based instruction and assessment. This software allows the instructor to engage students and evaluate student learning in real-time. The instructor is then able to adjust the pace of lecture in response to student understanding. The Concept Warehouse also allows for reflective assessments such as “the muddiest point.” The student mobile application was developed to make it easier for students to submit answers and written explanations to these assessments using mobile devices. Originally, students could submit their answers to conceptual questions using clickers, mobile browsers on smartphones, and laptops. Input via smartphones, however, proved cumbersome because it depended on the quality of the student’s mobile browser and utilized the full-size webpage interface. The improved mobile student interface facilitates participation by making responses via smartphone more user-friendly. After the development of the application, we conducted initial usability tests with students who had previously used the web-based options for answer submission. In order to gauge usability, we collected usage statistics from student responses to a usability survey. Survey responses were used to identify student likes and dislikes as well as to compare different available options for answer submission. These results will be used to improve the design of the current application as well as guide our design decisions for the development of the iOS version of the student app.