Work in Progress: STEM Students' Experiences with Educational Technology Tools

Abstract

There has been an increased use of educational technology tools in STEM classrooms in the past few decades. Previous studies have discussed the impact of design, development, and use of educational technology tools on creating an interactive learning environment for students. However, in the realm of user experience, limited studies explored the context of technology and students' experiences while interacting with educational technology tools, such as students' perceived ease of use. Accordingly, this work in progress study explores reflections of students' experience while interacting with the most commonly used education technology tools in postsecondary classrooms. For this study, we recruited thirty undergraduate STEM students from two midwestern educational institutes. Our primary research question was: What are students' perceptions of using educational technology tools in postsecondary STEM classrooms? We collected data using an open-ended questionnaire, where students reported their experiences with educational technology tools in their classes. The students' data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The descriptive analysis indicated that students broadly used three types of education technology tools. The first type was primarily used to manage the course content, such as reading materials, grades, quizzes, assignments, and discussion (e.g., Piazza and Blackboard). The second type was used to keep students engaged during the lectures (e.g., Kahoot and clickers). The third type was the social media application (e.g., YouTube) to learn the course content. Thematic analysis revealed the presence of five themes, i.e., students perceived academic relevancy, academic usefulness, ease of use, design issues, and utility issues with the education technology tools. This study highlights the students' perceptions of their interactions with the education technology tools in STEM courses. The study of these perceptions may help us to design better educational technology tools for student-centered learning environments. Furthermore, this preliminary study is a guiding step towards understanding students' expectations with educational technology tools.