Abstract:

The evidence-based approach to education is increasingly permeating teaching practice. From this approach, educational methods are evaluated and validated, so that the teacher can choose those that are supported by scientific evidence. However, despite the fact that the use of technology is growing exponentially in education, it is not common to find studies assessing educational technologies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to create and validate a questionnaire to evaluate students' experience of using educational technologies in the classroom. For this purpose, the users’ perspective of educational technology developed by Huang et al. (2019) was selected as a starting point. User perspective is “a person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service” (International Organization for Standardization, 2009). As indicators of users’ experience, Huang et al. (2019) propose six dimensions: usability – if the student thinks the technology is easy to use; desirability – if the student finds the technology attractive and engaging; adaptability – if the student thinks the technology addresses their diversity; comfortability – if the student feels comfortable with the technology; and a holistic indicator encompassing these five concrete ones, value – if the student holistically values the technology. The concrete indicators of the five specific dimensions were used to create a 25- item scale that assesses students' perceptions of the technology used in the classroom. 54 students from the University of Zaragoza (Degree in Psychology, course Psychology of Education) responded to this scale. They were asked to answer the questions with the main technology used in the course in mind, the Maharazar e-portfolio –an institutional e-portfolio derived from the Mahara’s one. The results showed excellent scale reliability (Chronbach's alpha of 0.901). The principal component analysis conducted on the scale items showed that the best solution is the unifactorial one, explaining a total of 39.28% of the variance. Future studies will intend to replicate these promising results in different courses and educational technologies.

Keywords:

Educational technology, learners' experience, users' perspective, e-portfolio.