Learning From Doing: Lessons Learned From Designing and Developing an Educational Software Within a Heterogeneous Group

Literature Review

In the 1990s, higher education began to gradually increase its adoption of technology equipment and infrastructure to support teaching and learning. In Kirkwood and Price’s (2014) critical literature review, they found that the majority of technologies used to support teaching were to supplement existing teaching practices such as adding course materials in an online space. The majority of learning technologies were used to emphasize operational improvement, quantitative improvement in assessment or engagement, and qualitative changes for in-depth understanding.

In many ways, the educational landscape remains stagnant when it comes to adapting to the evolution of the digital age. Typically, an LMS includes tools for discussion, email, assignment submission, instructional content management, analysis, organization, delivery, and assessment (Cavus, 2007). Although existing tools are successful in supporting instructors in course management, there is a deficiency in supporting authentic social connections and providing the functionality for students to actively seek or provide peer assistance (Dron & Ostashewski, 2015). In order to compensate for these limitations, some instructors seek help from various commercial applications to transform a traditional classroom into an active learning environment (Gao, Zhang, & Franklin, 2013). This is especially problematic for online students who do not participate in discussions. As a result, interactions in an online course often become siloed to instructor-to-student exchanges rather than authentic peer-to-peer engagement. A study has shown that low peer interaction contributes to low student satisfaction (Lowenthal & Dennen, 2017).