Design of a micro-learning framework and mobile application using design-based research

Heydy Robles; Miguel Jimeno; Karen Villalba; Ivan Mardini; César Viloria-Nuñez; Wendy Florian

doi:10.7717/peerj-cs.1223

Design of a micro-learning framework and mobile application using design-based research

PeerJ Comput Sci. 2023 Mar 9:9:e1223. doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.1223. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Heydy Robles¹, Miguel Jimeno², Karen Villalba¹, Ivan Mardini³, César Viloria-Nuñez³, Wendy Florian⁴

Affiliations

¹ Language Department, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Altántico, Colombia.
² Systems Engineering Department, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia.
³ Electrical Engineering Department, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia.
⁴ Graphic Design Department, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia.

Abstract

Traditional learning techniques have evolved slowly and have yet to adapt the course content delivery to today's students' approaches to acquiring new knowledge. However, micro-learning has become popular in e-Learning environments as a course design technique due to short attention spans, demand for small chunks of information, and time constraints. Hence, it has been selected for creating reading mobile applications provided to the nature of its learning approach. In order to describe the multiple iterations of design, development, and evaluation of this general framework, a methodology named Design-Based Research (DBR) is implemented. First, the article presents the abstract framework components and a cloud-based software architecture that allows a modular approach to creating such applications. The pathway developed through adapting the iPAC framework, which involves personalization, authenticity, and collaboration, is part of the methodology used to design the app under pedagogical and technological considerations. The process demanded the following phases: analysis and exploration, design and construction, evaluation and reflection, redesign and reconstruction, and final critical reflections. Four applied instruments also validate the framework implementation: The iPAC Rubric, an aphorisms checklist, a pre and post-test, a focus group, and a usability test taken by 28 students in a private university in Colombia. Findings indicated that Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology emerged as an appropriate tool to encounter the needs behind reading applications design due to its sequence of operations yields results successively closer to adequate usability standards and smooth implementation. They also reveal the positive impact of new types of texts on students' motivation and awareness toward other reading strategies and micro-learning. This impact indeed proved the proposed framework's effectiveness for designing micro-learning applications.

Keywords: Design-based-research; Microlearning; Mobile application; e-Learning.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Sciences of Colombia (MinCiencias). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.