ABSTRACT
Educational Technology (EdTech) lacks a foundational, formal, scientific, epistemic theory. Therefore, it lacks native constructs/variables and an epistemological object of study for scientifically deploying its work. This study determines the existence (ontology) of the theorized constructs Instructional Usability (UsI) and Learner-User eXperience (LUX) and defines their characterization (epistemology). Both constructs were modeled and instrumented. Furthermore, a Tech-Instructionality Model (TIM) was theorized and developed in this paper, both analytically and empirically. The model integrates UsI and LUX as two pairs of constructs linked with two EdTech epistemological objects of study, the instructional interface and the instructional interaction in two assessment modalities, testing mode (user-learner view) and inspection mode (expert/designer view). Two instruments were developed and validated in this study for testing mode, the Instructional Usability Scale (SUsI) and the Learner-User eXperience Questionnaire (QLUX). Both instruments were tested in a non-immersive virtual reality educational milieu during the academic lockdown of the Covid19 pandemic. The results show that both SUsI and QLUX consistently measured UsI and LUX, thus, providing a valid assessment for tech-instructionality and a foundation for constructing a scientific theory of EdTech. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This response reviews and analyzes the ten focal topics and three elements introduced in Nacu, Martin, and Pinkard's work, entitled "Designing for 21st century learning online: a heuristic method to enable educator learning support roles". An analogy of the London Stock Exchange's Big Bang is drawn to describe the moment education is currently living. In this context, homeschooling guided learning is analyzed. Nacu, Martin, and Pinkard (2018) offered insightful approaches for the sudden shift to digital that the world has experienced since April 2020. Their inquiries coincided with the questions asked by researchers and teachers around the world when their schools were closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Along with Nacu et al.'s (Educ Tech Res 64(4):1029-1049, 2018) effort, a theoretical framework, an instructional interface model, is conceptualized as a blueprint, to offer a guide for research for instructional-technological interactions. In this scenario, shifting to digital is not just a tech shift but a worldwide creators' mindset shifts.