Pulling together: keeping track of pedagogy, design and evaluation through the development of scenarios—a case study

This case study describes the multipurpose use of scenarios in a large multinational research project (MOBIlearn) whose aims are to design and develop a pedagogically sound mobile learning environment. Maintaining effective communication and design focus in large consortia is a well‐known problem (see Carroll, 2000), and we describe the role of scenarios in addressing this. Scenarios were initially used to simply envision the future system in order to inform design, but as the project progressed, the role of the scenarios grew to encompass (i) relating system design and implementation to pedagogy by providing a common frame of reference for developers and pedagogic experts; (ii) through a process of refinement, defining the evaluation strategy for the user trials; and (iii) allowing us to keep the user at the heart of the development project. Thus, scenarios helped to resolve the difficulty identified by Taylor (2004) of how to bring together the relatively high level issues of pedagogic evaluation and the more technical user‐centred system evaluation. The development of a first‐aid training scenario is used as an illustrative example.

[1]  Patricia Sachs,et al.  Transforming work: collaboration, learning, and design , 1995, CACM.

[2]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Making use: scenarios and scenario-based design , 2000, DIS '00.

[3]  Josie Taylor,et al.  A task-centred approach to evaluating a mobile learning environment for pedagogical soundness , 2004 .

[4]  Ulf Hedestig,et al.  Participatory design in the development of mobile learning environments , 2004 .

[5]  Mike Sharples,et al.  The design of personal mobile technologies for lifelong learning , 2000, Comput. Educ..

[6]  Jenny Waycott,et al.  Towards a task model for mobile learning: a dialectical approach , 2006, Int. J. Learn. Technol..

[7]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions , 2000 .

[8]  Morten Kyng,et al.  Design at Work , 1992 .

[9]  SharplesMike.  The design of personal mobile technologies for lifelong learning , 2000 .

[10]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Grounding blue-sky research: how can ethnography help? , 1997, INTR.

[11]  Jeff Sokolov.  Methodologies for evaluation of collaborative systems , 1999, SIGG.

[12]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Contextual design , 1997, INTR.

[13]  Bronwen Taylor,et al.  The HUFIT planning analysis and specification toolset , 1990, INTERACT.

[14]  D. Livingstone.  Adults' Informal Learning: Definitions, Findings, Gaps, and Future Research. NALL Working Paper #21. , 2001 .

[15]  Mary Beth Rosson,et al.  Scenario-based design , 2002 .

[16]  Jonathan Rosenhead,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology in Action , 1991 .

[17]  Margaret Galer,et al.  The HUFIT planning, analysis and specification toolset: human factors as a normal part of the I.T. product design process , 1991 .

[18]  Mike Sharples,et al.  Socio-cognitive engineering: A methodology for the design of human-centred technology , 2002, European Journal of Operational Research.