Use of Digital Learning Environments: A Study about Fragmented Information Awareness

Abstract

The study focuses on fragmented information awareness as a result of the cross-use of Digital Learning Environments (DLEs), rather than focusing on the use of individual Learning Management Systems (LMSs). This study goes beyond adopting an educational perspective as the classical studies on LMSs do. DLEs are defined as a plethora of digital systems that may be used within a teaching/learning context, including LMSs, but also social media shared dashboards communication tools, etc. used in such context. The paper addresses the issues encountered by different actors (students, teaching staff) when using DLEs. The study is theoretically anchored within the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)/Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) concept of awareness, repurposing the concept in an educational setting. The paper introduces fragmented information awareness, which is a new concept in the extensive existent body of literature on systems supporting Situation Awareness (SA), distributed, and shared awareness. The contribution of this paper lies in defining, describing, and addressing fragmented information awareness, grounded in empirical qualitative data. Moreover, the study addresses Universal Design (UD) issues by proposing a set of recommendations for non-fragmented information awareness from within and from without. Overall, the study subscribes to the third and fourth HCI waves.