Self-Documentation Software as a means to increase Self-Efficacy at Schools: Design Concepts based on Co-Design with Students
Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems are employed in a wide array of settings. One such setting is the educational domain where ICT is taking an ever increasing part in the classroom. Due to this evolvement, ICT may be a well-suited aspect in supporting the students to overcome their challenges. With the goal of this support in mind, ICT addressing the students' feeling of Self-Efficacy may provide an answer. As of today the majority of technology used in classrooms come in the form of Learning Management Systems (LMS) which main focus is to provide a digital platform for the teacher/student interface.
A promising field of study is that of Self-Documentation tools employed in education. The act of Self-Documentation is shown to be empowering, which in turn can lead to an increased feeling of Self-Efficacy. To this end, the main aim of this thesis concerns investigating possible avenues in which digital Self-Documentation tools can incorporate functionality in order to increase student Self-Efficacy.
A user-centered approach was employed in order to better capture the students' perspective regarding the main aim. As part of this approach, a workshop was conducted with students using a Self-Documentation tool as part of their education. The goal of this workshop was to elicit design concepts supporting Self-Efficacy that were important to the students. By building on these concepts together with concepts from theory, this thesis seeks to illustrate ways in which they can be combined into software applications with the aim of supporting student Self-Efficacy.
Main findings regarding this aim concerned design concepts and documentation modals preferred by students. A trend regarding documentation modals is that they should be varied as well as reflecting the user habits of today's students. These user habits are strongly influenced by software and applications that are employed in the social parts of the students' lives. Furthermore, conceptual design inputs from students indicate that there are several ways in which support for Self-Efficacy can be incorporated in Self-Documentation tools. Suggestions for how the documentation modals and design concepts can be combined in software applications are presented through wireframes.