How Website Interfaces Mediate Student Interactions Online

• In Event: 35.029 - Instructional Features of Online Learning Environments

Abstract

This paper examines the role of a website’s interface in mediating students interactions online. Fusing educational research with theory and methods drawn from the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and media studies, this study used multimodal and ethnographic methods including interviews, observations, and screencapture video to study students’ use of an educational website in an urban public high school. Data indicated that students’ interactions with and attitude toward the website were impacted by the type and timing of the visual cues they received from the website’s interface. This research is significant because it offers a rationale and method for noticing and analyzing the interface-level interactions that shape students’ experiences online and their ramifications for democratizing teaching and learning with technology.

Author

• Bethany Monea, University of Pennsylvania