Why This App: Can a Video-Based Intervention Help Parents Identify Quality Educational Apps?

• In Event: Teacher Agency, Attitudes, and Evaluation of Technology Integration

Abstract

Researchers recommend that parents look for five benchmarks as the indicators of quality educational apps (i.e., scaffolding, curriculum, development team, feedback, learning theory; Dubé et al., 2020), yet research suggests that parents undervalue some of these benchmarks. In near and far transfer studies (n=100; n=101), parents were randomly divided into intervention and control groups and were assigned to either watch a 9-minute video that detailed how the five benchmarks augment learning, or a 2-minute control video. Parents evaluated 10 simulated apps containing either benchmarks or buzzwords. The near-transfer study shows that a brief intervention can help parents identify quality educational apps with benchmarks, whereas the far-transfer study suggests it only works if developers are using specific keywords in app descriptions.

Authors

• Heather Ann Pearson, McGill University

• Armaghan Montazami, McGill University

• Adam Kenneth Dubé, McGill University