Abstract

There is a persistent gap between education research and practice, including in the design of educational technology. This study bridges this gap and examines our partnership with a literacy platform to implement evidence-based digital features that support different learner needs. We examined students’ (N = 1857; Grades 1-6) use of these new optional features (e.g., audio supports, text magnification, annotation) when completing assignments online and found that 92% of students tried at least one. Importantly, we also found that students showed greater engagement with harder assignments when they used the features. Use of the support features did not differ by student characteristics such as reading proficiency, special education, or socioeconomic status, suggesting that developing research-informed features could potentially benefit all students when they need extra scaffolding.

摘要

教育研究与实践之间存在着持续的差距，包括教育技术的设计。本研究弥补了这一差距，并检验了我们与扫盲平台的合作伙伴关系，以实施支持不同学习者需求的基于证据的数字功能。我们检查了学生（N = 1857；1-6 年级）在完成在线作业时对这些新的可选功能（例如，音频支持、文本放大、注释）的使用情况，发现 92% 的学生至少尝试了一项。重要的是，我们还发现，当学生使用这些功能时，他们对更难的作业表现出更大的参与度。支持功能的使用不会因学生特征（例如阅读能力、特殊教育或社会经济地位）而异，