Design is Destiny in my Hands … Fate in your Eyes! Bringing Learner-centered Enhancements to the Learning Mall through Eye-tracking, Participatory & Value Sensitive Design Approaches

Learning Management Systems have transformed education by making learning more accessible and flexible. Whilst these platforms are meant to promote quality teaching, learning and assessment, developers and designers often ignore learner’s visual behavior when implementing these systems. Consequently, most of these applications appear as poorly designed and populated by disorganized content— eventually provoking tedious navigations and interactions at the learner’s end. Xi'an Jiaotong- Liverpool University uses Learning Mall to organize coursework, assessment and facilitate staff-student interactions. However, there is lack of evidence whether any usability study, vis-à-vis learners’ gaze behavior and visual attention, on the Learning Mall has ever been carried out. To address the knowledge gap, this paper reports on a Mixed Methods study that has been recently carried out, and linked with Eye-tracking, Participatory and Value Sensitive Design approaches, in order to bring learner- centered improvements to the Learning Mall interface. Action research strategy, involving n= 50 postgraduate students, has been adopted in the 2-phase research design, with the outcomes of each phase influencing the process and application of the subsequent stage. Findings from Phase I unraveled several usability issues that affected learners’ experience with the Learning Mall, guiding the redesign efforts in Phase II through Participatory Design Workshops, to create hi-fidelity prototypes aligned with learners’ need and satisfaction. The implications of this research extend beyond the confines of Learning Management Systems, offering valuable insights to the broader e-Learning community.