Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Identifying Usability Issues of the Most Popular Mobile Education Apps from User Reviews


Affiliations
1 Research Scholar, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India
2 Professor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India
 

The study of mobile apps is a hot research topic because of the expanding use of mobile devices around the world. App user reviews provide a channel of communication between app developers and their end users. They are the best source for understanding user opinions and concerns. Analysis of mobile education apps from various angles and contexts is revealed by several literature reviews. However, there is hardly any study analyzing the emerging issues of Adults education apps in the body of literature. The goal of this study is to identify the main topics related to emerging usability issues in user reviews of the apps on the Google Play Store. The study analyses 2,28,660 negative reviews and 9,93,460 positive user reviews of the top five popular education-related apps (Coursera, Edx, LinkedIn, Skillshare, and Udemy) using Natural Language Processing tasks such as Latent Dirichlet Algorithm (LDA). The results identify several inherent topics in the negative reviews such as account login issues, security and privacy issues, payment issues, content-related issues, app usability issues, customer service issues, and bug-fixing issues. On the other way, the analysis of positive reviews reveals ease of use, the best learning app, user-friendly and great platform.

Keywords

Mobile Education, Adult Apps, Topic Modelling, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), User Reviews.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • R. Ariana, “What you need to know about digital learning and transformation of education,” 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.unesco.org/en/digital-education/needknow
  • E. O. C. Mkpojiogu, A. Hussain, and M. O. Agbudu, “Security Issues in the Use of Mobile Educational Apps: A Review,” Int. J. Interact. Mob. Technol., vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 124–137, 2021, doi: 10.3991/ijim.v15i06.20631.
  • B. Liu, J. Lin, and N. Sadeh, “Reconciling mobile app privacy and usability on smartphones: Could user privacy profiles help?,” WWW 2014 - Proc. 23rd Int. Conf. World Wide Web, pp. 201–211, 2014, doi: 10.1145/2566486.2568035.
  • S. Okuboyejo, “Examining Users’ Concerns while Using Mobile Learning Apps,” Int. J. Interact. Mob. Technol., vol. 15, no. 15, pp. 47–58, 2021, doi: 10.3991/ijim.v15i15.22345.
  • Y. Singh and P. K. Suri, “An empirical analysis of mobile learning app usage experience,” Technol. Soc., vol. 68, no. January, p. 101929, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101929.
  • M. Vásquez-Carbonell, “A Systematic Literature Review of Educational Apps: What Are They Up To?,” J. Mob. Multimed., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 251–274, 2022, doi: 10.13052/jmm1550-4646.1825.
  • X. L. Pham and G. D. Chen, “PACARD: A New Interface to Increase Mobile Learning App Engagement, Distributed Through App Stores,” J. Educ. Comput. Res., vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 618–645, 2019, doi: 10.1177/0735633118756298.
  • S. Batista and G. Barcelos, “Considerations on the use of mobile phones in educational context,” Int. J. New Trends Educ. Their Implic., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 2014.
  • T. Cherner, J. Dix, and C. Lee, “Cleaning up that mess: A framework for classifying educational apps,” Contemp. Issues Technol. Teach. Educ., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 158–193, 2014, [Online]. Available: http://www.apptrace.com
  • D. Menon, “Uses and gratifications of educational apps: A study during COVID-19 pandemic,” Comput. Educ. Open, vol. 3, p. 100076, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.caeo.2022.100076.
  • W. H. Wu, Y. C. Jim Wu, C. Y. Chen, H. Y. Kao, C. H. Lin, and S. H. Huang, “Review of trends from mobile learning studies: A meta-analysis,” Comput. Educ., vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 817–827, 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2012.03.016.
  • I. S. H. Wai, S. S. Y. Ng, D. K. W. Chiu, K. K. W. Ho, and P. Lo, “Exploring undergraduate students’ usage pattern of mobile apps for education,” J. Librariansh. Inf. Sci., vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 34–47, 2018, doi: 10.1177/0961000616662699.
  • M. Meyer et al., “How educational are ‘educational’ apps for young children? App store content analysis using the Four Pillars of Learning framework,” J. Child. Media, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 526–548, 2021, doi: 10.1080/17482798.2021.1882516.
  • G. Falloon, “Young students using iPads: App design and content influences on their learning pathways,” Comput. Educ., vol. 68, pp. 505–521, 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2013.06.006.
  • A. A. Economides and A. Grousopoulou, “Mobiles in education: students’ usage, preferences and desires,” Int. J. Mob. Learn. Organ., vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 235–252, 2010, doi: 10.1504/IJMLO.2010.033553.
  • B. Eschenbrenner and F. Fui-Hoon Nah, “Mobile technology in education: uses and benefits,” Int. J. Mob. Learn. Organ., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 159–183, 2007, doi: 10.1504/IJMLO.2007.012676.
  • C. C. Tossell, P. Kortum, C. Shepard, A. Rahmati, and L. Zhong, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him learn: Smartphone use in higher education,” Br. J. Educ. Technol., vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 713–724, 2015, doi: 10.1111/bjet.12176.
  • B. A. Kumar and S. S. Chand, “Mobile learning adoption: A systematic review,” Educ. Inf. Technol., vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 471–487, 2019, doi: 10.1007/s10639-018-9783-6.
  • D. Mukherjee, A. Ahmadi, M. V. Pour, and J. Reardon, “An Empirical Study on User Reviews Targeting Mobile Apps’ Security & Privacy,” pp. 1–12, 2020, [Online]. Available: http://arxiv.org/abs/2010.06371
  • W. Wang, Y. Feng, and W. Dai, “Topic analysis of online reviews for two competitive products using latent Dirichlet allocation,” Electron. Commer. Res. Appl., vol. 29, no. January, pp. 142–156, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.elerap.2018.04.003.
  • C. Liu and A. P. Correia, “A case study of learners’ engagement in mobile learning applications,” Online Learn. J., vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 25–48, 2021, doi: 10.24059/olj.v25i4.2827.
  • C. D. Curiac and M. Micea, “Identifying Hot Information Security Topics Using LDA and Multivariate Mann-Kendall Test,” IEEE Access, vol. 11, no. February, pp. 18374–18384, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3247588.
  • M. Bahja and M. Lycett, “Identifying patient experience from online resources via sentiment analysis and topic modelling,” Proc. - 3rd IEEE/ACM Int. Conf. Big Data Comput. Appl. Technol. BDCAT 2016, pp. 94–99, 2016, doi: 10.1145/3006299.3006335.
  • A. Ahmed et al., “Thematic Analysis on User Reviews for Depression and Anxiety Chatbot Apps: Machine Learning Approach,” JMIR Form. Res., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1–12, 2022, doi: 10.2196/27654.
  • O. Haggag, J. Grundy, M. Abdelrazek, and S. Haggag, “A large scale analysis of mHealth app user reviews,” Empir. Softw. Eng., vol. 27, no. 7, 2022, doi: 10.1007/s10664-02210222-6.
  • O. Oyebode, F. Alqahtani, and R. Orji, “Using Machine Learning and Thematic Analysis Methods to Evaluate Mental Health Apps Based on User Reviews,” IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 111141–111158, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3002176.

Abstract Views: 122

PDF Views: 0




  • Identifying Usability Issues of the Most Popular Mobile Education Apps from User Reviews

Abstract Views: 122  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Kiranbir Kaur
Research Scholar, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India
Kuljit Kaur
Professor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India

Abstract


The study of mobile apps is a hot research topic because of the expanding use of mobile devices around the world. App user reviews provide a channel of communication between app developers and their end users. They are the best source for understanding user opinions and concerns. Analysis of mobile education apps from various angles and contexts is revealed by several literature reviews. However, there is hardly any study analyzing the emerging issues of Adults education apps in the body of literature. The goal of this study is to identify the main topics related to emerging usability issues in user reviews of the apps on the Google Play Store. The study analyses 2,28,660 negative reviews and 9,93,460 positive user reviews of the top five popular education-related apps (Coursera, Edx, LinkedIn, Skillshare, and Udemy) using Natural Language Processing tasks such as Latent Dirichlet Algorithm (LDA). The results identify several inherent topics in the negative reviews such as account login issues, security and privacy issues, payment issues, content-related issues, app usability issues, customer service issues, and bug-fixing issues. On the other way, the analysis of positive reviews reveals ease of use, the best learning app, user-friendly and great platform.

Keywords


Mobile Education, Adult Apps, Topic Modelling, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), User Reviews.

References