An Agile Approach for Collaborative Inquiry-Based Learning in Ubiquitous Environment

Abstract

The use of collaborative inquiry-based learning has been prevalent in educational contexts particularly in science education. Using such collaborative environments, learners can increase their engagement, knowledge and critical thinking skills about science. With the advancement of technologies, ubiquitous learning environments have been designed for facilitating learning in real-time contexts. Over the past few years, agile-based approaches have been implemented at higher education for inquiry-based learning activities. However, there is a lack of studies found that focuses on agile-based approach for ubiquitous collaborative inquiry learning activities at K-12 education level. Therefore, this study presents the ScrumBan Ubiquitous Inquiry Framework (SBUIF), for inquiry-based learning activities at K-12 education level. For this purpose, an application uASK has been developed on the proposed framework, SBUIF. For the evaluation purposes, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) affordances along with micro and meso levels of the M3 evaluation framework has been applied. An experiment was conducted for the evaluation of uASK application in comparison with the Trello application, involving 205 to 127 seventh-grade students. Results demonstrated that uASK learners achieved higher scores as compared with Trello participants. Further, survey results indicated higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, and enjoyment among uASK users. The study concludes that uASK offers significant advantages over Trello in fostering collaborative inquiry-based learning activities in ubiquitous environment.