We’re excited to announce the publication of a new article by TLC members Emma Liptrot, Armaghan Montazami, Heather Ann Pearson and Dr. Adam Dubé in Computers & Education, titled "Why This App: How User Ratings and App Store Rankings Impact Parents' Choice of Educational Apps."
Read the full article here!
In this study, we asked parents of K-6 students to look at fake educational app pages with descriptions, user ratings, and app store rankings that we manipulated. We wanted to know:
Do user ratings impact parents' app choices?
Yes! Parents were much more likely to download, pay more for, and rate apps higher when they had positive ratings and reviews. Parents would download apps with positive user ratings 90% of the time, but would only download apps with negative ratings 17% of the time!
Do app store rankings impact parents' choices?
Yes! But not in the way we expected. Parents actually preferred apps that were ranked lower on the "top charts" over apps that were ranked in the top 10. We wonder whether these rankings are confusing for parents.
Do benchmarks of educational quality impact parents' choices?
Sometimes. High-quality educational applications should mention curriculum, scaffolding, feedback, learning theory, and development team in their descriptions, but our results on whether parents prefer these apps were mixed.
How do ratings, rankings, and benchmarks interact?
Whether parents preferred apps with educational benchmarks depended on the app's rating. When apps had a neutral rating, parents preferred benchmark apps, but when apps had a positive rating, parents preferred buzzword apps.
Our results show that parents use cues from app stores (like ratings) to choose educational apps. But user ratings do not necessarily help parents find the best apps. Based on our findings, we recommend:
Read the full article here!
In this study, we asked parents of K-6 students to look at fake educational app pages with descriptions, user ratings, and app store rankings that we manipulated. We wanted to know:
Do user ratings impact parents' app choices?
Yes! Parents were much more likely to download, pay more for, and rate apps higher when they had positive ratings and reviews. Parents would download apps with positive user ratings 90% of the time, but would only download apps with negative ratings 17% of the time!
Do app store rankings impact parents' choices?
Yes! But not in the way we expected. Parents actually preferred apps that were ranked lower on the "top charts" over apps that were ranked in the top 10. We wonder whether these rankings are confusing for parents.
Do benchmarks of educational quality impact parents' choices?
Sometimes. High-quality educational applications should mention curriculum, scaffolding, feedback, learning theory, and development team in their descriptions, but our results on whether parents prefer these apps were mixed.
How do ratings, rankings, and benchmarks interact?
Whether parents preferred apps with educational benchmarks depended on the app's rating. When apps had a neutral rating, parents preferred benchmark apps, but when apps had a positive rating, parents preferred buzzword apps.
Our results show that parents use cues from app stores (like ratings) to choose educational apps. But user ratings do not necessarily help parents find the best apps. Based on our findings, we recommend:
- Parents should look for five educational benchmarks in apps: curriculum, scaffolding, feedback, learning theory, and development team
- Researchers should develop guidelines and help train parents in how to find good apps
- App stores should revise their rating and review systems to prioritize educational quality