Educational apps are a popular learning tool for parents and educators that can be effective for promoting learning of essential skills, such as mathematics, when they are well-designed (Dubé et al., 2019). However, mobile app stores are filled with poor-quality apps that are missing essential educational design features (Dubé et al., 2020). This means that parents and educators need to navigate app stores to make their own decisions about which educational apps are best for their kids
Why This App? is a series of research projects that aims to understand how parents and educators choose educational apps. By asking parents and educators to evaluate fake educational app pages that we designed, we can infer what factors impact their decisions.
Click the links below to learn more about some of the specific topics we have investigated or are currently investigating as part of the Why This App? project.
Why This App? is a series of research projects that aims to understand how parents and educators choose educational apps. By asking parents and educators to evaluate fake educational app pages that we designed, we can infer what factors impact their decisions.
Click the links below to learn more about some of the specific topics we have investigated or are currently investigating as part of the Why This App? project.
Educational Benchmarks
Do parents and educators prefer educational apps that mention five evidence-based benchmarks in their app descriptions?
Training
Can a training video help parents to choose high-quality educational apps using benchmarks?
Ratings and Rankings
How do user ratings and app store rankings impact parents' and educators' app selection?
Generative AI
Do parents and educators prefer apps that incorporate generative AI in their app design?
Funding
This project is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Related Publications
A. Montazami, E. Liptrot., H.A. Pearson, A. K. Dubé
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, 2024
E. Liptrot, H.A. Pearson, A. Montazami, A.K. Dubé
Computers & Education, vol. 218, 2024, p. 105080
Why this app? Comparing parents' and educators' selection of high-quality educational apps
E. Liptrot, H. A. Pearson, A. Montazami, A. K. Dubé
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, 2024
Why this app? How ratings and rankings impact educators’ selection of high-quality educational apps
E. Liptrot, H. A. Pearson, A. Montazami, A. K. Dubé
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, 2024
Why this app: Can a video‐based intervention help parents identify quality educational apps?
H.A. Pearson, A. Montazami, A.K. Dubé
British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 54(3), 2022, pp. 712-733
Why this app? How educators choose a good educational app
A. Montazami, H.A. Pearson, A.K. Dubé, G. Kacmaz, R. Wen, S.S. Alam
Computers \&Education, vol. 184, 2022, p. 104513
Why this app? How parents choose good educational apps from app stores
A. Montazami, H.A. Pearson, A.K. Dubé, G. Kacmaz, R. Wen, S.S. Alam
British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 53(6), 2022, pp. 1766-1792
Why this app: Can a video-based intervention help parents identify quality education apps?
H. A. Pearson, A. K. Dubé
American Educational Research Association (AERA), 2022
Why this app? How educators choose good educational apps
H. Pearson, A. Montazami, A.K. Dubé, G. Kacmaz, R. Wen, S. Alam
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, 2021
Why this app? How educators choose good educational apps
H. A. Pearson, A. Montazami, A. K. Dubé
19th Annual Education Graduate Student Society Conference, McGill University, 2021
Learn More
Interview with Stacey Brotzel on This Morning at CHED 630 radio: Educational apps for children: What parents/educators should be looking for
Interview on Nine to Noon at Radio New Zealand: How do I pick the right educational app for my child?
Article in The Conversation Canada: Educational apps for children: What parents and educators should look for and ignore
Article in EdWeek: What We’ve Learned About Technology and Learning in the Last 3 Years
