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Educational applications (learning apps) are becoming increasingly common in the education sector and many students ask themselves which app can assist in their learning process, promote their academic success, and improve their performance. However, there is an incredibly large selection of apps, and their quality and content are often questionable. To sift through and evaluate the entire learning apps, the Austrian Ministry for Education, Research, and Science tries to certify suitable learning apps with a quality seal in a uniform certification process. This paper provides an overview of the Austrian certification process of learning apps and points out its advantages for being a possible role model. Concerning the importance of a general quality seal for all learning apps, two non-certified ones that are widely used by students and teachers in the German-speaking area are compared and analyzed with the Austrian evaluation grid used in the certification process. In addition, after being introduced to the two learning apps in school, 244 students were asked whether they or their teachers would continue to use them for their learning process. To get the opinions of the students, an online questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions was created and evaluated. According to the opinion of the students, most of the respondents would continue to use the two learning apps for studying and think that their teachers would use them in class. However, the findings also show that some students are hesitant about the utilization of learning apps for their studies, because of the apps’ false content or advertisements. Some of the mentioned concerns are exclusion criteria for the Austrian seal of quality. Therefore, after comparison with the evaluation grid, executed by three teachers, and based on the student’s perceptions, possible disadvantages of non-certified applications are pointed out. It can be assumed that certification criteria for learning apps are necessary. Moreover, this information is important not only for students but also for parents, teachers, and app developers. Further studies comparing certified and non-certified applications will take place in 2023. Version of record |
