Designing and evaluating the effectiveness of using digital mobile-based behaviour change interventions (mBCIs) to promote critical thinking skills in the context of research projects

Abstract

Digital behaviour change interventions (DBCIs) are techniques used to provide continuous support and tailored advice to learners wishing to change their undesirable behaviours through web and mobile platforms. DBCIs have been successfully used for learning new skills necessary to change unwanted habits in well-being and other fields. In education, university students’ critical thinking skills and behaviours require interventions for almost every research task. Specifically, students demand regular supervision to aid their critical thinking skills while working on their research projects. Providing advice for each student through traditional classrooms or office meetings is time consuming and can be difficult when relying solely on traditional supervision. DBCIs can be effective tools through which to change students’ behaviours in terms of their thinking during the research projects. As such, there is now a need for a system that is capable of facilitating DBCIs between students and their supervisors with less technical background. This research sought to understand students’ interactions with digital mobile-based behavioural change interventions (mBCIs) designed to improve their critical thinking and research skills. An instrument was designed to measure students’ self-perceived critical thinking abilities. Academic supervisors from different fields were interviewed to identify their expectations and requirements regarding the instrument and regarding the use of DBCIs in critical thinking and research skills. An experimental study was conducted with two groups to explore how students interact with a mBCI designed to support their critical thinking over two months of a research project. This research was conducted to examine the progress students made with their critical thinking skills before and after using the system. As a result, students self-reported some significant perceived improvements in critical thinking standards and elements. However, the academics assessment for the students’ reports showed no improvement in students’ critical thinking. Students’ reflections indicated that the mBCI was useful and easy to use. In addition, the mBCI notifications helped to increase students’ engagement with the system.

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ORCID for Mark Weal: orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-8786

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