Dec 09 2017

Affective Walkthroughs

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To use an affective walkthrough, here is what you do:

  • We select a series of tasks
  • Then we go through each task and ask a set of questions from the perspective of the user
  • The questions  are shown in the table bel0w
  • We consider each question in turn
  • We make Walkthrough Evaluation Sheets to record our answers and related observations
The Affective Walkthrough (Version 3)
1 What is the learning goal of this task?
2 Where in the affective cycle of learning is this task? (i.e. exploring, challenging,
overcoming, and affirmation)
3 Is the appropriate affective support provided?
4 Does the affective support work as intended?
  • The Affective Walkthrough de-emphasizes normal usability issues
  • It acknowledges the contextual role of teaching goals and potential modality benefits
  • It follows Kort et al.’s affective model (2001). This identifies four phases of learning and the affective character of each
  • The first phase is encouraging exploration with positive affect
  • The second phase introduces challenges, and negative affect is expected
  • The third phase is to support overcoming challenges and reduce the negative affect
  • The fourth phase is to affirm learning and restore positive affect

Examples:

Evaluating Code.org’s Minecraft Hour of Code that was created to encourage and support people initial learning of computer programming. The objective of this study was to evaluate affective learning in Hour of Code Minecraft tutorials, with special attention to the supporting modalities involved (pdf).