Instrument SmartUsability - Complexity, Usability and AI-driven Educational Platform: Validation with Pilot Study

Abstract

[EN]In the current landscape of higher education, fostering high-level cognitive skills such as Complex Thinking (CT) requires digital platforms that not only enable meaningful learning but also meet key criteria of usability, accessibility, and inclusion. Evaluating these dimensions becomes particularly relevant when platforms incorporate emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), as complementary tools to support and enrich the user experience. This study presents the results of the piloting of a Likert-type instrument designed to assess the technical and pedagogical usability, accessibility/inclusiveness, and the effectiveness of AI as a support tool in an educational platform focused on CT development. A non-experimental quantitative design of descriptive transactional type was applied to 218 users of a platform with AI integration. The findings indicate that: a) the restructuring of the instrument improved its reliability, validity, and coherence, consolidating a relevant model for evaluating educational platforms; b) the validation process highlights the need to assess platforms through technical and pedagogical lenses to ensure usability, accessibility, and inclusion; c) the inclusion of the AI dimension responds to the imperative of addressing emerging technologies from evaluative and pedagogical perspectives, making the instrument timely and context-aware; d) the instrument demonstrates cross-cutting potential and adaptability to various platforms, reinforcing its utility for advancing equitable digital education aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study contributes to the comprehensive evaluation of usability in educational platforms with AI integration, expanding the notion of usability to include pedagogical, inclusive, and accessible design principles, and offering a robust tool to assess user experience in technologically mediated learning environments.