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An Investigation on Task Difficulty: Does Task Difficulty Depend on the Technology Used in Task Completion?

Published: 15 March 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Previous research indicates that task difficulty (i.e., students' judgments on a task's complexity) impacts their task performance. However, whether students' perceived task difficulty changes depending on the technology they use when completing tasks is still under investigation. The present study aims to address this gap in the literature. One hundred twenty-three students completed the study procedures. Students were randomly assigned to one of four groups (one control group and three experimental groups). Students were not allowed to use any technology in the control group. In contrast, those in experimental groups were permitted to use one of the following tools: e-textbook, Google, and ChatGPT. Students in each group completed three tasks with different complexities in the same order. The data was analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA. The study revealed a significant interaction effect between groups and task difficulty perceptions at three levels. In all groups, perceived difficulty increased as the task complexity increased, but the change in students' perceived task difficulty across three tasks was impacted by the tool used when completing the tasks.

References

[1]
David R Krathwohl. "A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview". In: Theory into practice 41.4 (2002), pp. 212--218.
[2]
Sadia Nawaz et al. "Analysis of task difficulty sequences in a simulation-based POE environment". In: Artificial Intelligence in Education: 21st International Conference, AIED 2020, Ifrane, Morocco, July 6--10, 2020, Proceedings, Part I 21. Springer. 2020, pp. 423--436.
[3]
Dominick Scasserra. "The influence of perceived task difficulty on task performance". In: (2008).
[4]
Marie-Laurence Tremblay et al. "Simulation-based education for novices: complex learning tasks promote reflective practice". In: Medical Education 53.4 (2019), pp. 380--389.

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  1. An Investigation on Task Difficulty: Does Task Difficulty Depend on the Technology Used in Task Completion?

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE 2024: Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2
    March 2024
    2007 pages
    ISBN:9798400704246
    DOI:10.1145/3626253
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Published: 15 March 2024

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    1. generative ai
    2. task difficulty
    3. task performance

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