User Experience Planning (UEP) for Online Courses

1. User Experience Planning (UEP) for Online Courses Laurie P. Dringus, Ph.D. Maxine S. Cohen, Ph.D. Graduate School of Computer & Info Sciences Nova Southeastern University 3301 College Avenue Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33314 laurie@nsu.nova.edu; cohenm@nsu.nova.edu

2. Abstract How usable are our online courses and the tools instructors use to support effective online learning and interaction? This presentation addresses effective usability in the design and use of online courses. The presenters will discuss user experience planning (UEP) with specific usability attributes and adaptable heuristics to evaluate the user experience in online courses.

3. Objectives/Outline of Our Talk • What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? • Some fundamental usability concepts • Common usability attributes and heuristics applied to online courses • User Experience Planning (UEP) process • UEP and adaptable heuristics to evaluate the user experience in an online course

4. What Makes An Interface Usable?

5. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? • Consider first usability versus learning in an online course – what does it mean to experience the usability of an online course? Why does this matter? • The user experience of an online course from a human-computer interaction point-of-view is not a naturally occurring process; it must be planned for.

6. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? How we define usability in the context of the online learning experience: “Good usability…………..” • Facilitates learning by having the mechanics of the learning environment transparent to the user

7. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? • Easily engages the user in the instructional and communication process and provides easy communication with the instructor and other students •  Supports flexibility for creative endeavors as part of the learning process •  Promotes interactivity among students and between students and instructor

8. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? • The user experience must be evaluated in several dimensions, including how the online environment as an entity promotes a sense of presence of school or learning or other appropriate metaphors. • The online course is a learning space serving as an interface/mediator between participants and as an overall medium of instruction and interaction.

9. What is ‘bad usability’ in online courses? ‘Bad’ usability translates to: • Hindrances such as inconsistencies, unneeded complexities, and hard to find functionality (Shneiderman, 1998) “Where did you put that?” “What does this icon represent?” “Why do I have to click here twice to download the file?” “I forgot to click on the submit button”

10. What is ‘bad usability’ in online courses? ‘Bad’ usability translates to: • Functionality that requires an undesired decision or response – drop box date controls such as assignment due dates and multiple submissions, extensions for individuals. • The pervasive “one size fits all” philosophy of most CMSs – extensive development/programming needed to run ‘dynamic’ courses.

11. What is ‘bad usability’ in online courses? ‘Bad’ usability translates to: • Functionality that only works part of the time – lost email, lost postings, …….. • Some to no flexibility – forum postings cannot be edited.

12. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? ‘Good’ usability translates to these maxims: • Clear organization of course information • Dynamic information provision versus info glut • Clear structure for organizing activities that involve interactivity (online discussion forums, chat, other) • Flexible mechanisms enabling learners to organize and manage their own course activities.

13. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? ‘Good’ usability translates to: Easy navigation throughout the system • "It was easy to find the instructor's note of the week." • "I knew exactly where to go, each time I entered the course web page." • "I hardly had to scroll."

14. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? ‘Good’ usability translates to: Meaningful and useful icons • "Most of the icons had clear meaning to me." • "Every time I went to the course web page, the icons were clear to me to tell me what to do next. Did I have new mail? Were there new forum postings? Had my grades been posted by the instructor?"

15. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? ‘Good’ usability translates to: Consistency within the system • "Anything I learned to do in the mail part of the system had similar functions and tasks in other parts of the system, for example, the forum postings."

16. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? ‘Good’ usability translates to: Minimize redundancy • "Submitting that assignment was easy and straightforward."

17. What is ‘good usability’ in online courses? ‘Good’ usability translates to: Good Feedback and Learning Support • "The system offered me friendly reminders to help keep me on schedule. I liked the system reminders. It didn't make me feel the instructor was just picking on me." • "I knew when my instructor posted my grade and I could easily go directly to those comments."

18. Fundamental Usability Concepts • Characteristics of Usable Interfaces (Hackos & Redish, 1998) • Design goals • Who is the Average User? Know Your Audience

19. Characteristics of Usable Interfaces(Hackos & Redish,1998) • They reflect the workflows that are familiar or comfortable • They support the user’s learning style • They are compatible in the user’s work environment. • They encompass a design concept (a metaphor or idiom) that is familiar to users.

20. Characteristics of Usable Interfaces(Hackos & Redish,1998) • They have a consistency of presentation (layout, icons, interactions) that makes them appear reliable and easy to learn • They use language and illustrations that are familiar to the users or easy to learn.

21. Design Goals • More than user friendliness – move to user-centered • “Know thy user” • Average user different from programmer

22. Who is the Average User?Know Your Audience • Skill Level • Physical characteristics • Diversity/cross cultural differences • Perception • Cognitive – memory, problem solving • Motivations

23. User control Navigability Usefulness Utility Ease of Use Ease of Learning Flexibility Consistency Readability Review-ability Visibility Predictability Memorability Accessibility Common usability attributes and heuristics applied to online courses

24. Visibility • Awareness/perceptions of others in an online course • Meaningful learning metaphors • Visual representations of activities that match the learning tasks to be achieved

25. Functionality • Actions or selections are minimized to complete several discrete main tasks. • Sufficient shortcuts for navigating the activity, function or action. • Easy and dynamic adaptation to the online course environment

26. Flexibility • Personalization • Comprehensive communication and productivity tools • Functionality matches online practice • Reuse

27. Usability Heuristics (Nielsen,1993) • Provide simple and natural dialogue • Speak the user’s language • Be consistent • Provide feedback • Provide clearly marked exits • Provide shortcuts

28. Usability Heuristics (Nielsen,1993) • Provide good error messages • Prevent errors • Maintain user control of the system • Minimize memory load

29. User Experience Planning (UEP) • Planning ahead for good usability is essential to an online course • A standard UEP process enables instructors to optimize presentation and functionality of the course interface. • UEP is primarily a focus on heuristic usability evaluation in several specific categories of online course management

30. User Experience Planning (UEP) • Instructors can apply the UEP with measurable usability attributes and adaptive heuristics to evaluate the user experience in an online course • UEP can be useful to locate usability problems related to navigation, error recovery, locating information, and the selection of hyperlinks

31. User Experience Planning (UEP) We conducted a heuristic evaluation of WebCT from the “user perspective”, including a faculty and student perspective. However, our resulting usability checklist is mainly intended for use by instructors to help them evaluate the usability of their online courses. We recommend an iterative process where usability evaluation occurs throughout the lifecycle of the online course. Student input is valuable to the process and is highly recommended.

32. Visibility Functionality Aesthetics Feedback and Help Error Prevention Memorability 7. Course Management 8. Interactivity 9. User Flexibility 10. Consistency 11. Efficiency 12. Reducing Redundancy 13. Accessibility 13 Heuristic Categories

33. Adaptable Usability Heuristic Checklist • The checklist will be presented and distributed at the conference.

34. References Hackos, J.T. & Redish, J.C. (1998). User and task analysis for interface design. New York: John Wiley Publishers. Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability engineering. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Reeves, T.C., Benson, L., Elliott, D., Grant, M., Holschuh, D., Kim, B., Kim, H., Lauber, E., Loh, S. (2002). Usability and instructional design heuristics for e-learning evaluation. World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, 2002(1), 1615-1621. Shneiderman, B. (1998). Designing the user interface. Strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Third Edition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Sullivan, T. (2004). A reader-friendliness checklist. Downloaded from All Things Web: www.pantos.org/atw/35317.html