10/8/09

1

Joi L. Moore, Ph.D. Associate Professor

moorejoi@missouri.edu

NASBLA Conference – Corpus Christi, Texas October 1, 2009

Happiness

Confusion

Frustration

Despair

A Common User Experience?

Usability Goal: Make this an uncommon experience

10/8/09

2

International Standards Organization 9241 Usability Definition

The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve specified goals in particular environments.

context

content users

Myth of the average user There is not one

Web users are unique

Cultural Differences Experiences Expertise Socialization

10/8/09

3

User Centered Design

Older users Problems with: small fonts, pointing devices, multiple windows

Younger users Like lots of colors and animation; need large clickable objects

Visually impaired users Need text equivalent for every non-text element on websites

1.  When system usability increase, overall student learning also increases •  Meiselwitz & Sadera, 2008

2.  Tool design and efficient usage significantly influences student learning outcomes and attitudes. •  Fredericksen et al., 1999; Oliver & Herrington,

2003; Valenta, Therriault, Dieter & Mrtek, 2001 3.  Student interactions with interface is positively

correlated to success in the course (Hillman, Willis, & Gunawardena (1994)

Usability and Learning

10/8/09

4

Information Experience Lab�Project Tasks

1.  Usability Evaluation: •  Navigation, appearance, multimedia, and

organization of the courses •  Instructional and message design strategies

2.  Methods: •  Heuristic Evaluation •  Usability Testing at Boat Shows •  Usability Testing at IE Lab

Working and Long Term Memory

Clark, R. (2007). Leveraging Multimedia for Learning

10/8/09

5

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

1.  Multimedia - Link pictorial and verbal presentation together

2.  Modality - Animation with narration is better than animation and on-screen text

•  (Exception: instructions and second language)

3.  Redundancy – If animation and narration, no need for additional on-screen text

4.  Interactivity principle - students learn better when given control of the media

Mayer, 2002

Elements Course A Course B Course C

Reading Time Control/ Information

Requires amount of time before proceeding to next section

Recommends amount of time before proceeding to next section

No time requirement

Audio No narrative text, but narration/audio with video

Narrative text No audio or narration

Animation Interactive Practice Activity

Content Animation None

Video Video with audio None None

Images Static Static Static

10/8/09

6

Florida and Minnesota Boat Shows

Florida and Minnesota Boat Shows N=90

•  Age: Mean (46.39), Min (18), Max (70)

•  Gender: Males (56) Females (34)

•  Internet experience: Advanced (21), Intermediate (43), Novice (15), Non-users (11)

•  Online course experience: Yes (34), No (56)

•  Preferences

•  Content on one page (25 ) More than one page (65)

•  Testing

•  Review content first then test (48)

•  Test first then review content (28)

•  Keep taking the test without reviewing the content, until pass (14)

10/8/09

7

Florida and Minnesota Boat Shows

A one-way ANOVA test showed that non internet users tend to prefer Course B (animation with narration) over the other courses.

10/8/09

8

Course Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Total

A (video)

2 0 2 6 4 14

B (animation)

0 2 7 4 7 20

C (text)

2 6 12 10 10 40

Results for incorrect responses

10/8/09

9

Course Mean St. Dev. N

A (video) 8.80 3.15 20

B (animation) 21.09 5.127 20

C (text) 9.55 3.15 20

Time in minutes

Observations of User Behaviors

10/8/09

10

Confusion when placing text

10/8/09

11

Recommendations for

Online Course Delivery and

Presentation

•  There is no research stating an “ideal” number of chapters

•  Depends on the content and number of learning objectives

•  Chunk content into related units to prevent long durations of processing

An online course should be organized into at least 5 chapters.

10/8/09

12

•  Recommend 2-5 minutes for lessons (Clark, 2007) •  Students can learn more from “leaner” lessons with

less but meaningful text (Mayer, 2005) •  Working memory capacity should be considered

The credited time on any given content page should not exceed three (3) minutes.

•  There is no research stating an “ideal” number of pages

•  Chunk at the screen level: Topic, learning objective, or concept level

•  Ensure that chunk does not require the learner to hold more than a few things in working memory at one time

The minimum number of content pages for the entire course should be at least ninety (90).

10/8/09

13

•  Provide text for hearing impaired (Section 508 compliance)

Whenever a video or animation is used within the course, a written script of the narration should

accompany it.

•  Boat show data: 46% wanted to take the test without reviewing the content. •  28 wanted to take test first then review •  14 wanted to keep taking test until they passed

If the state permits, a student may opt to take a challenge exam prior to beginning the course.

10/8/09

14

•  Instructor-student interactions are important components of elearning (Moore, 1989; Davidson-Shivers, 2009)

•  Inexperienced online learners need to know that there is support

•  E-learning evaluation instruments include “contact information” as criteria: Reeves et al. (2002)

Throughout the online course, an e-mail link or phone number should be provided for students to use to contact the course provider. All inquiries should be

responded to within two (2) business days.

•  When comparing courses, participants wanted interactive “drag and drop” activity represented in Course A (video). •  Provide feedback for response and input errors

•  Have simulation type interactions dispersed throughout lesson •  attention and continuous processing of new

content is important (Clark, 2007) •  Gagne’s 9 events of instruction (1985)

Provide “engaging” practice activities and appropriate feedback before the test

10/8/09

15

•  Moderate line lengths of 50 – 60 characters are optimal for reading from screens (e.g. Dyson & Kipping, 1998; Dyson & Haselgrove 2001).

•  Adults prefer medium line length (76 cpl) and children prefer shorter line lengths (45 cpl), Bernard, Fernandez, Hull, & Chaparro (2003)

•  IE Lab observations: older users 40+ used mouse/cursor to read, and positioned finger on side of monitor

Minimize line lengths to approximately 60-75 cpl and do not create large chunks of text with little white space

Joi L. Moore, Ph.D. Associate Professor

moorejoi@missouri.edu