Sep 6 - Yeap, Usability Inspection Criteria for e-Learning Portals (part 2)

Usability Inspection Criteria for e-Learning Portals.
TeckChong Yeap.
MDP7515 PROJECT
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of
Master of Multimedia (E-Learning Technologies)

MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY
MALAYSIA
October 2008


Usability Inspection Criteria

Usability of e-learning portal, website, software and courseware is important. If the user interface is not user friendly, this may cause it to be more difficult to be used, hence, disliked by the learners and users. Subsequently, it does not become popular, and consequentially, it fails to sell.

Nielsen (1994b) has popularised the heuristic evaluation which is one of the usability inspection methodologies. He uses the Ten Heuristic Principles as evaluation criteria. His methodology is popularly used to evaluate user interface of many web portals and websites. Heuristic evaluation is low cost and simplistic to be implemented.

Kapoun (1998) has popularised the Five Criteria of Evaluating Web Pages. His web evaluation criteria are quoted in many university and college libraries’ websites (Yeap, 2005b). E-Learning content need to be accurate and unbiased in information, and contain correct coverage of knowledge. Hence, using Kapoun’s 5 Web Evaluation Criteria is realistic for evaluating usability of e-Learning portals.

There are many learning theories, learning models and instructional strategies that are important for good e-Learning portal. Most importantly, the e-Learning portal must be effective in delivering knowledge to the learners. What are some of these important principles or characteristics for usability of e-Learning portal?

Usability inspection criteria is important to enable usability practitioner to conduct usability inspection. Most usability inspection criteria written in most books apply to web site or software programs. Hence, there is a need to develop a set of usability inspection criteria which is relevant for evaluating usability of e-learning portals.