20100926 - Lai, Evaluation of ..online courseware Usability & tools

Evaluation of WWW on-line courseware usability and tools by Lai, Horng-Ji, Ph.D., University of Idaho, 2004 , 134 pages; AAT 3123848 My Interest: 1) Relationship between Usability elements/dimensions & Learners' acceptance – how to analyse. 2) How to compare/evaluate significance of Usability elements/dimensions. Action: To read specific parts of Dissertation in future. Research Goal This study investigated the effectiveness of the interface design in two on-line course management packages, World Wide Web Course Tools (WebCT) and Idaho Virtual Campus (IVC). The study attempted to (1) explore the possible relationship between students' acceptance of courseware and demographic or general variables (gender, on-line courseware experience, academic status, and computer skills), (2) investigate the relationships between the usability elements (navigation, learnability, consistency, perceptual limitation, and user guidance) and learners' acceptance of on-line courseware, and (3) discover learners' attitudes toward the teaching tools (i.e., the discussion board). Methodology The participants were 140 WebCT students and 295 IVC students who were enrolled in courses exclusively on-line or who used on-line courseware as a learning supplement. Results Discussion The findings indicated that there was a significant difference between students' acceptance of on-line courseware, WebCT and IVC, based on their genders: female students were more satisfied than male students. Significant variance among academic status (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, and Graduate) was observed in students' acceptance of WebCT, demonstrating that graduate students were more likely to prefer learning on-line than undergraduates. Two usability elements, perceptual limitation and learnability, were the most statistically significant predictors in both online coursewares. No significant differences were observed among students' acceptance of WebCT and IVC in terms of their previous online experiences and computer skills. In addition, the qualitative results provided compelling evidence that learners did not use the Help tools as their primary aid when encountering difficulties. Some problems associated with the use of the discussion board, such as sending/viewing attachments and time restrictions, were revealed in the qualitative analysis. Recommendation Based on the findings, practical suggestions are provided in the final chapter for on-line instructors. Comments: Softcopy Dissertation is scanned version; cannot copy and paste; difficult to blog about it.