An adaptable usability heuristic checklist for online courses

Author

Dringus, Laurie P. ; Cohen, Maxine S.

Author_Institution

Graduate Sch. of Comput. & Inf. Sci., Nova Southeastern Univ., Fort Lauderdale, FL

fYear

2005

fDate

19-22 Oct. 2005

Lastpage

6

Abstract

Creating a rich online learning environment is a challenge and requires thoughtful User Experience Planning (UEP) for the effective presentation of the course interface. 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. Instructors can apply the UEP process with measurable usability attributes and adaptable heuristics to evaluate the user experience in an online course. As a tool, UEP could be used to locate specific usability problems related to navigation, error recovery, locating information, and the selection of hyperlinks. An adaptable usability heuristic checklist for online courses will be presented. The checklist includes 13 heuristic categories, including: visibility, functionality, aesthetics, feedback and help, error prevention, memorability, course management, interactivity, flexibility, consistency, efficiency, reducing redundancy, and accessibility

Keywords

computer aided instruction; educational administrative data processing; educational courses; human computer interaction; User Experience Planning; adaptable usability heuristic checklist; aesthetics; error prevention; error recovery; human-computer interaction; hyperlinks selection; management; memorability; online courses; online learning environment; user functionality; user visibility; Computer interfaces; Education; Educational institutions; Feedback; Human computer interaction; Least squares approximation; Navigation; Process design; Redundancy; Usability; heuristics checklist; learning management systems; online courses; usability; user experience; user experience planning;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frontiers in Education, 2005. FIE '05. Proceedings 35th Annual Conference

Conference_Location

Indianopolis, IN

ISSN

0190-5848

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9077-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FIE.2005.1611918

Filename

1611918