The Potential Correlation Between Online Course Design and Usability from the Student Perspective
Start
10-1-2020 10:00 AM
End
10-1-2020 11:00 AM
Short Description
Never before has online course design and usability been as important as it is right now. With educators and students rapidly moving to online teaching and learning during the spring, due to the global pandemic, there was little time to design with usability, pedagogy, or student preferences in mind. Before the pandemic, UCF began researching what effective course design is in the eyes of our students and if there is an alignment between student preferences, usability, and recommended pedagogical practices. This presentation will present the findings of an initial study.
Abstract
Instructional designers design courses following pedagogical principles and research regarding how students learn. But effective online learning depends not only on good pedagogical design, but also on usability or user-centered design as well (Green, Inan, & Denton, 2012).
Our research study aims to explore students’ navigational behaviors and their perspectives on effective online course design in regards to usability and whether there is a correlation with pedagogical principles of design. We would like to share with you what our study has revealed so far regarding our three research questions:·
-
What is effective online course design from the students’ perspective?
-
Does the students’ perspective of effective design align with pedagogical principles?
-
Given three course designs, how do students typically interact with online courses (in Canvas) to complete certain tasks, and does the course design allow for easy navigation?
This presentation will explore the research design, methods, results, and implications for future research opportunities.
The study utilized observation and one-on-one interviews. Three course versions with the same content were designed. The participants were asked to complete course-related tasks in one of the course versions. Their interactions with the course were screen-recorded. The participants were later interviewed for their opinions on all three course versions and online course components. The findings offer insights to how students utilize course components such as homepage, syllabus, learning objectives, and instructor’s self-introduction as well as their perspectives on effective navigation menu structure, module structure, and content page design. This research provides recommendations on course usability design for faculty and instructional designers.
Format
Concurrent Session
Institutional level targeted
Higher Ed
The Potential Correlation Between Online Course Design and Usability from the Student Perspective
Instructional designers design courses following pedagogical principles and research regarding how students learn. But effective online learning depends not only on good pedagogical design, but also on usability or user-centered design as well (Green, Inan, & Denton, 2012).
Our research study aims to explore students’ navigational behaviors and their perspectives on effective online course design in regards to usability and whether there is a correlation with pedagogical principles of design. We would like to share with you what our study has revealed so far regarding our three research questions:·
-
What is effective online course design from the students’ perspective?
-
Does the students’ perspective of effective design align with pedagogical principles?
-
Given three course designs, how do students typically interact with online courses (in Canvas) to complete certain tasks, and does the course design allow for easy navigation?
This presentation will explore the research design, methods, results, and implications for future research opportunities.
The study utilized observation and one-on-one interviews. Three course versions with the same content were designed. The participants were asked to complete course-related tasks in one of the course versions. Their interactions with the course were screen-recorded. The participants were later interviewed for their opinions on all three course versions and online course components. The findings offer insights to how students utilize course components such as homepage, syllabus, learning objectives, and instructor’s self-introduction as well as their perspectives on effective navigation menu structure, module structure, and content page design. This research provides recommendations on course usability design for faculty and instructional designers.