Do clean, simple and more usable designs for online courses and learning materials impact our students? What is usability? Why does it matter and how can faculty or non-designers quickly evaluate ease-of-use to benefit users? The research presents a side-by-side comparison in an online course with illustrative examples and a simple evaluation scale.
What is the real impact of usability instructional design? Usability is an aspect of instructional design that is understudied in the educational market. Its known effects are well established in product and web-design in other environments (Fisher & Wright, 2010) and yet is rarely emphasized in the instructional design process. This principle researcher presents a study recently conducted in a community college environment which provides credibility for the importance of instructional design in educational electronic materials. Presented by the researchers themselves, the practical application of usability in an online course is presented in a user-friendly format easy for both designers and non-designers to be able to implement in their own courses. A side-by-side comparison was utilized illustrating a course that was designed with usability standards and one that was not.
In everyday settings we all are impacted by the usability of products, websites; anywhere we need to interact with a product, system or tool. Usability research and testing are often left out of design of online and other course materials as it is often misunderstood. The research from this presenters’ study proved that although we may instinctively know the importance of how easy to use an online course site and materials are, we are often unable to truly define or evaluate for usability in a practical way.
The presented research supports that more usable online courses have an impact on student perspectives, specifically their motivation and satisfaction levels, as well as their perspectives of their instructors. Usable course designs were shown to significantly impact student perspectives of teacher presence and their impressions of the instructor. Further, more usable courses were proven to reduce cognitive load and therefore enable students to spend more time on valuable learning and interaction activities. They are less frustrated and generally more satisfied, thus more motivated learners.
The research presented demonstrates that the evaluation of educational online materials can be done quickly and easily by faculty or instructional designers using a simple usability scale. Important evidence for administrators and others involved in online education is provided to show there is a need for effective instructional design evaluation and processes as it impacts student motivation, satisfaction and perspectives of their instructors. Community of Inquiry theory and adult learning theory were utilized as theoretical basis for the research regarding the impact on student perspectives.