Researches On The Usability Of Online Courses

The usability of software products in recent years has become an important factor in measuring software quality, the Online Course as an information-intensive product of educational software, the level of its usability will directly affect the learning experience of learners and learning satisfaction. The increasingly usability problems of Online Courses and how to solve those problems prompt the study of this paper. In this paper, based on the "learner-centered" design concept, those usability issues about Online Courses are addressed and analyzed. This paper especially probes into how to optimize the key stages in the design and development process of Online Courses using the strategies and methods of usability engineering, while making the process of designing and developing a course a design process, development process, but also a used process. It will make up for traditional developing process short of adequate attention on usability and ultimately to enhance the usability level of Online Courses, making the Online Courses more human and attractive.This dissertation is composed of six chapters, the foreword and conclusion parts.Foreword introduces the background of this research, the key issues to be solved, research status, methods and the explanation of key terms.Chapter One is the foundation of this study. Firstly, it tries to distinguish usability from pedagogical and technological properties of Online Courses through literature investigation and speculation. Secondly, a usability heuristic evaluation is done to the national web-based Quality Course in 2009 by using Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics guidelines. The evaluation results show that the overall usability level of these Online Courses is relatively low, the reasons for which were analyzed and suggestions are put forward for improvement, this proposal has also become the starting point of this dissertation.Chapter Two addresses an overview of the theoretical basis. The research is cross-curricular area, it relates to education, psychology, human factors, information technology and other subjects. The theories and usability evaluation methods expounded in this chapter are the basis of this research. It provides a wealth of nutrients, thinking framework, research direction, methods and strategies. Chapter Three presents the theoretical framework. In this chapter, the conventional software engineering process is described firstly, a series of shortcomings are pointed out, and eventually a theoretical framework is put forward from the usability perspective.Chapter Four touches upon the empirical study to the stage of planning and analysis. Online Courses planning and analysis is a key element of the construction process, it will directly affect the follow-up stage of the design and development of an Online Course. In this chapter, firstly, the perspective characteristics of the learners are discussed, then a series of practical demonstration are done and analyzed, in the end a general characteristics analysis framework for the learners is given.Chapter Five foucs on the empirical study to the stage of designing and development. Designing and development is another key stage and also the most important one in the course-building process. In this chapter, firstly, the relationship between usability design and instructional design, usability design principles are discussed, then a series of usability testing are carried out in the practice of concrete online courses designing, and eventually a practical framework of the general usability design and development of online courses is formed.Chapter Six goes deep into the core issues to the usability measurement and evaluation of online courses. Usability measurement and evaluation of Online Courses goes through the entire process of design and development, which could help designers and developers to know how the learners experienced in the course and ask for suggestions from the professionals, based on this, they will adjust their designing and development. In this chapter, firstly, a few distinguished evaluation standards about Online Courses are discussed, then formed a usability evaluation checklist.Conclusion is the last part of this dissertation. In this part, it summarizes the study findings to the key issues raised in the foreword of this dissertation, and provides the further orientations associated with this research.