| The study describes the interface design features of Web-based courses that support learning. Five groups of instructional message design principles (instructional strategies, motivation, perception, concept learning, and problem solving) from Fleming & Levie (1993) provides a framework for an evaluation of screen interfaces of two selected K--12 Web-based mathematics and chemistry courses.; Content analysis forms the methodology of this exploratory study. Design features recommended by the instructional message design principles provide coding units for the analysis. The researcher examined the course screen interfaces for these principle-based design features and described in details the manner in which they have been incorporated into the courses.; Based on the principles' contexts of application, the study distinguished between general design principles (instructional strategies, motivation, and perception) and content-specific design principles (concept learning, and problem solving). The analysis indicates that the two Web-based courses applied many of the general design principles but did not fully reflect content-specific design principles. Issues that may lead to the application, neglect, and/or violation of each group of design principle were summarized in the final conclusion.; The study provides a number of illustrations for principle-based design features that can be detected on Web-based course screen interfaces. It concludes with the recommendations for developing Web-based course evaluation guidelines from the instructional message design principles. |
