Jia Qun’s Evaluation on Usability Testing

Evaluation on Usability Testing

My Reflection:

For this part of the process, we will get continual feedback from the testers to keep improving our e-learning package. So that we can make the website even better to help the users in learning. However, for this subject we can only do the whole entire ADDIE process once.

For my e-learning survey, I had 6 testers.  2 of them are design school students, 3 of them are IIT school Students (1 from Edumatics, 2 from 3D) and 1 of them is a business school student. But I found out that I needed to have more testers to have a more accurate result, as one of my question, all of them answered differently. So I wasn’t able to get a proper results.

So below is my survey questions and response:

For question 1: The aim was to find out whether the users have learn anything. 5 out of 6 users think that the content is very clear or extremely clear. So it means that my content and able to help them in learning.

For question 2: Is to find out whether the e-learning package did help them to learn on their own. It is important as it is a e-learning package to let them study on their own. So the users think that it easy to navigate and to understand what is taught, such as the content, information.

For question 3: To find out which course materials help them to learn better. From this question we  can see that users learn differently. Out of 6 users, 5 of them gave different answers. So it would be good to provide a variety of materials to help all of them to learn better.

For question 4: It is to find out if the usefulness and importance of the materials, what materials is helpful in helping them to learn better. Most of them preferred to have graphics, videos, games and quiz. So maybe we can focus a bit more time on these materials.

For question 5: It is to find out whether the assignments is useful in learning and applying what they learned.  So most of them think them it is extremely useful. As it have a average rating of 4 for both of the assignments.

For question 6: It is to find out what they like about this e-learning package. To know what they like throughout their learning experience. Most of them like the visuals, such as the graphics, activities. Some users also like the interface such as the navigations.

For question 7: It is to find out what they didn’t like throughout the e-learning package. So that I can improve on some of these features, or remove them. Most of them dislike the audio for the lessons, the audio is robotic and sometimes skip the words when reading. The audio also seems very laggy. Maybe I can provide a mute button to mute it as mentioned by 1 of the users.

For question 8: To find out what needs to be improve and getting some suggestions to improve on it. Getting suggestions can help us to work on it as users may have something they have in mind. So asking them for opinions can get more proper suggestions and solutions. All the users have different opinions on the e-learning package. Such as having clearer audio, more graphics and animations. So from this survey I can improve on these items.

So through these feedbacks, I will roughly know what is the users expectations in the e-learning package. From one of the questions, I got 5 different answers, so it would be good that we have a variety of materials to help all the users to learn better. Through the comment box, I can know what are users thoughts.

While observing the testers testing the e-learning package, I found out a few things that I have done wrong.  They would also point out my errors, such as spelling, sounds, design. I have done a bit of changes that Ms Jean has pointed out, which is having feedbacks, play, pause and stop button, adding a video. I also did some changes after I did my user testing, such as editing the questions, solving some technical errors and changing a bit of the designs.

Overall it is a great experience and I felt quite accomplish, as I get to create a e-learning package myself. It could be done better, such as having a better audio such as recording my own voice, as my users complained that the sound is very robotic and distracting. I also felt quite happy that my users understood the questions and games and knowing the answer after they read through the lessons.

 

Note: I have a word document of this along with my e-learning package.

Wee Ling’s Evaluation on Usability Testing

Evaluation

The users that took my e-learning package are between the aged of 19 to 25 years. All of them are from interactive media informatics course.  

After getting the results from the survey I have concluded that most of my users are not satisfied with the narration. The negative feedback that I have gotten from the users are that the narration was monotonous and at times jumpy while the majority feedback that they are annoyed by just the sound of the narration after hearing it for a while. Because that two users find that they prefer watching animation for the e-learning package as oppose to narration.   

The positive feedback I have gotten from the results was that the graphic was the best part of my e-learning package. This shows that the animation that I have done for my e-learning package was useful for the users to understand the e-learning package better.    

From what the user have suggested for improving my e-learning package and if I could enhance my e-learning package better, maybe I would get paid software or I could invite my friends or myself to record the package for my narration. I will enhance my quiz by giving the answer to the user when they answer the question wrongly. For one of the user he suggested that I should reduce the words and pages for my e-learning package. I believe that he likes the whole e-learning package in an animation form; whereby words are not used to illustrate the content.

Rebecca’s Evaluation on Usability Testing

After completing the e-Package and searching for users to do the survey, I realized that there are certain things that I need to amend. It was an iterative procedure that required the Instructional Designer (ID) to keep altering the e-Package into a perfect one so as to cater the learner’s needs.

Subsequently, I found 5 people to do my survey and I received diverse feed-backs from them as different people have different perspective of views. Some of them actually preferred to see animation in the e-Package so that there is interaction in between. Additionally, one for them suggested to provide formative feedbacks for the game section so that it tells users the obvious indication if they are right or wrong.

Survey Results out of 5 participants

Week 6 Weekly Reflection

Rebecca’s Reflection

This week topic is about “Evaluation Phase” thus I have come to a conclusion that being an eCourseware Content Developer, I need to come out with an ID evaluation plan for my application. It is important because gathering feedback/opinions from learners means a lot to the developer so that they know what improvements to make or reflect. Thus by making revisions, adjustments and corrections based on feedback, it will ensure that the product is up to expectation. As for now, I’m stuck at the Assessment area and unable to proceed on to the evaluation section, however I hope that I can complete it by this week and start my evaluation next week as time is rushing out for me now. 

WeeLing’s Reflection

This week I tried to finish up my content, quiz and game so by next week I can move on to using the text to speech convertor to allow my e-learning tool to be more interactive. At first I have problems with my content as there are also movieclip added to the e-learning package, but with the help of my teacher, she manage to help me solved my problem. I learn alot on how to animate my movieclip correctly.

There was a problem that took place regarding my page number as it was not working as the swf file showed page 2 of 0. After consulting with the teacher she make me realise that the problem was not because of the code, rather is because of the way I added my keyframe. She explain to me that instead of having to insert key frame on every frame for my page numbers, I should instead right click and insert frame as I am going to use the same code for my next and back button.  Thanks to the help and guidance from the teacher I manage to solve the problem.

This week make me realise that creating an e-learning package is not easy and I need to put in more than 100% effort in order to complete my assignment. With that in mind I will continue to work even harder in the weeks to come.

Jia Qun’s Reflection

This week, i have added in the content for my e-learning. Actually i did an animation for the images, and it keeps looping. But i ask my people(friends and teacher) how was it. They told me it was kind of fast and the users might not be able to catch up with the animation.  They suggested to have a play and stop function to allow users to pause and read. So i added in buttons to allow them to click next and previous, to allow them to see the images at their own pace.

I am now currently doing and editing my questions for my quiz and games. I think the questions is one of the hardest part to do, as there are many types of questions. I will try to have a few kinds of questions. I have to quickly complete my work so i can start on the evaluation.

Week 5 Weekly Reflection

Rebecca’s Reflection 🙂 

I learnt about ADDIE Model Implementation phase where user get to test out the developed e-courseware. However, some considerations need to be considered before the presentation of the developed e-courseware.

1. Set up and prepare venue.

2. The learning environment, i.e. room, is set-up and prepared prior to the arrival of the learners.

3. Student registration area set when necessary with registration materials, instruction books, etc.

4. Hands on equipment, computers, tools, software, etc. are in place at each station or seat. Make sure that if using a learning application, an external link, web-site or Internet connection that it is live and functioning.

5. Conduct training session.

Personally, hands on equipment is one of the important factor so that users will be able to provide appropriate and exact feedback after the completion of testing out the e-courseware.

However, as I am still working on my e-courseware, I have yet to start on the Implementation phase. Hopefully, I am able to complete it within this weekend and get user to test on it!

Jia Qun’s Reflection 

For the past week i have added a bit of my content, and have plan out what to add in, making it less wordy. I would be adding in more content to my e-learning coursework and i will be doing up the activities. I had read up a bit on the book, and i hope to use what i have learnt into my e-learning coursework. I hope the users will somehow like it too ><

This week is the implementation phase, i have learn about the different types of features that could make an courseware different from another. Such as having features that some courseware doesn’t or allowing the users to have a choice of the display of information by allowing them to customize it. I have also learnt about the things that is important during the implementation phase. Such as making sure that the users have the materials (software, plug-ins, paper) to do their work. As not all of them would have the materials, so it is important to make sure that they has it. Another important thing is also to make sure that there is no broken links and it will affect their learning progress.

WeeLing’s Reflection

This week what I have done so far was to add more design and content to my Adobe Flash. As I wasn’t feeling well this week, I felt that I did not put in 100 % of my effort in regards to filling in the content and design. While I was trying to get the flash content up, I was also preoccupied with my other subject submission, which I have to hand up by this week. Because this additional problems, I find myself unable to focus 100% this week and I work even harder next week. Hopefully by next week I will be able to get all the design interface for my flash ready and I can start to add codes to animate the characters for my e-learning courseware.

Week 4 Weekly Reflection

Rebecca’s Reflection

Week 4  teaches me about the Development Phrase where we are required to research about the Development Phrase and Visual tools available for creating eLearning materials. The research has helped to broaden my knowledge for this module thus I got a clearer view/understanding. 

After the researching section is done, I will then decide on the tools to use and creating a design template. After a serious thought, I have decided to utilize Photoshop as one of my tools  to create the e-courseware since I am much more familiar in using it and is pretty much easy to use.  As such, during the course of designing, I did not really encounter obstacles but codes wise, I am unable to say it here since I have yet to start.

In conclusion, I find Week 4 is an interesting week for me since I get to design my own e-courseware in order to cater to meet the needs for learners 🙂

Jia Qun’s Reflection

I have learn alot about flash and how we could animate objects. It was very interesting and cool, as we can add sounds, videos and even stop them and re-play them we go to the previous page and next page. We could also do effects using flash, such as adding the effects to the instruments. The codes was still a tough part for this week of the class. 

For my E-learning project, I have decided to use Flash for the slides of my e-learning, which was already taught by Teacher. I am also going to use Camtasia or Debut Video to record video recordings of the desktop. It would be useful to show them examples online and video to facilitate learning. I would also use Hot Potato for my drag and drop game.

I have also done my template and a rough design of what my e-learning would be like. I have also started to draw the things i needed to trace. Currently my e-learning looks a bit childish, so i hope as i work on it, it will eventually look nicer and less childish. As for the book i mentioned previously, i haven’t read much. However, i should be able to read or scan through the important information by next week.  In the book it tells me some activities i could do, how i can do it and more. 

Wee Ling’s Reflection

This week is the development phrase, i learn how to create video and audio through the adobe flash. After the lessons taught by my lecturer, I realise that animating a video and audio is not that easy and require some time to understand.

For my assignment, as this is the development phrase, I would use adobe flash and hot potatoes for my video,quiz and game. First I will need to transfer my ideas that I have created in Photoshop to adobe flash as flash will be my primary tools that I am going to use to create my e-learning software. After I  get that done, I will proceed to create the codes to animate the objects. This will be a tough part as the codes can have many problems such as error and things might not work out from my original idea. Creating my quiz using hot potatoes would be new to me as I have not used the software before, so I will be trying out how the software works in the coming week and try to make my quiz as interactive as I can.

I find that as the weeks passes by, things are getting into shape and that also meant that it’s going to get tougher after each week. At the end of the day, I hope that I can produce a good e-learning package so that it will benefit other people who might be interested in the topic that I chose.

Online Threaded Discussions (Week 3)

1. Definition of Instructional Design (ID). What does an ID do? Include an annotation if any.

Instructional Design is defined as “a systematic process that is employed to develop education and training programs in a consistent and reliable fashion” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007).

Instructional Design is known as Instructional System Design, it is the process of analysis needs for learning, to develop and deliver the instruction, to cater to their needs. Such as translating instruction and general principles of learning into plans for instructional materials and learning. To plan and produce effective instructional materials that is more elaborate and more detailed.

Instructional Design is based on theoretical and practical research(cognition, educational psychology, and problem solving) through instructional resources, activities, trial and evaluation of all instruction and learner activities.

An Instructional Designer (ID) will identify the objective and target audience, to develop better learning system to meet the needs of the learners and the desired learning outcomes. They can  conduct assessments to examine the results and make amendments to the materials.

Instructional design also provides a framework for the creative process of design, and ensures that learners’ needs are met. Analyzing the needs and goals to develop a better system would allow them to learn better. Developing an effective system that would encourage the learners to be engage and they would learn it quickly. It would include development of instructional material and activities, and would also do an evaluation by trying out the instruction and learner activities.

References: http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesigndefinitions.htm

2. Principles or elements of Instructional Design. Include an annotation if any. 

Goals

– Goals are clearly stated of what students should be able to know and do by the end of the instruction and learning. It should be stated in terms of learner’s learning

– Appropriate and related to the learners

–  Consider the amount of discipline and task cater to knowledge and skills required by the learners in order to be successful

Standards and Benchmarks

–       When setting goals, make every attempt to align with state and district standards and benchmarks.

Define Learners

–          Need to work and meet the needs of all learners while designing goals and creating student performance outcomes.

–          Recognizing learner’s level of learning will help in defining goals and learner outcomes. Consider both age and individual progressive appropriateness and consider how to distinguish the learning to cater diverse needs and interests of all learners

–           Evaluate prerequisite skills and knowledge in communication such as reading, writing and etc) that helps to determine the appropriate goals and outcomes

Create Learner Outcomes

–          Established on goals, standards and learner’s needs

–          To measures the process of learning.

–           Outcomes should be clear and consistent so that all the learners would understand

–          Identify what to evaluate on, the circumstances which learning must be demonstrated, condition and criteria for successful performance.

–          Evidence of the learner who has successfully demonstrated performance outcomes that shows the goals haven’t been attained.

Develop Instructional Strategies

–          Instructional strategies explain both teaching and learning techniques.

–          Move learners towards the learning goals and standards.

–          Strategies include pre-instructional activities, presentation of information, practice and feedback, assessments, and application of activities.

–          Based on specified goals and results and existing learning investigation, knowledge of process learning, content to be taught and features of the learners.

–          Strategies contain more than one path to achieve the same goal. Different path let students with different learning styles to achieve the specified goals

–          Plan how to distribute the content and it will be the most effective. Use a variety of teaching strategies and coach the students to improve their learning techniques.

Gather or Develop Instructional Materials

–          It is more practical to gather created resources to use with instructional strategy than to start from scratch. Such as getting information from multiple resources(traditional and electronic).

–          Having the same idea being explained in a variety of forms to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles. Converting the resources to appropriate media for better learner understanding

–          Learners could also gather resources to help them understand better.

Implement Instruction

–          To be able to apply the relevant understanding to new knowledge to create a personal meaning.

–          To give consistent feedback to learner if they have met the expectations and how they can improve their performance.

–          To encourage them to be self-directed learners.

Assess Learner Performance

–          Assessments to reflect their knowledge, application and understanding.

–          Feedback should be clear and appropriate so that they can improve on it, by modifying it to meet their needs. Have both formative and summative evaluation.

Reflective Practice

–          Having assessments to help them revise the instruction, materials and strategies and to help them to understand it better.

–          Using formative assessments can guide them in their learning environment.

References: http://marcopolo.k12.or.us/design/practices.php

3. Give 2 Models of Instructional Design. Include an annotation and a graphic if you find one. 

ADDIE Model

The ADDIE Model is a organized Instructional Design Model that contain of 5 phrases – Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation.

Analysis

✔  Designer identifies audience, performance, goals, objectives, audience’s needs, existing knowledge, and any other relevant characteristics.

✔ Takes into consideration of the learning environment, constraints, delivery options and timeline for project.

Design

✔ Efficient process of indicating learning objectives.

✔ Comprehensive storyboards & prototypes, creating the look and feel, graphic design, user interface and content

Development

✔ Applying and generating original design of content and learning resources are based on the Design phrase.

Implementation

✔ Implement the plan or  the actual delivery of the instruction, as designed into action.

✔ Process for educating the learner

✔ Materials are distributed and training materials are evaluated

Evaluation

✔ Consists formative and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is always seen in each stage of ADDIE process. Summative evaluation contain tests designed for providing feedback from the users.

✔ To determine whether it has met its objectives and identify aspects of the process that should be strengthened.

ARCS Model of Motivational Design by John Keller

This process would allow you to know and identify the element of human motivation. Analyze their characteristics to determine motivational requirements, select the appropriate motivational tactics. Then applying and evaluating the appropriate tactics.

The ARCS model is a problem solving approach to designing the motivational aspects of learning environments to stimulate and sustain students’ motivation to learn. It provides a good summary of issues to be considered when designing learning materials.

ARCS Categories

There are 4 steps to sustaining and promoting motivation in learning process:

Attention	Relevance	Confidence	Satisfaction
Perceptual Arousal Inquiry arousal Variability	Goal orientation Motive matching Familiarity	Learning requirements Success opportunities Personal control	Natural Consequences Positive Consequences Equity

The above table contained descriptions of the theoretical foundation for each of the categories that list the “process questions” for each subcategory.

Applying the ARCS model in Instructional Design

1. Attention: It is essential to grab the learner’s attention.

a. Perceptual Arousal: Uses surprise of uncertainly to gain interest. [ The use of sensory stimuli (include uses of sound, animation and video)

b. Inquiry Arousal: Stimulates curiosity by posing challenging questions or problems to be solved (giving difficult sums so they will keep trying)

c.Variability: Use of variety (lecture with visuals, group activity, or game) for a change of pace.

*Some ways to grab their attention: Role-play involve with material or subject, having a variety of methods to present material, using visual stimuli or sensory stimuli, and giving questions or problems for learners to solve.

2. Relevance: Establish relevance in order to increase a learner’s motivation. To do so, it is important to use concrete language and examples which are familiar to the learners.

a. Goal orientation:  The outcome of learning such as obtaining a job, reward, etc. or may imply the means of learning.

b.  Motive watching:  Involves learner’s choices about strategies of learning, such as by group interaction, competition, or individual work.

c. Familiarity: Connect to what one already believes and understands such as realistic graphics, people’s names, personal learning experiences.

*Some of the ways to do so is by explaining purpose of content, present goals for learner to select, ask learner to select own goals. Such as letting users have a choice in deciding the content, select the things they would like to see.

3. Confidence: Helping the learners to estimate their own performance, so that they can evaluate and improve on it. Learners should also believe that their success is a direct result of the amount of effort they have put forth. Therefore they will study harder and have more confidence in the subject.

a. Learning Requirements: Provide in the form of clear objectives.

b. Success Opportunities: Provide success opportunities early and often enough to establish the learner’s belief in his or her ability to achieve.

c. Personal Control: Provide personal control over the learning with choices of content, objectives and activities. This relates success to one’s choices and effort.

4. Satisfaction: Making learning rewarding for the learners as well as making it satisfying for them. We could also provide the learners with opportunities to use the acquired knowledge in real life setting, so the learner would feel that it is useful or beneficial. It is good to get feedback and reinforcement. So when they appreciate the  results, they will be motivated to learn, and satisfaction is based upon motivation(intrinsic or extrinsic).

a. Natural Consequences: Increase the use of the content, simulations, projects, real-life activity.

b. Positive Consequences: Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

c. Equity: Assure equity of rewards so that they match achievements.

ARCS Design Process

The ARCS motivational design process is a organized problem solving method which needs knowledge of human motivation as well as progresses from learner analysis to solution design. These process include:

• Knowing and Identifying elements of human motivation
• Examining audience characteristics to decide motivational requirements
• Identifying characteristics of instructional materials and processes to stimulate motivation
• Selecting suitable motivational tactics
• Applying and Evaluating suitable tactics

It can be tough to do all these as there are numerous elements in a course which can affect motivation. For instance, materials that you use, how a teacher portray him or herself, structure of lessons that calls for different types of actions in the beginning, middle and end as well as the overall of the course. However the above 4 categories of the ARCS Model provide assistance in each of these areas. Each category contain subcategories that are supported by specific psychological concept.

References:http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html

http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/10/instructional-design-for-beginners-what-motivates-people-to-learn/

http://www.arcsmodel.com/pdf/Biographical%20Information.pdf

4. What is the difference between Curriculum vs. instruction? 

Commonly, Curriculum transmits the content of a program and its course structure. It is also often referred as learning content, activities and structures experienced by students. Curriculum sets out the ” when, what or why ” in learning. When being the sequence and scope while what or why being the student’s assessment.

Instruction is the ” how ” in learning and the way the curriculum should be taught. Instruction is also the creation and implementation of purposefully developed plans for the teaching of the curriculum content. After planning out the curriculum, instructions are used to carry it out. Teaching is the personal skills and professional preparation demonstrated by the “who” in the equation, the teacher. The teachers would cultivate the course delivery and evaluation approaches to make it approachable by all students.

Curriculum is a guide for learning to take place, what the learners will learn and the content to be taught. While Instruction is a more detailed plan of how the learning will be carried out or how the learners will learnt and the way those plans are implemented in order to teach the curriculum content.

References: http://www.multiage-education.com/russportfolio/curriculumtopics/curoverview.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_Curriculum_Design_and_Instructional_Design&altQ=EWhat_is_the_difference_between_curriculum_development_and_design

5. Explain the difference between theories of instructional design and theories of learning. 

Instructional design

Instructional Design Theory is the study of how to best design instruction to ensure that learning will take place. Instructional design is about designing better layout and materials to improve their learning, motivation and involvement, it is drawn from learning theory. The Designer would decides what is important for the learner to know and attempts to transfer that knowledge to the learner. 

Theories of learning

Learning theory is the study of how people learn, their responses through the concept of learning.  These theories would be useful to know the complex process of learning and also how you could go about teaching the students. These theories would play a major role in instructional design models and the educational technology field.  It will be more of human information processing, cognitive load, which is more of human factors.

 

From Reiser and Dick

Target Audience and Prerequisites: Students are different in terms of background of experience, attitudes, skills, needs, motivation, and knowledge. Instruction must be designed with these considerations in mind.

Identify Instructional Goals: goals are common statements of what teacher would like students to be able to do.

Identify Enabling Objectives: Enabling objectives are definite statements of what students will be able to do thus the instruction will add to reaching the goals. The objective must be measureable in some way.

Plan Instructional Activities: Activities that help to cater the needs for objectives and goals. It may contain anything ranging from reading to listening to participating in field trips.

Choose Instructional Media: Instructional Media contained lecturing, assignments, PowerPoint and Internet. The problem is to discover which assist most in meeting the objectives.

Develop Assessment Tool: It must be designed to offer students with an opportunity to demonstrate the skills, knowledge and attitudes specified in the objectives.

Implement Instruction: Provide student an opportunity to evaluate the success of the plan of instruction.

Revise Plan: Any plan should be subject to revision and the revision has to go back to the objectives.

Reference: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/edp511/isd1.html

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Learning_theory

Wee Ling- Step 2 & 3

Step 2- Select a topic from any subject that interest you.

Topic

• HCI- PACT analysis

Objective

• By the end of the lesson, students will be able to understand the concept of the PACT analysis and use the knowledge learnt to work on their case study.
• Able to remember and apply the knowledge learnt to the case study.

Target Audience

My target audience for this project is polytechnic students from the range of 17-25 years old. Appropriate use of text and graphics are essential to keep my target audience focus on the e-learning course so that they can learn as much as they can for this module.

Students that are taking this module; Human Computer Interaction are people who had just completed their year one and they are advancing to their second year. This module is completely new to them, but having prior designing knowledge from Visual Design Technology and Multimedia Project 1 the students should have no problem adjusting this module.

The module itself would be interesting as the students will be task to design an iPhone application; for those who own or does not own an iPhone, the interest in learning to design an iPhone application would be high as iPhone is a popular gadget among the age group.

My target audience would benefit in this e-learning course as I am not going to create woody text that current lecture slides are presenting, I will try to create a more interactive and fun way for students to learn this module by graphics that are appropriate for my age group and not too much of cartoon character that are aimed at younger age group.

Needs Assessment

• Describes general topic for which they wish to develop an instructional program.

I would like to develop on the John Keller’s ARCS model with the use of attention, relevance and confidence as the main point to teach my target audience. I can apply the attention by having the games in the e-learning   course so to increase student’s interest as well as allowing them a         change of pace from the usual lecturing.

• Describes who the learners are. Includes any relevant learner characteristics.

The learners are students who had just completed their year one and are advancing to their year two. Having completed courses such as Visual    Design Technology and Multimedia Project 1, these students are eager learners who strive to excel in their remaining modules.

• Describes the instructional need – what learners can’t do that they want them to be able to do.

I strongly believe that my target learners are interested in exploring and learning new things. However the materials that are given to them do not interest them at all. Having the right material and method to present to the learners so as to increase their interest in this module is what I am currently trying to achieve.

• Describes why they think they need can be addressed by instruction.

Instruction is the basic step to teach learners how to follow and understand it to so that they can accomplish the set of task assign by the teacher.

• Summary description of the learning need

They need something that attracts them long enough for the subject to be stored in their long term memory and also introducing different variety of activities to increase their interest in the subject

Goal Description and Statement

• Describes the learners that they want to accomplish their goal.

To be able to understand the concept of PACT analysis and also to be able to apply what they have learn to their case study.

• Describes what the learners should be able to do.

Able to understand the basic of PACT analysis such as what PACT stands for namely people, activity, context, technologies.

• Describes the context in which the learners will attempt to accomplish the goal.

Having the right materials delivered to the students to learn and understand.

• Describes the tools that will be available to the learners.

There are many tools available for the learners to choose from; learners can browse through the internet such as searching the questions that they do not understand on search engine such as Google, MSN or Yahoo. Unconventional tools such as borrowing books from the library can also assist learners in this module.

• Describes how they would tell that the learners accomplished the goal.

Objectives are set before each module is being introduced to allow learners to understand what the need to accomplish in the module. Simple quiz and games are also available for learners.

Step 3:Produce a storyboard

This will be the Home page of the e-learning course. I have design the layout to look at a blackboard as I felt that the e-learning course is a digital form of teaching students, so by having the blackboard it gives the students a sense of lesson that they should concentrate on. I had image of four persons in different colour as well as the word HCI to show the students that the topic for this e-learning is HCI and the content that I will be covering will be PACT analysis. I gave the meaning of PACT at the bottom to allow the students to have a head start to what they encounter in this course.

Script:  “Welcome to this e-learning course, today’s lesson will be on PACT analysis. Through this course you will be able to learn the concept behind PACT analysis and use what you learn in the case study that will be shown to you at a later of the presentation. Please click the next button at the bottom of the page to continue.”

The students will arrive at this concept page once they click on the next button in the home page. The PACT analysis word is place at the top of the screen as that is the topic that the students are going through. I placed the navigation bar at the left to allow the students to have easier access to the other contents in this e-learning course. I have characterized the navigation bar in a way that it flows accordingly to what I am presenting to the students. If the students already understood the concept of PACT analysis, they can proceed to the case study page to continue from there.

The green portion of the page is where all the information/content of PACT will be placed. I have added two buttons namely the forward and backward button to allow the students to watch the presentation at their own speed.

Script: Here we are at the concept page, as you can see the navigation bar will be at the left of the screen and the content of the page will be in the green box, there is a forward and backward button located at the bottom of the page where you can click next or go back to the previous slide.

I have added a character name Mary for my case study page to allow students to have a character to read out the text for them rather than they read the content. I used an oval shape speech bubble for this page so as to emphasize on the text and also to allow the students to pay more attention.

Script: Mary: Hi my name is Mary; I am from Temasek Polytechnic, please to meet you. Please press the next button at the bottom of the page to see your case study.

 

My game is actually drag and drop where the students will be shown images from the previous slides that I have gone through and they have to drag the image to the right answer. If they get it wrong, they have to try again until they get it right.

Script: This is a very simple; all you have to do is drag the image on the left to the right answer on the right.

Quiz component is rather simple and straight forward with the question and answer shown for the students to select. If it is correct, the correct statement will show and the students can move on to the next question. There are a total of five questions for the quiz and if they get the answer wrong, they will have to try again until they get it right.

Script: This is the quiz session; please press the next button to proceed to the question.

Jia Qun’s Topic

Step 2: Select a topic from any subject that interest you. Make sure there are enough information available for you to create an effective ID project/E-learning project. Things to consider before you design your e-learning package:

Topic: HCI – Heuristics

Objectives

Students must state clearly the goals and objectives for the e-learning package

• Students will be able to evaluate the design and usability of the website based on the Heuristics.
• To learn and remember the 10 heuristics so that they can evaluate the usability of the websites, by applying the heuristics.

State what impact is intended on the audience

• Able to evaluate and apply the Heuristics taught, on websites
• Able to remember the 10 heuristics by heart

Target Audience

My target audience would be Polytechnic Students age around 17 to 24, studying Human Computer Interaction (HCI). They are learning new information which is added on from previous subject knowledge, such as Web Design (WDS). The students would learn more about designing a usable websites  which will be suitable for learning.

The attention span of the students is very short, as they get distracted easily by their surroundings such as games and friends. They also had other lessons throughout the week which is very tiring and added on to that, they have a lot of assignments and projects to complete. So it is not easy to make the students sit in front of the screen for a long time, as they might not concentrate throughout. Therefore we should make learning more interesting so that they would have the motivation to continue to learn and study.

If we give students a whole chunk of text to read, they would choose the information they would like to read and they won’t absorb a lot from reading if they seems to be forced to read. Therefore, we can do so by avoiding chunk of text for the students to read. We can add in some interactivity in the process of learning. Making learning more than just reading. We should try to attract their attention from the start to let them have motivation to continue. As the students have different concentration level, and different kind of learning styles. So we can provide different activities for the learners to learn.

By the end of the whole e-learning they should be able to understand the heuristics and how to apply them on websites. So when they enter the working world, they should be able to evaluate the design and usability of the website.

The content shouldn’t be very wordy, there should be some graphics, animation or videos in it. To interest the target audience. As there is some interactions going on instead of just scrolling up and down the screen. If the activities is special and interesting, the target audience would like it and would benefit from it.

Needs Assessment

The topic would be about heuristics. How they can apply the heuristics on websites. The learners are  Polytechnic Students age around 17 to 24, studying Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The students are not very self-motivated and self-discipline. The students would not go home straight away and do their work, they would wait until they felt like doing them. Thus wasting a lot of time on activities that is not as important as studies. They are also not very motivated to do their work, there will be students that would do it for the sake of doing. It is important that the students have the motivation, to understand what they are doing so that they can score well and get good grades. The students concentration level and attention span is very low, as they would be distracted easily.  When they get distracted easily, they would take longer than they expected  to complete the task . Therefore it is important to highlight these needs.

It is important that  the students understand what they are studying, so that they are able to apply it in the real world, such as evaluating websites. As heuristics is more about application and the e-learning would not be able to evaluate everything they want to know. So after going through this e-learning, they should be able to understand the heuristics and how they could to apply them. The instruction that is displayed can be more interesting and more meaningful for the students, so that they can learn and remember better. We could do so by making the information more interesting and meaningful , this would allow them to remember and understand easily. To make the students more motivated to learn, having a variety of activities, would be more interesting then reading. As they get to play and interact around as they learn. They will be able to make connections better.

Goal Description and Statement

The learner that wants to accomplish their goals, would be students who is studying HCI and wants to understand heuristics better, to be able apply the heuristics on their project as well as examinations. The learner should be able to understand the heuristics and how to apply it on websites after learning it. For the above to happen, the learner should be motivated to do their own work, able to find time to read up more on it.

Describes the tools that will be available to the learners.

The tools that would be available to learners is the e-learning materials, there will be some activities available also. There will also be quizzes, games, and more to let the learners interact with. Instead of just reading through the slides.

Describes how they would tell that the learners accomplished the goal.

We can tell that the learners accomplished their goals by asking feedbacks from the learners, such as having a user testing and asking them how is the website. Another way would be to have a test or quiz to test them, whether they have understand it well, and whether they know how to apply it in real life situations. We also can conduct a survey to ask them questions on the website, or e-learning system.

 

Step 3: StoryBoarding

1. This is the cover page of the e-learning. The design of is like a book. The image is a  thumb. As we should remember heuristic as a rule of thumb.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Image, Video, animation all on the left. Content is on the right

 

 

 

 

 

3. This image shows the animation progress.

 

 

 

 

4. This is the Drag and drop game. It is an image of the website, and the users will have to drag and drop the heuristics to the website.

 

 

 

 

5. Quizzes will be scenario based. The question will be on the left. Image or multiple choice on the right. They would have to click on the part of the image(answer). This is a image based question.

 

 

 

 

6. Quizzes will be scenario based. The question will be on the left. Image or multiple choice on the right. They would have to click on answer. This is an answer based question.

 

 

 

 

7. This is the question and answer section. Where they will get to know the frequently ask questions. They can click “ask” to know the answer as it is more interactive this way.

 

 

Week 3 Reflection

Rebecca’s Reflection

I am inexperienced when it comes in designing an online e-course though I have seen and utilized it a few years back. I was worried that I might not be able to produce good result as this is my first attempt designing an online e-courseware. Fortunately, my lecture provided me with some good ideas of what design and content I can include in the e-course and I find it somewhat useful and will implement on it.

I began to sketch out designs I had planned for the e-courseware a few days ago. Knowing that I suck in Art, I thought I could make use of the Microsoft Tools to assist me in my design phrase though my lecture advised me to sketch it on a paper to save trouble!

On the other hand, I am also required to do a thorough research for this e-courseware so as to provide detail content/information in the slides. I learned quite a lot during the course of researching as it really benefits me in certain aspects.

Additionally, I have also learned how to construct the e-courseware using Flash and I thought it was kind of appealing and fascinating as I get to use different tools to design the type of design I want it to be.

I trust that I will be very busy in this coming challenging week since I still have quite a lot of things on hand need to be done.  I hope I can complete this e-courseware within the given period and I’m looking forward in what users have to say about my e-courseware!

Jia Qun’s Reflection

This week is the design phrase, so we had to draw out all the design and plan everything out. I find that that 8 weeks seems kind of tight to complete everything. But since we are done with the rough design, i hope that by then we can all complete it well. We were also asked to do a lot of research, such as the 5 questions, about our target audience and goals. Through the research i found, i learnt more about the differences, problems, models.  Through the research i was able to understand some of the ideas better and got a clearer understanding of it. This week i also learn to build a e-learning using flash. It was kind of interesting, as we can show the page number, display the wrong answer and correct answer. I also find the “Hit” for the answer is very interesting, as you can just click on the answer. I also hope that during the coming weekends i can come up with better activities, as i borrowed a book from the library, still waiting for my chance to be able to read it.

Wee Ling’s Reflection

This whole week is the design phrase where we starts to draw out what we wanted to do for our e-learning course. I find that this will be tough as I not very good at drawing. Although the teacher suggested to draw on a piece of paper which is alot easier, I decided to draw it on Photoshop as I felt more confident using the software as oppose to hand drawn. At first when I was told to start designing the e-learning course, I was clueless as to what I should be designing. After searching through the website for examples, and also the lesson that the teacher had gone through with us, I started to plan out the possible design for the e-learning course. I was again confused by the fact that the storyboard does not have to show all the screenshot of the e-learning course and thankfully having consulted with my teacher I realise that the storyboard was not actually that difficult at all. I believe the coming week would be more challenging and I hope that I can be able to complete my e-learning course on time.