Does your online course provide a positive user experience? To determine if it does, you might see how it aligns with information architect and user experience consultant Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb diagram.
Useful. First, is your course useful? The matter of whether the subject and learning objectives are ultimately useful to the student is certainly important, but here I’m thinking of whether the course supports the stated learning objectives. Does it provide the content and tools a student needs to meet learning objectives, or must the student search for solutions or create workarounds to overcome shortcomings, limitations, errors, or omissions? For example, if your course requires students to record and post audio comments, does it provide tools for doing so, or at minimum direct students to the appropriate tools and tutorials? Further, are the elements or components of your course useful? Do the graphics, audio, or video support learning objectives? Do the readings and assessments?
Usable. It’s also important that your online course is usable. This means it’s easy to use. Can students move easily from readings to assignments? Is it easy to access multimedia and video, or do students need to install special plug-ins? More fundamentally, does the page load quickly? Will it work well with all browsers? Is it adaptable to mobile devices?
Desirable. Is your online course desirable? Is it pleasing to the eye? Do images, graphics, fonts, and colors create a distinct and attractive visual identity that reinforces your school’s brand? Is the content well written and formatted properly for reading on a screen? Is it pleasant to navigate? Attractive, well-designed, and enjoyable page layouts, information architecture, and interactivity elicit positive emotional responses in users and help create a course environment that students want to engage with.
Findable is another vital quality of the user experience. There’s generally not much you can do to make your course more findable in your LMS, but with thoughtful design you can definitely make course readings, documents, tools, assignments, due dates and other elements easier to locate. The information architecture should be logical, consistent, and memorable to help your students find the things they need to meet the course learning objectives.
Accessible. You also want your online course to be accessible to people with disabilities. Refraining from using tables is a good start: screen readers don’t work well with them. You can also code your pages with semantic HTML for better screen reader compatibility. Dyslexic readers have trouble with fully justified text, so format your paragraphs as left justified with a ragged right edge. Avoid long blocks of unbroken paragraphs; instead, use short paragraphs that express a single idea. Provide text-only alternatives to embedded images and other graphics like charts, and be prepared to provide transcripts of audio and video resources.
Credible. It’s been demonstrated that it’s difficult for users to take your subject matter or institution seriously if the visual and interaction elements are poorly designed and displayed. Users assess the credibility of online material in part by how a site looks and performs; paying attention to all facets of the user experience will help make your online course more trusted and believable.
Valuable. Finally, the user experience of your online course should deliver value to your stakeholders. Students should feel they’ve achieved their goals and be satisfied with the time and money spent taking your course, and the reputation and mission of your institution should be upheld and advanced.
I love this visual aid of the seven characteristics that make an online course a positive user experience. As I was reading, I could relate each item to my experience at Walden University currently. I could also relate each item to teaching my sixth graders in the classroom. I strive to make my teaching useful (as I believe all teachers do). I create learning objectives/intentions and try to teach in a way that gives every student the opportunity to meet these objectives. I try to provide all of the necessary materials needed for students to accomplish tasks aligned with the objectives. When I read the word “usable” I thought of the word accessible relating it to the way my classroom is laid out and set up. I want it to be accessible for all students and organized in such a way that it is safe for all students. Desirable makes me think of the posters and bulletin boards that cover the walls of my room and hopefully provide inspiration to my students. It also makes me think about my demeanor and rapport with the students. I treat them with respect and compassion to instill those qualities in the learning environment, in an effort to make them desire to come to class. Clear labeling and organization throughout the classroom makes things able to be found easily. This helps to increase the instruction time and make it run more smoothly. Credible makes me think of the textbooks, articles, handouts, etc. we use to teach various subjects. If there are typos or grammar or spelling mistakes, the students question the material’s credibility or the teacher’s credibility. The ultimate goal in teaching is to show students how what you are teaching is valuable, or in other words, how they can apply it in real life situations. Sometimes I struggle with this as I am a young teacher and do not have a lot of experience. I count on my colleagues or other resources to help me show students the value in the more abstract content.