How Students Navigate in Online Classrooms: The Link between Usability and Instructional Design Best Practices

摘要

The goal of this study is to explore students' navigational behaviors in online courses in order to find the most effective course usability design. The study utilized observation and one-on-one interviews. The participants were asked to complete course-related tasks in one of the three course versions. Their interactions with the course were screen-recorded. The participants were later interviewed for their opinions on all three course versions and online course components. The findings offer insights to how students utilize course components such as homepage, syllabus, learning objectives, and instructor's self-introduction as well as their perspectives on effective navigation menu structure, module structure, and content page design. This research provides recommendations on course usability design for instructors and instructional designers.