User-Friendly and Learner-Friendly courseware design,uddevelopment and evaluation

摘要

The design of eLearning courseware has become an important area of research withinudcontemporary Higher Education. The literature and practice of designing eLearning indicatesudthat the role of user-friendly and learner-friendly design as it applies to fully-onlineudcourseware is yet to be established. When it comes to user-friendly design, an establishedudset of heuristics is still in development, as researchers’ investigate the impact an additionaludrequirement of learning has on traditional user-friendly design. When it comes to learner-friendlyuddesign, there are still questions in regards to the features that contribute to effectiveudpedagogical design. The design, development and evaluation of fully-online coursewareudbased on a constructivist philosophy for ill-structured problem types, is yet to be discussedudin-depth within the literature. In particular, it is not clear whether learners’ perspectives differudfrom that of academics and professional courseware designers. This thesis attempts toudaddress these gaps in the literature through a mixed-methods approach. Firstly, audquestionnaire survey is used to obtain statistical and open-ended data on teaching andudlearning online, user-friendly design, and learner-friendly design, from a range of students,udacademics, and professionals. Secondly, a fully-online prototype courseware on InterculturaludCommunication aimed at first-year university students, has been designed and developed byudthe researcher. A sample group of participants evaluate this courseware, through openendedudinterview and email feedback. The results are bought together to present a range ofudcontemporary perspectives on some specific aspects of user-friendly and learner-friendlyudcourseware design.