Evaluation from a Student's Perspective
We thought it would be interesting, not only to analyze the interface
of the web site but also to analyze it from a social perspective.
The interface aspect analyzes
the usability and ease of comprehension of the web site. The social aspect
analyzes the usability and ease of comprehension of the web site from the
perspective of a teacher and of a student. This has been done to ensure
a more holistic evaluation of the web site.
From a teacher's perspective,
the site has been evaluated for its usefulness as a teaching tool and from
a students' perspective, for its usefulness and ease of comprehension to
a student in achieving the daily concerns of finding information on the
course, course policies, assignments, textbooks, resources etc. and getting
motivated to performing more successfully in the course.
I Interface aspects
Scenario:
Prospective Student
John wonders which classes he will be taking next semester.
As he browses, the EI site, his attention is caught by the title "Professionalism
in computing" which seems to evoke that the corresponding course will deal
with concrete applications of computer science. After having read the numerous
comments contained on this page, he hesitates for a moment and chooses
the link "Professionalism Home Pages". The first thing he sees is then
an interesting description of the course. Eager to know more about it,
he clicks the Syllabus link. Then following his curiosity he goes through
the assignment pages and other miscellaneous pages and realizes he is lost.
So he returns to the home page and checks that the course outline corresponds
to what he wants. Being satisfied and curious to know about the books required
by this course, he spends some time in the textbook and Reading section.
As he is about to leave, he remembers the link to the career page. Since
the career classes represents at least one third of the course, he decides
to have a look at this page. It looks like a complete different place!
Claims Analysis:
Home
page
Not very appealing:
no logo, a lot of text.
This page with its numerous
links seems very messy which is sad since according to the survey
80% of the students use this page as their primary entry point.
Exploration is often more
depth oriented than breadth oriented
Pages are not overloaded
and their content can be oversewed quickly.
Need to travel through many
pages and the user gets lost easily.
The site gets larger and it
becomes easier to miss a page that might be important (the survey
points out that 90% in average of the students acknowledge that they haven't
visited all the pages and links).
Table
of contents
First contact with
the page is the overview of the course.
References overloads the page
and should be on another page.
Course
outline and the Syllabus
pages
Quite complete and
contains numerous links.
Very dense, hard to read.
Pages well structured but should
use more images to stress certain points (Instead of using the underlining
style).
Textbooks
and readings
Offers an overview
of the book by listing its chapters.
List of the different references
of books is not easy to read.
Use of the underlined style
Stresses words to lend
emphasis.
Causes confusion as links are
represented the same way.
Careers
Page
Proposes a few interesting
links to sites related with careers.
A huge long page (the syllabus,
the calendar, the professor's information are gathered on the same page).
It looks like a draft:
no image, a very simple style.
The design is completely
inconsistent with the Professionalism in computing pages.
Scenario:
Class student
Jane needs to prepare for her next class. She quickly goes
to the "Table of Contents" and clicks the "calendar" link. Then she clicks
on the link proposed at the intersection of the Monday column and the ‘9/08
week’ row. She arrives on the "Graphical Presentation" page and reads its
contents. She now remembers she hasn't participated in the class debate.
She checks the debate guidelines and once she has understood fully the
requirements she clicks on the debate link in the "calendar" page and is
the Debate site is loaded. She then reviews the subject of the week and
the comments/ arguments made by her classmates and gives her opinion.
Claims Analysis:
Announcement
available only by way of the list server
The information is
provided to the student without him having to look for it.
Very frustrating not to find
the announcements on line.
Site seems static and does
not encourage the student to come back to visit it (more than 60%
of the students doesn't check into the CS 3604 class WWW more than once
a week, which is a lot for a Web oriented course).
Table
of contents
Short list of links
well chosen.
Big logo takes room.
Overview should be on another
page to save time scrolling through the page.
Calendar
Rich source of links:
all the lectures and information seem to be accessible from this page.
Alternate colors to make the
table easier to read.
Little overview of the semester
would be welcome as shortcuts.
Maybe too many links, it is
not clear if two following lines refers to the same link or to two different
links.
Debates
link in Calendar page
Shortcut to the debate
pages.
Links in this page point all
to the same location.
Images
Good in context, most
of them funny (85% of the students acknowledge
that images make the pages look more attractive and eye catching).
Few images in the online course.
Becomes tedious for a regular
visitor.
Debate
Guidelines
Several paragraphs
force to read all.
No index that offers an overview.
If this had been available it would have saved the student time when he
came back later to obtain get some details that he missed out on previously
.
There should be a link to this
page in the debate section.
Debate
There are different
presentations for outside viewers (no visible author name, no way to participate).
A tree structure gives relations
between the positions.
It is hard to have an overview
of the outcome of the current debate: see how many people agree/disagree,
etc..
There may be some way to sort
the answer by key words or shorter description.
Ambiguity about the Yes/No
answer: it is not clear if a 'yes' refers to the main theme of the debate
or the last position. Moreover, 'Yes' or 'No' is a little binary and there
may be some intermediate positions.
The date indicated hasn't much
sense.
The story on which the debate
is based takes room and there should be another page accessible with
a link.
II Social aspects
Scenario:
A new student has enrolled for CS3604 and decides to look up
the web page for information on the prerequisites, course format, textbooks,
assignments, deadlines etc. He would like to see what the course work entails
so he can start reading up on the material before the term starts. He also
hopes that he will find information on the textbooks for the course to
purchase them from his local book depot.
The student pulls up the homage, clicks on courses, and selects CS3604.
He begins scanning the page, the image catches his attention immediately
and he notes that CS3604 cannot be used as a CS minor or as a higher level
course for a potential internal transfer student. He proceeds on to the
other links hoping that he will be able to get a 'feel' of what the subject
entails.
Claims Analysis:
Immediate Impressions
of the Professionalism homage
The image
is appropriately chosen and conveys the message across to the student effectively
providing
Indexing into the homage
at the point required is straightforward.
But
some information that is too small to have its own link have been put under
other links that make it difficult to find.
The information
on similar courses taught in other universities may not always be of use
to the average student.
Prerequisites
The prerequisites
for the course are listed in the syllabus page which makes it difficult
to find as one would not expect it to be under the syllabus link.
Information
about the textbooks for the course
This satisfies his initial
curiosity about the course and lets him have a feel of what the subject
is going to be like without having to go to the expense of having to buy
the book or having to go through the bother of borrowing one.
There are links that enable
a user to buy the books online.
The telephone
numbers to order the books are also listed to help those who would
like to order by telephone
The return policy ( to return
the books, i.e. date by which they must be returned, refund rules etc.)
is explained here.
This information
adds to the amount already present and increases the complexity of the
web site.
Format of the course
This is easily available
from the assignment calendar.
This gives a student an idea
of how much of work needs to be put in and the deadlines by which he must
have it done by.
This provides an opportunity
for a student to plan ahead and work ahead to prevent the last minute jams
that we are all so familiar with.
But the course may seem very
intensive and rigid.
Assignments
The different types
of assignments are available to the student
Hints on assignments are available
here
But, the number and nature
of assignments might put off a less motivated student .
Course policies
It always helps to know the
rules for late submission as early as possible.
The student is made aware of
his responsibility to prepare in advance for each class
But these rules could be expressed
in a more emphatic way
Portfolios
The text makes the
concept of portfolios easy to understand.
They motivate a student to work
hard on every assignment since he knows that his grade depends on his portfolio.
The importance of class participation
is stressed clearly and his participation in class debates is also crucial.
This is driven home in no uncertain terms by the requirement that the student
needs to attach printouts of the pages in which he has contributed to the
debate. This would motivate him to participate actively.
But, the portfolio involves
a lot of work to be done consistently.
Journals
A readymade format for the
journal is available
An example journal is available
online
It may be difficult for some
students to express themselves freely knowing that their comments are available
on the net for anyone and everyone to see.
It is difficult to remember
and note down the exact sequence of steps taken during the process of completing
assignment.
Online
Debates
Having debates online
gives an outsider (new student) an immediate view of what he would need
to do and help him get familiarized with the format.
The structure of the debate
gives a student ample time to prepare for the debate (Friday to Friday
noon of the following week)
This structure enables a student
to prepare himself in depth on a particular topic, if he feels his knowledge
is not sufficient enough to make a sensible observation. This is not possible
in a conventional debate.
This method attains the goal
of getting the student to read through the matter well.
A student may participate in
the debate even though he may be away from school by simply accessing the
site
Having an online debate put
the emphasis on subject matter rather than on presentation skills.
The system of granting a student
double credit if his arguments have a reference or are based on a quotation
provides motivation for the student to read the subject matter with close
attention and apply what he has read to a variety of situations.
But, this means that a student
must have access to a computer to participate in the debate.
But, the break in
the debate process may cause the student to lose track of his thread of
thought and may also cause him to lose interest in the debate.
If a student's argument is
incorrectly worded, it is comparatively difficult to correct his stand
, since it might come to his notice only after other students have posted
their comments on it. This means of clarifying is messy as compared to
the conventional means.
Review
The guidelines for
the review are very clear. This gives a student a very well defined framework
to work in, which helps concentrate on the subject matter rather than on
bothering about the problem boundaries.
But this could also inhibit
a student's creativity by forcing him to confine himself only to the bounds
set by the teacher.
Resources
The resources present
on the net are extremely helpful.
They are easily accessible.
Sections of the material that
are required can be printed out as and when required.
But, searching the resources
for particular information is time consuming.
,,