Enhancing learning effectiveness by adopting a knowledge-based usability guideline

• Main Authors: Chin, Sylvia Ping Ping, Tsui, Eric, Lee, Chien Sing *
• Format: Article
• Published: Emerald 2016
• Subjects: QA76 Computer software
• Online Access: http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/705/; https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-02-2014-0015
• Institution: Sunway University

Guidelines for the design of knowledge-based e-learning usability systems are absent from the current recognized set of usability design heuristics and from an established evaluation methodology of e-learning system developments. Such systems can help Web designers and instructional designers design for different user needs and decide which properties are of a higher priority, thus meriting more design and development efforts. The authors aim to help students develop higher-order thinking skills, such as application, evaluation and syntheses of knowledge. The authors applied Merrill’s first principles of instruction and usability properties as pedagogical and usability design guidelines, knowledge management(KM)and hierarchical task analysis as methodological knowledge bases. The authors proposed a KM e-learning usability framework which frames our mapping of Web usability attributes to e-learning usability properties. The authors aim to investigate whether adopting Merrill’s first principles of instruction and usability properties as knowledge-based guidelines/design factors would help learners develop higher-order thinking skills and whether this design would result in positive technology acceptance. The authors also developed a method matrix to map these selected methods of cognitive engineering to its potential uses in the KM e-learning usability framework of this paper and mapped e-learning usability tools with components in the KM e-learning usability system.