Katrin Becker
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EDER 679.12
Reading Response 9
Last update: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 01:22 PM

Back to 679 main pageComputer Based Learning II

Week 9 March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
Why Conduct Usability Assessments?
How Does Qualitative Evaluation Figure? 
Assigned Readings
1

Nielsen, J. (1993). Chapter 7: Usability Assessment Methods Beyond Testing. In Usability Engineering. [Response]
2
 FYI:  Campbell, T. (1997). Technology, Multimedia and Qualitative Research in Education. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 30(2), 122-133. [Online]

Additional References
1
2
3
Response
This chapter discusses: observation; questionnaires; interviews; focus groups; logging; user feedback.

I think the ideas discussed in this chapter are far closer to the kinds of assessment we are going to be able to accomplish in the context of this course. The other methods are sound, but they require somewhat more time (and resources) to set up and execute. When you don't have much time, money, or equipment then the methods outlined in this chapter can still be used. Observations, questionnaires, and interviews can provide one with a wealth of information, although it is not as cleanly compartmentalized as more formal testing.


Perhaps one of the most important things to take away from this discussion is that no single approach can give you a complete picture. One form of assessment is likely to suggest some possible conclusions. Those conclusions should then be examined further to see if they remain valid conclusions when looked at from a different perspective. This could perhaps be said of almost all conclusions drawn from research efforts.

For the same reasons I outlined in the previous response, I LOVE the table at the end.

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Copyright (C) 2004 Katrin Becker
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