Usability of Alternative Web Course Structures

The usability of Web sites is coming to be a major concern for corporations and other organizations. Usability typically consists of five elements: learnability, efficiency, memorability, error rates, and satisfaction. Although the relative importance of these elements may differ between educational sites and commercial ones, usability is no less important for instructional Web sites. In this article we discuss what usability means for instructional Web sites and report on a small study comparing the usability of two different course structures. Some differences were found, which, if confirmed, could have implications for how we design instructional sites. Basic usability testing is recommended for all education and training sites, especially as part of formative evaluation. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH E-mail address: < getinfo@haworthpressinc.com > Website: < https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href=" https://www.HaworthPress.com "> https://www.HaworthPress.com > © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]