Lifelong learning and e-learning 2.0: the contribution of usability studies

Abstract

Usability assesses how easy and effi cient the use of ICT interfaces is, its measurement may show if and how much a tool allows its users to accomplish their tasks with profi t and without an excessive load, according to the designer’s goals and expectations. Therefore Usability tests with users can help in designing web interfaces, which are effi cient and easy to use. In the current development of web environments one sees the emergence of the RSS, blog, wiki, podcast technologies and the diffusion of web 2.0 interfaces. In this paper we pose the question of how to ascertain the role of Usability of new web 2.0 interfaces by testing a personal learning environment, LTEver, which allows document sharing and discussion within a community of learners. Results obtained with 10 novice users show that Usability problems within LTEver, related to web 2.0 interface, are similar to those commonly found within web interfaces, but do not affect the perception of utility and potentiality of these new tools and of new web 2.0 environments.

Keywords

• usability
• web 2.0
• lifelong learning e-learning 2.0
• usability testing