Is it worth the trouble: does smart, intentionally designed student learning environments increase student participation?
Abstract: Learning Management System sites (LMSs) have, in recent years, been more frequently used by universities to provide students with relevant, subject specific content. However, LMSs are generally created by lecturers, whose design experience is solely based on intuition, which can lead to insufficient student participation. Statistics from two similar communication modules (COMS123 & KCOM318), with different designs, had a different number of site visits. This was assumed to be caused by the design and multimedia elements used on these sites. Different multimedia elements such as typography, graphical images, video, etc. were analyzed based on specific criteria. The findings suggest that text segmentation, headings, the picture-to-text ratios, different video types, hyperlink functionality and the use of interactive tools may have contributed to more site visits for a particular site. This study therefore suggests that attention needs to be given to these elements when designing LMSs for students.
Presider: Gayle V. Davidson-Shivers, University of South Alabama