Technological advances over the last decade have had a significant impact on the teaching and learning experiences students encounter today. We now take technologies such as Web 2.0, mobile devices, cloud computing, podcasts, social networking, super-fast broadband, and connectedness for granted. So what about the student use of these types of…

Given that a user interface interacts with users, a critical factor to be considered in improving the usability of an e-learning user interface is user-friendliness. Affordances enable users to more easily approach and engage in learning tasks because they strengthen positive, activating emotions. However, most studies on affordances limit…

This paper describes an ongoing study related to a conceptual design model, which is specific to instructional interface design to enhance courseware usage. It was found that most of the existing courseware applications focus on the needs of certain target with most of the courseware offer too little to inclusive learners. In addition, the use of…

The success of an application programming interface (API) crucially depends on how well its documentation meets the information needs of software developers. Previous research suggests that these information needs have not been sufficiently understood. This article presents the results of a series of semistructured interviews and a follow-up…

In this article, we describe the rationale, design and evaluation of a widget-based dashboard to support scholars' awareness of their Research Networks. We introduce the concept of a Research Network and discuss Personal Research Environments that are built of as a development parallel to Personal Learning Environments. Based on the results…

Much relevant internet-mediated information is inaccessible to people with learning disabilities because of difficulties in navigating the web. This paper reports on the methods undertaken to determine how information can be optimally presented for this cohort. Qualitative work is outlined where attributes relating to site layout affecting…

Privacy on the Internet has become one of the leading concerns for Internet users. These users are not wrong in their concerns if personally identifiable information is not protected and under their control. To minimize the collection of Internet users' personal information and help solve the problem of online privacy, a number of…

This study aims to design a non-simultaneous distance instruction system with affective computing, which integrates interactive agent technology with the curricular instruction of affective design. The research subjects were 78 students, and prototype assessment and final assessment were adopted to assess the interface and usability of the system.…

Training and education have evolved far beyond black boards and chalk boxes. The environment of knowledge exchange requires more than simple materials and assessments. This article is an attempt of parsing through the different aspects of e-learning, understanding the real needs, and conducting the right requirements to build the appropriate…

Introduction: The popularity of social question and answer sites has made it an important and convenient source for obtaining knowledge. This study quantifies how three different system characteristics (interface design, interaction and answer quality) affect users' perceptions (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment),…

CATO is a new user interface, developed by the author as a response to the significant difficulties faced by scientists, engineers, and students in their usage of computer algebra (CA) systems. Their tendency to use CA systems only occasionally means that they are unfamiliar with requisite grammar and syntax these systems require. The author…

This study used Focus Group to analyze user requirements for user interface so as to understand what capabilities of the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) Instructional Platform were expected by users. After 12 focus group interviews, the following four functions had been identified as essential to the CPS Instructional Platform: CPS…

Erroneous examples--step-by-step problem solutions with one or more errors for students to find and fix--hold great potential to help students learn. In this study, which is a replication of a prior study (Adams et al. 2014), but with a much larger population (390 vs. 208), middle school students learned about decimals either by working with…

A framework connecting concepts from user interface design with those from information studies is applied in a study that integrated a location-aware mobile application into two special education classes at different schools; this application had two support modes (one general and one location specific). The five-month study revealed several…

By conducting usability testing on a multilanguage Web site, this study analyzed the cultural differences between Taiwanese and American users in the performance of assigned tasks. To provide feasible insight into cross-cultural Web site design, Microsoft Office Online (MOO) that supports both traditional Chinese and English and contains an almost…