Nektarios Kostaras

Evaluating Usability in a Distance Digital Systems Laboratory Class

This paper presents the usability evaluation of a digital systems laboratory class offered to distance-learning students. It details the way in which students can participate remotely in such a laboratory, the methodology employed in the usability assessment of the laboratory infrastructure (hardware and software), and also outlines the main findings and lessons learned. It has been shown that the setting up of such a laboratory requires careful design, pilot runs, and formal evaluation prior to scaling up for a large number of students in order to both foresee usability flaws in the infrastructure and ensure educational quality.

Usability evaluation of augmented reality systems

Augmented Reality is a technological area that has met with significant growth in our times and its applications cover an ever increasing range of everyday life activities. Despite the rapid development of Augmented Reality technology, not much attention has been given to the important aspect of systems interface usability. To date, some of the methods used in the assessment of common software applications are also employed in the limited number of studies regarding the usability assessment of Augmented Reality systems. In this paper, we investigate the issue of usability evaluation of Augmented Reality systems and we discuss the use of the assessment methods currently employed for traditional applications. Furthermore, we present and discuss issues that arise from their employment in the assessment of Augmented Reality systems and possible ways to overcome these issues.

Learning Management Systems and Learning 2.0

The unprecedented growth of Web 2.0 has affected learning and has made the growth of learning networks possible. Learning networks are shaped by communities to help their members acquire knowledge in specific areas and are the most notable feature of Learning 2.0, the new learning era that focuses on individual learning needs. The evolution of learning forces traditional Learning Management Systems LMS to incorporate more Web 2.0 features and slowly transform to Personal Learning Environments PLEs. A Personal Learning Environment is a loosely structured collection of tools with strong social networking characteristics, which gives users the ability to create, maintain, and redistribute their own learning content. This paper is a field study of the most well-known and established LMSs and their support for specific features within several categories of tools of Web 2.0. The incorporation of Web 2.0 features within those LMSs differentiates them regarding their ability and potential to be used as PLEs.

Usability Inspection of Informal Learning Environments: The HOU2LEARN Case

It is argued that a social network can support knowledge transfer to its members with an informal way. It is also argued that a usable, in terms of HCI, social network can do this effectively and efficiently. Therefore, usability evaluation is a significant process that social networks, especially the education-oriented ones, have to undergo in order to be widely accepted and accomplish the task of knowledge transfer. This paper presents a methodology for the usability evaluation of social networks, that was applied to HOU2LEARN, an open educational social network setup in Hellenic Open University for educational and research purposes. The application of this methodology to HOU2LEARN is described and the evaluation results and outcomes are discussed.

Usability Evaluation of Web-Based Collaboration Support Systems: The Case of CoPe_it!

Usability is considered as a very significant factor towards the wide acceptance of software applications. Although the usability evaluation can take place in different forms, the entire evaluation procedure usually follows predefined ways according to a classification of the common characteristics of software applications. However, contemporary Web 2.0 applications, which aim at both social network development and collaboration support, reveal the need for modifying the settings of the evaluation procedure. This is due to some unique characteristics of these applications, such as the support of both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, the use of common spaces for working and information exchanging, and the advanced notification and awareness services. This paper explores these applications’ particularities with respect to the way the whole usability evaluation procedure is affected and proposes a composite evaluation technique based on the development of appropriate heuristics that is suitable for such cases. The aforementioned issues are elaborated through the case of CoPe_it!, a Web 2.0 tool that facilitates and enhances argumentative collaboration.

Combining experimental and inquiry methods in software usability evaluation: The paradigm of LvS educational software

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology combining experimental and inquiry methods used for software usability evaluation. The software product of LeViS project funded by the European Commission (Socrates/Lingua II) is used as an evaluation paradigm. The aim of the paper is twofold: to present the results of the usability evaluation using this software as an example and to suggest a number of improvements for the next version of the software tool; and to portray the advantages of combining methods from different evaluation approaches and the experiences from their application.Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation for this experiment combined different usability methods, both experimental and inquiry ones. More specifically, the methods employed were the Thinking Aloud Protocol and the User Logging, which were performed in a usability evaluation laboratory, as well as the inquiry methods of Interview and Focus Group.Findings – In this study, usability problems regarding the L...