Data will be collected anonymously as no names will be requested during the experiment. The research is not interested in the names of people but rather in their ideas and views with regard to the system that is being tested. Therefore, the researcher will keep no record of names. The researcher will ask all participants to sign a consent
form that will clearly explain the tasks of the experiments and what is expected from the experiment. The consent form will also clarify that the data collected will be analysed anonymously without any links to names and identities and that information from the study will be passed on to third parties.
No safety hazards are associated with the experimental study in this research as the participants will merely be using a e-learning website to find information. Upon completion of the experiment, the participants will evaluate the sites using usability questionnaires. In summary, the materials will include:
The Arabic version of the e-learning website.
The English version of the e-learning website.
A laptop or desktop computer in order to view the e-learning websites.
Camtasia software to capture user interaction with the e-learning websites.
Paper questionnaires.
A pen to complete the questionnaire.
3.20 Summary
Chapter three describes the research methodology and the research methods that were followed to undertake the research studies of this thesis. It also presents the data analysis techniques that will be used to analyse the results in chapter five. This research adopted the mixed research method to answer the research questions of this thesis. One of the objectives of this research is to understand the influence of Arabic language and culture on the use of, and judgment on, e-learning websites. The researcher judged that objectivism and subjectivism are both appropriate methods to explore how these factors can affect the usability of e-learning websites. Data will be collected from Arab users by their completing a set of tasks. Moreover, two primary methods will be used for
collecting data: interviews and questionnaires will be used to collect experiences and perceptions on using multi-language e-learning websites from representative end users. This research chose a deductive research approach since it starts from a general claim (i.e. that cultural and language differences affect users’ usability perception of e- learning websites) and leads to confirming this claim by realistic studies.
This research contains three phases. The first phase defines and analyses the research problem and reviews the related literature. The second phase designs and implements two multi-language e-learning websites (an Arabic version and an English version). Next, the experimental study takes place and users will be asked to perform a number of interaction tasks on the e-learning websites. Data will be collected from users using the methods that are detailed in this chapter. Finally, the collected data will be analysed and interpreted. Phase three is created to validate the results of phase two by using two methods: case study and fuzzy set theory. These methods will test the theoretical model for a number of selected e-learning websites. This will enable the researcher to create the appropriate usability guidelines for Arabic e-learning websites. In this stage, the researcher aims to test the level of usability of the Arabic and English versions. This thesis uses two methods to investigate the two e-learning website versions: a user study that is a type of empirical method that requires representative end users to evaluate the user interface, and a case study, which is a usability inspection method that is performed by usability professionals and experts to investigate the websites (both the Arabic and English versions).
The user study collects primary data from direct interaction with the computer system, from the user actions performed, and from the user impressions and feelings concerning the system following the study. Performance measurements include the average time taken to complete each task during the experiment and the average number of clicks on
each task during the experiment. Subjective feelings were captured using the usability questionnaire and the aesthetics questionnaire. The users are asked to think-aloud (i.e. verbalise their thoughts) to explain their views towards e-learning websites and the factors and problems that affect e–learning websites. The results will focus on four areas: the e-learning area, the culture area, the language area and the usability area, with the aims of exploring the relationship between these areas and how they affect each other in order to produce usability guidelines for Arabic e-learning websites.
The collected data are of two types. Quantitative data uses tables, statistics and graphs and are analysed by using a T-test to establish the differences between the two versions of the e-learning websites. Qualitative data include comments and text and are gathered by using several techniques such as interviews, the thinking aloud protocol and observations. All of these data are processed through the normal stages of preparation, analysis, and interpretation. As such, both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques will be used to analyse the data. The numerical results will be analysed using descriptive statistics (e.g. mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (e.g. repeated measure t-test) to highlight the differences between the Arabic and English versions of the e-learning websites.
The case study method is valuable in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the selected e-learning websites. Fuzzy set theory is used to validate results of the case study from the perspective of the experts. Since the qualitative data capture the feelings of the participants, the fuzzy set theory is used to allow the decision-makers to incorporate unquantifiable information, incomplete information, non-obtainable information and partially unknown facts into the decision model. Moreover, the case study and fuzzy set theory help in validating the proposed Arabic usability guidelines for e-learning websites.
Following on from the discussion of the methodology in this chapter, the next chapter (chapter four) describes how the data are collected in this research using different data collection techniques.
4 Chapter Four: Data Collection Planning
4.1 Introduction
This chapter describes the systems and instruments that are used to undertake the experiment in order to answer the main questions of this thesis. It starts by describing the development of the experimental e-learning websites (both Arabic and English versions) together with their underlying programming languages. This chapter presents the list of materials used to collect the data, with a strong focus on the questionnaires and follow-up interviews. This chapter defines the experiment and details all the e- learning tasks to be performed by the participants. Moreover, this chapter lists the questionnaires that are used in the experiment to capture the feelings and satisfaction of the participants, such as the evaluation questionnaire, the e-learning questionnaire, the usability questionnaire and the aesthetics questionnaire.