3.4 Research Assumptions ... 68 3.5 Research Limitations... 69
3.6 Courseware Evaluation ... 70 3.6.1 Development of the Courseware ... 70 3.6.2 Delivery of Courseware... 71
3.7 Research Design... 72 3.8 Software Engineering Approach ... 73
3.9 Quantitative Research Approach ... 75 3.9.1 Questionnaire data collection... 75
3.9.2 Participants ... 79 3.9.3 Procedure ... 79
3.9.4 Validity and Reliability ... 80 3.10 Qualitative Research Approach ... 81
3.10.1 Interview... 82 3.10.2 Participants and the Process ... 83
3.10.3 Web Based Feedback... 84 3.10.4 Validity and Reliability ... 84 3.11 Ethical Considerations ... 85
3.12 Conclusion ... 85
3.1 Introduction
The Introduction and Literature Review preceding this chapter have introduced us to the research areas on this thesis. In particular, they have provided an overview of teaching and learning online, user-friendly design, and learner-friendly design. This chapter will now discuss the research methodology utilised by the researcher, in order to provide both a background and a backdrop to the issues on the design of the courseware, and the data analysis which follow this chapter. This research uses a multi-disciplinarian approach, combining instructional design, human computer interface design (usability design) and educational evaluation. The area of courseware design has become more important in the past ten years, with online learning becoming a basic element of teaching and learning in
educational institutions, as well as industrial, commercial and public service contexts (Jochems, van Merrienboer, and Koper, 2004).
3.1.1 The Nature of Instructional Design
It is important to provide a brief background on the nature of instructional design, because this frames the design of courseware. Linguistically, courseware designers are better known as instructional designers. They may also be known as instructional technologists or educational technologists. As Carr-Chellman and Reigeluth (2006) note however, the discipline is young and there is a lack of consistent terminology within the area. This researcher has also found that whilst there is generally a consensus about the process and intention of instructional design, there tends to be a lack of distinction regarding the components of instructional design. In particular, definitions and theories tend stemming from the research in education tend to emphasise the relevance of ‘instruction’ in educational design, as opposed to ‘software design’ – including screen design and usability.
Carr-Chellman and Reigeluth (2006) come closest to implying the relevance of the design element of instructional design. They argue that instruction “is anything that is done to purposely facilitate learning”, and that design theory is “is aimed at facilitating generative outcomes – that is, it assists in the creation of something”. Seels and Richey (1994) state: “Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.” The Association for Educational Communications and Technology Definition and Terminology Committee (2001) state “Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.” Philosophically, the profession of instructional design has been around for as long as paper-based materials have been created for the purpose of education. Nevertheless, instructional design especially for educational software design has only been in existence for around three decades, and instructional designs specially for online learning is still a relatively new concept. Only in the past decades has it become common for universities to deliver web-based learning modules, although it is common for most universities and courses particularly within western universities to provide at least supplementary (optional) online learning modules.
Contemporary instructional design theories tend to centre on philosophical arguments about education theories, as opposed to software design methodologies. This thesis assumes that existing theories of instructional design within education tend to consider software design as the domain of web designers as opposed to instructional design. It is the belief of this researcher however, that the theories and practices of instructional design should come from the areas of educational design, software design, and evaluation of both education and software. The methodological approach taken within this research reflects this belief. This
research involves designing a user-friendly courseware based on constructivist-oriented principles. It entails the researcher taking on the hat of both instructional designer and web developer, and incorporating and amalgamating principles from the disciplines of education, software design, and education/software evaluation. The researcher incorporates both user- friendly and learner-friendly design aspects.
3.1.2 Purpose of This Study
This research seeks to address the gap in the literature, covering courseware design and evaluation for Higher Education utilising the learner-centered principles and features of user- friendly and learner-friendly design. One of the central aims is to investigate some contemporary opinions on courseware design from participants, and to assess whether statistically significant differences of opinion occur according to occupation. For instance, do students, academics, and professionals have statistically significant differences of opinions when it comes to designing specific aspects of courseware, such as the navigation design? Although the focus is on occupational differences between participants within the statistical analysis, the researcher also investigates whether statistical differences occur according to other variables such as age, institution, gender, familiarity with teaching and learning, and computer literacy. A secondary aim of this study is to design a courseware based on the researcher’s appropriation of contemporary theory and practices on courseware design. Particular attention is paid to the aesthetics and accessibility features on the user-friendly design, and constructivist-oriented principles on the learner-friendly design. The intention of the researcher was to investigate how a user-friendly and constructivist-oriented design could be developed for a fully-online courseware prototype, and to obtain an evaluation of the prototype from students, academics, and professional designers/developers. There are two sources of data collected as part of this research. The first source of data included 246 responses to the questionnaires on participants’ views regarding the features of courseware design. The second source of data stemmed from the courseware evaluations. This included data from a total of ten face-to-face interviews with participants from universities (mainly the University of Tasmania) and professionals (from professional training organisations in Melbourne), and also seven email replies from the web-based feedback of those whom evaluated the courseware over the World Wide Web.
3.2 Research Aims and Objectives
The main aim of this study is to investigate the perspectives of user-friendly and learner- friendly aspects of courseware design for Higher Education, from a range of participants who may be involved either in its production or as learners. This study examines the perspectives of academics and professional instructional design experts on courseware design for teaching and learning online, and to compare this in particular to tertiary learners’ perspectives. The study is interested specifically in whether statistically significant
differences of opinion occur between participants according primarily to their occupation, but also to other relevant areas such as age, institution, gender, familiarity with teaching and learning online, and computer literacy. Nevertheless, an aim of this research is to utilise a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis, in order to increase the chances of a more comprehensive understanding on learners’ perspectives of contemporary courseware design.
Thus, the researcher intends on using a range of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and tools. This includes a questionnaire with numerical and open-ended data, and courseware evaluation data from both semi-structured interviews and email feedback. The questionnaire includes 29 questions, all of which fit into pre-defined sub-themes on teaching and learning online, user-friendly design and learner-friendly design. The aim of the open-ended component is to hopefully obtain a better understanding on the pre-existing sub- themes, and to obtain information on emerging sub-themes that the statistical component alone cannot provide. A major aspect of this research is to design an example courseware for an undergraduate course on Intercultural Communication, based on the features and principles of user-friendly and learner-friendly design. The researcher then intends to obtain open-ended qualitative feedback about the courseware design from instructional design experts, and academics and learners’ in Education and Other Disciplines. The ultimate goal is to hopefully obtain a greater understanding of the role of specific features of the user- friendly and learner-friendly aspects of courseware design, which may potentially strengthen or limit the chances for effective teaching and learning online to occur.