Evaluating the effectiveness of navigation and organization of a classroom website through usability testing

Desiree PiercyLearning Design and TechnologyUniveristy of Hawaii at Manoa

Hawaii, USAdpiercy@hawaii.edu

Abstract: In order for students to be successful, parents need to know what is going on at school so they can help support their child/children. This usability study was developed to improve parent teacher communication using a classroom website in an elementary school. During the year there is a lot of communication between families and schools. Although many newsletters and flyers are sent home, parents still seem to never have all of the information they need, perhaps because information gets lost in transit from school to home. The purpose of this usability study was to evaluate the effectiveness of navigation and the organization of the content for a classroom website to improve weekly communication with parents at a Hawaii public elementary school on the Windward side of Oahu. Peer feedback suggested minimizing text on web pages by breaking up sentences for easier readability, adding a tab for homework, and specifying names with room numbers. These suggestions were implemented in the hope that the website would become more valuable in the future for communicating to parents and helping them easily find information pertaining to their child. This paper will showcase how the website changed and will discuss design principles that informed choices in the redesign.

Introduction

In educational settings parents and teachers continually work together to help children be successful in school. To make this happen, there must be constant communication between the family unit and the teacher to ensure all needs are being met. According to Unal (2011), “Research studies show that involving parents and families is one of the most important ways to improve schools and help students succeed” (p. 43). When teachers make it a priority to involve parents in their daily teaching practice then parents will improve their interactions with their children at home (Unal, 2011).

Communication with the family unit is highly valued at the elementary school level. Currently, the most common way of communicating with parents is through flyers or newsletters at the elementary school in this study. Although every effort is made to get information passed to the parents in a timely manner there is still a break down in communication, perhaps because papers are getting lost or damaged in transition from school to home or students just forget to show their parents the flyers/newsletters. Parents are not receiving the information to help their child in school. When this happens the parents begin to get frustrated because they’re not informed of what is occurring in the classroom thus leading to feeling helpless to assist their children.

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As a 5th grade teacher at a public school, I am looking to increase communication with parents through the use of a classroom website. Throughout my years of teaching I have realized that the more informed the parents are the better the outcome I get from my students because the parents are up to date with what’s going on and can properly assist their child and meet necessary deadlines. I keep my parents informed through a 5th grade website with weekly announcements and general information about the grade level. This website benefits my students as well as their parents. If students have questions or lose documents they can refer to the website from home to look up important announcements or access any important documents needed for class.

In order to make an effective classroom website, it needs to be easy to navigate and include organized information that parents can easily understand and locate. To improve the classroom website’s effectiveness and ease of use, a usability study was conducted. The purpose of this usability study was to evaluate the effectiveness of navigation and the organization of the content for my classroom website to improve weekly communication with parents at a Hawaii public elementary school on the Windward side of Oahu.

Literature review

Technology continues to empower teachers to prepare our students for the future they will inherit (Ertmer, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Sadik, Sendurur & Sendurur, 2012). In general, teachers are beginning to incorporate technology more into the classroom. According to Bower, Hedberg, and Kuswara (2010), “There has been an explosion in the number of Web 2.0 tools available for educators to use with their students”. In order to close the achievement gap and increase student learning, LaRocque, Kleiman, & Darling (2011) note that it requires the collaboration of interested groups, most notably parents.

One way to use technology and increase parent teacher communication is through a website. Classroom websites are becoming more popular because of the ability for parents to access information anytime/anywhere. In addition, websites also eliminate the issue of documents getting lost transitioning from school to home. When parents participate in their child’s education results have shown an increase with student achievement (Unal, 2011). The goal of a classroom website is to increase teacher communication with parents. Higher parent involvement doesn’t just increase academic achievement but it also enhances parent and student satisfaction with the school itself, which then results in fewer behavioral problems overall (LaRocque, Kleiman, & Darling 2011). According to a study done in the United Kingdom by Lewin & Luckin (2010), using technology made it easier to share information with parents through websites and other learning platforms. Incorporating technology such as a website, allows for more independence for the learners and the parents and provides guidance for them when needed (Lewin & Luckin, 2010).

As we look into the future Shaltry, Henriksen, Wu and Dickenson (2013) note that with great hope our new teachers will pave the path in integrating new technologies into their

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teaching in ways that will be beneficial to their students, colleagues, and the greater education community. Training teachers to use technology from the beginning will increase the integration with it into their classroom. Involving web 2.0 tools in the classroom will not only engage participants but it will build a community amongst the users (Chua & Goh 2010).

Classroom websites can be used to disseminate information such as newsletters, blogs, and a calendar of events. With a website parents can have access to what’s going on in class and can find important documents if they lose them. According to a study by Tan & Goldberg (2009) high quality school involvement can help parents provide better assistance at home and more consistency between home and school.

When designing the website the most important thing to think about is the audience. Creating websites with elevated levels of usability and accessibility opens opportunities for the broadest audience possible (Foley 2011). Since the users will be utilizing the site it’s important to keep them in the forefront during the design process. Additionally, designers should consider varying levels of technological ability. When considering the users of this website it is important to think about the students who will be using the website and make sure it is designed to support their cognitive and motor skills (Gossen, Hempel, & Nürnberger 2013). This project focused on improving overall effectiveness, the organization of the content, and the ease of navigation for a classroom website. Techniques such as placement, adjacency, and balance are powerful considerations for designers to create a visually appealing website (Glore & David 2012). The best way to have the most useful and powerful website is to conduct a usability test with the target audience. According to Krug (2010), “The purpose of a usability test is to get insights that enable you to improve what you’re building” (p.10).

Project Design & Development

The school has created each grade level with a Weebly website to provide additional information for parents and students. The initial website was very basic and offered minimal information for parents and students. Based on previous communication with frustrated parents it was suggested to design a website that would expand the communication lines between parents and teachers and better inform parent so they can assist their child in school. Therefore, usability testing was done to evaluate the effectiveness of navigation and the organization of the content of the grade level website.

Since the website was previously created, it was decided to use the Weebly web design platform and improve upon it from it’s current status. I wanted to have clear lines of communication between parents and teachers so their child can have a successful school experience. The existing website was text heavy and not used frequently by parents. I wanted this to be a website that parents would check regularly.

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction was the design framework for the website. The first step is to gain attention. So to attract people a visually appealing yet somewhat sophisticated template for 5th graders was chosen for the website. On the home page I

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placed a welcome message seen in Figure 1 with images and a blog with current announcements and updates throughout the grade level. All tabs were labeled easily with information you can find on them going straight across the top of the homepage. There were scrolling pictures for visual appeal and to catch users attention when landing on the homepage. The blog included current events and updates related specifically to the grade level.

Figure 1. Website homepage

Underneath the welcome message and the scrolling pictures was a blog seen in Figure 2 that included current events and updates related specifically to the grade level. In addition to the blog users could comment on each blog entry if they had any questions or comments.

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Figure 2. Blog

A tab across the top was included about curriculum in 5th grade shown in Figure 3. The public school system had adopted two new major curriculums this year, which have resulted in many inquiries from parents and students. Information for all the subjects taught could be found when clicking on this tab.

Figure 3. Website curriculum page

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A schedule tab seen in Figure 4 was included so parents could have access to the daily schedule for each of the classrooms.

Figure 4. Website schedules page

A contact tab, displayed in Figure 5, was included so parents could easily contact their child’s teacher. This form allowed parents to easily contact their child’s teacher through email with any questions or concerns. Add something about Gagne’s nine events?

Figure 5. Website contact page

Modifications

After getting peer feedback multiple changes were made to the website. First, the curriculum tap was reorganized so that it wasn’t so text heavy for the user. Each subject was separated into its own tab. When the user hovered over the curriculum tab there was a drop down menu, seen in Figure 6 that listed all subjects taught in 5th grade.

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Figure 6. Curriculum page after peer feedback

Within each tab the information was divided clearly by dividers and bolder font. Images were added for visual appeal as seen in Figure 7. Separate pages were made for the main subjects taught and an additional content tab was created for the extra curricular subjects.

Figure 7. Additional Content page

In order to keep the website consistent it was suggested to make all the tabs that mentioned teachers names and room numbers include both instead of one or the other.

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Therefore, wherever there was a teachers name, the room number was included for consistency as seen in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Schedules tab after peer feedback

A back to top button, seen in Figure 9 was created to reduce the amount of scrolling for the user. This made user navigation easier and quicker.

Figure 9. Newly created back to top button after peer feedback

The last modification made was a homework blog seen in Figure 10. It was suggested to add this for students and parents to check if the student was absent or if parents wanted to crosscheck to make sure their child was completing all of their work.

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Figure 10. Newly created homework blog after peer feedback

Conclusion

Next Steps

Technology can help to increase parent support with their children, which can benefit the teachers and the learners (Lewin & Luckin, 2010). Making the information more accessible makes it easier for parents and students to know what’s going on at school. Nearly everyone is connected online so most likely parents and students have better chances of reading the information online on their phone than looking at the papers that come home from school. Designing a classroom website is important to students and parents to help increase communication between teachers and parents. This usability study helped me design an organized website that is informative, useful, and easy to navigate for parents.

Lessons Learned

As the designer it’s important to keep the user in the forefront of your mind when designing your product. Since they will be the one using the product it should be useful to them. It is important as the designer to stay consistent throughout your design. Keeping consistent will make more sense to the user. Lastly as the designer it’s important not to get too attached to your design. As a designer you will constantly be making changes to make the product as user friendly as possible.

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References

Bower, M., Hedberg, J. G., & Kuswara, A. (2010). A framework for Web 2.0 learning design. Educational Media International, 47(3), 177-198.

Chua, A. Y., & Goh, D. H. (2010). A study of Web 2.0 applications in library websites.Library & Information Science Research, 32(3), 203-211.

Ertmer, P. A., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T., Sadik, O., Sendurur, E., & Sendurur, P. (2012). Teacher beliefs and technology integration practices: A critical relationship. Computers & Education, 59(2), 423-435.

Foley, A. (2011). Exploring the design, development and use of websites through accessibility and usability studies. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 20(4), 361-385.

Glore, P., & David, A. (2012). Design and aesthetics in e-learning: A usability and credibility perspective. International Journal on E-Learning, 11(4), 383–390.

Gossen, T., Hempel, J., & Nürnberger, A. (2013). Find it if you can: usability case study of search engines for young users. Personal and ubiquitous computing, 17(8), 1593-1603.

Krug, S. (2010). Rocket surgery made easy. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

LaRocque, M., Kleiman, I., & Darling, S. M. (2011). Parental involvement: The missing link in school achievement. Preventing School Failure, 55(3), 115-122.

Lewin, C., & Luckin, R. (2010). Technology to support parental engagement in elementary education: Lessons learned from the UK. Computers & education, 54(3), 749-758.

Shaltry, C., Henriksen, D., Wu, M. L., & Dickson, W. P. (2013). Situated learning withonline portfolios, classroom websites and Facebook. TechTrends, 57(3), 20-25.

Tan, E. T., & Goldberg, W. A. (2009). Parental school involvement in relation to children's grades and adaptation to school. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(4), 442-453.

Unal, Z. (2011). Going the extra step for parental involvement: Connecting family and school with the power of teacher websites. Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), 5(6). p. 43-50

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