Usability and Instructional Design Heuristics for E-Learning Evaluation

Nielsen’s protocol was modified and refined for an evaluation of an e-learning program by participants in a doctoral seminar held at The University of Georgia in 2001 and the application of this protocol to a commercial e- learning program is described.

Abstract

Heuristic evaluation is a methodology for investigating the usability of software originally developed by Nielsen (1993, 2000). Nielsen’s protocol was modified and refined for an evaluation of an e-learning program by participants in a doctoral seminar held at The University of Georgia in 2001. The modifications primarily involved expanding Nielsen’s original ten heuristics (developed for software in general) to fifteen heuristics (designed to be more closely focused on e-learning programs). The set of fifteen e-learning heuristics as well as the protocol that guided the evaluation process are presented. The application of this protocol to a commercial e-learning program is described along with the changes that resulted from the evaluation.