Designing and Evaluating Effective Online Learning Interfaces

由于高等教育机构面临着停滞的预算和增加招生的压力，他们不得不想方设法变得更容易获得、更灵活、更有成本意识。因此，在移动技术的普及和宽带连接日益普及的推动下，大多数高等教育机构正在实施或考虑各种在线学习方法。尽管在线学习方法在不增加稀缺空间和人力资源负担的情况下增加了教育范围和影响，被吹捧为高等教育的革命性方法，但仍存在一些限制其有效性的挑战，导致辍学率高，学生和教师的参与度和满意度低。因此，研究对于了解学生在在线学习环境中取得成功所需的条件至关重要。拟议的研究计划建立在研究者在人机交互方面的专业知识和成功的记录上，针对个体差异，在线学习和多种研究方法进行设计，以解决在线学习者的参与挑战。******这项研究计划的首要目标是了解在线学习者以及他们如何与在线学习活动互动，以便在线界面可以更有效地设计，以支持学习参与和目标。更具体地说，人口统计、个性、学习风格和动机因素将为一个综合模型提供信息，该模型将用于通过实验比较来检查各种在线学习交互和界面。值得注意的是，该研究项目将传统的自我报告调查方法与生理测量和大脑活动测量相结合。通过分析潜在的认知、生理、情感和态度相关因素，对这些研究方法进行三角测量，可以更深入地了解真正的在线学习者体验。这项调查的见解将用于开发一种适应性软件工具，该工具将通过适当匹配与个人特征和交互类型相匹配的界面模式来鼓励参与在线学习。随后，这将导致开发经验驱动的界面指南和工具，适用于支持不同用户的各种在线学习活动。******这个研究项目承诺帮助在线学习更加可靠地为不同的国家和全球受众取得成功。此外，本研究计划将为研究生和本科生提供良好的训练机会，以设计和评估界面，以及利用多种研究和分析方法。

As post-secondary institutions face stagnating budgets and pressure to increase enrollment, they have had to find ways to become more accessible, flexible, and cost-conscious. As a result, and fueled by the pervasiveness of mobile technologies and growing access to broadband connectivity, various approaches to online learning are being implemented or considered by most post-secondary educational institutions. Although online learning approaches have been touted as revolutionary for higher education in terms of increasing educational reach and impact without overburdening scarce space and human resources, there are several challenges that limit their effectiveness and result in high dropout rates and low student and instructor engagement and satisfaction. As such, research is essential to understand the conditions required for students to succeed in online learning environments. The proposed program of research builds on the investigator's expertise and successful track record in human computer interaction, designing for individual differences, online learning and multiple research methods to tackle the engagement challenge of online learners. ******The overarching goal of this research program is to understand online learners and how they interact with online learning activities so that online interfaces can more effectively be designed to support learning engagement and objectives. More specifically, demographic, personality, learning style and motivational factors will inform a comprehensive model that will be used to examine various online learning interactions and interfaces via experimental comparisons. Notably, this program of research will combine traditional self-reported survey methods with physiological measures and brain activity measures. Triangulating these research methods will allow for a much deeper understanding of true online learner experiences by analyzing their underlying cognitive, biological, affective and attitudinal correlates. The insights from this investigation will be used to develop an adaptive software tool that will encourage engagement with online learning by appropriately matching interface modes with individual characteristics and interaction types. Subsequently, this will lead to the development of empirically driven interface guidelines and tools appropriate for various online learning activities supporting diverse users.******This program of research promises to help make online learning more reliably successful for a diverse national and global audience. Additionally, this proposed program of research will provide excellent training opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students in designing and evaluating interfaces as well as utilizing multiple research and analysis methods.