Designing and Evaluating Effective Online Learning Interfaces

由于高等教育机构面临停滞不前的预算和增加招生的压力，它们不得不想方设法变得更容易获得、更灵活、更具成本意识。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采用各种在线学习方法。虽然在线学习方法被吹捧为高等教育的革命性方法，在不增加稀缺空间和人力资源负担的情况下，扩大教育覆盖范围和影响，但仍有几个挑战限制了其有效性，导致高辍学率和低学生和教师参与度和满意度。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调查人员在人机交互、针对个体差异进行设计、在线学习和多种研究方法以应对在线学习者的参与挑战方面的专业知识和成功记录的基础上。该研究计划的总体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，以便更有效地设计在线界面以支持学习参与度和目标。更具体地说，人口统计、个性、学习风格和动机因素将形成一个综合模型，该模型将通过实验比较来检验各种在线学习互动和界面。值得注意的是，这个研究项目将把传统的自我报告调查方法与生理测量和大脑活动测量结合起来。对这些研究方法进行三角划分，通过分析他们潜在的认知、生物、情感和态度关联，可以更深入地理解在线学习者的真实体验。本次调查的结论将被用于开发一种适应性软件工具，通过将界面模式与个人特征和交互类型适当匹配来鼓励参与在线学习。随后，这将导致开发适合于支持不同用户的各种在线学习活动的经验驱动的界面指南和工具。该研究计划承诺帮助在线学习在不同的国内和全球受众中更可靠地成功。此外，这项拟议的研究计划将为研究生和本科生提供设计和评估界面以及利用多种研究和分析方法的极好培训机会。

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.