Briannon Keydeniers
Clair Obrien
Terry Jordan
LTEC 3440.020
August 2, 2010
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
1. What is causing the frustrations Georgina and her students are facing?
As a group we discussed the lack of communication and miscommunication going on between Georgina and her students. This is very evident in the emails Georgina is sending her students and their responses to her. Georgina feels the students should be able to find the answers through the website. We discussed how we noticed the students seemed to be having trouble navigating the material and determining due dates on the website. The website layout has many broken links and advertisement pop ups which are equally as frustrating.
2. Develop a flowchart of Georgina's site as it currently exists. Develop another flowchart with your recommendations of how to solve the current problems.
Please see attached power point slides.
3. What other improvements would you recommend for the existing pages in order to decrease student frustration?
The layout of Georgian’s website is very confusing and has no logical flow to it. As a group we discussed the fact she doesn’t follow the three click rule of web design. We had to keep clicking different links to get to where we wanted to go. The flow was very broken and choppy.
We also noticed when you click on the active links there would be advertisements that would pop up. This just adds on to the growing frustration the students are already experiencing. As a group we would suggest Georgian double check her website links to make sure there isn’t anything that would pop up that shouldn’t.
We noticed there were many broken links and some of the links were not active. It would be a good idea if she used Microsoft Expressions to double check her website. She might also want to check her website in different browsers such as Firefox.
The website is fairly boring. We suggested maybe using some graphics like the school logos or school colors. We also suggested she consolidate the website more. Georgina doesn’t need to have each slide on a separate link. She can incorporate the slides onto each chapter link. We also thought adding a calendar link would be a great resource for the students so they can access due dates without having to ask Georgian when things are due. She might want to incorporate a FAQ’s link so her students can look there first before they email her with questions.
We also thought it might be easier if she had the “email me with questions” linked to Microsoft Outlook. This would be more convenient and less frustrating.
4. As design experts, how would you work with Georgina to fix these problems?
As a group we discussed sitting down with her and have her go through her website with her students in mind. We also thought it would be best if we worked with Georgina by showing her the web page step by step. We talked about how we could explain to her how what she sees may not be what her students see. We would stipulate that if the students have to click several links to get to weekly material there is more likely to be connection interruption, frustration and confusion on how to get to the material. Hopefully by making a few simple changes to the website Georgina will find that her class submits assignments more timely and she will not have to answer so many questions.
5. What options are available for salvaging this course at this point? Which course of action do you recommend?
We discussed that Georgina can salvage her course, but she and the students must work together in order for this to happen. She may start by offering a statement of empathy for the students, and in turn, also ask for patience. We recommended that Georgina reformats the web page and updates students of the changes via e-mail or instant message. Or, if she has a discussion board, announcement page or instructor’s corner she can post updates there.
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