Usability Testing...

After reading an article about Usability testing, I found that many organizations fail to add Usability testing to their criteria of good elearning. The article explains that poor elearning applications are just that because companies forget to do this important test. I believe Usability can ultimately be the answer to the question of whether elearning is good or not. If organizations are experiencing high drop out rates in their elearning classes, the article explains that it might be due to the lack of usability testing. It is the user/learner that validates the elearning and if you do not get their input when developing that elearning, you miss out on information that could potentially determine the success of the training even before it is release.

http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/jan2005/miller.htm


Definition of usability: Usability has been defined by some as the extent to which an application is learnable and allows users to accomplish specified goals efficiently, effectively, and with a high degree of satisfaction. An additional component that should be added to this definition is usefulness; that is, a highly usable application will not be embraced by users if it fails to contain content that is relevant and meaningful to them.
Importance of usability
The field of usability engineering gained great prominence during the growth of the Internet, primarily as it pertained to the e-commerce industry. Countless online retailers quickly learned that one of the paths toward viability and increased sales was developing e-commerce Web sites that were highly usable. One of the most publicized lessons learned was the failure of Boo.com in May of 2000.
Boo.com was an upscale clothing e-retailer that prided itself on an elaborate and visually appealing Web site. The problem was that shoppers experienced great difficulty navigating through the site, locating items of interest, and finalizing purchases. Boo.com finally ceased operations, but only after having spent upwards of US$120 million in a mere six months.
Even though Boo.com wasn’t an e-learning site, much may be learned from its example. Intricate design and robust functionality will fail if visitors are unable to use the application to accomplish their objectives. Further, one cannot expect learners to visit the application time and time again simply to learn the interface. It must be understandable to them at the onset, if they are to access and absorb the content. Given the considerable dollars that are spent on e-learning applications it’s prudent to determine the extent to which they are indeed usable.
So, why do so many e-learning applications fail to stress the importance of or put into practice? It’s likely that the decision makers have a poor understanding of usability, are unaware of its importance, or do not consider it worthy of time and effort. Indeed, it would appear that far more energy is focused on the technology involved in developing instructional content rather than ensuring that users will be able to use the technology effectively.