Usability and Instructional Design Heuristics for E-Learning Evaluation

Benson, L., Elliott, D., Grant, M., Holschuh, D., Kim, B., Kim, H., Lauber, E., Loh, S. & Reeves, T.C. (2002). Usability and Instructional Design Heuristics for E-Learning Evaluation. In P. Barker & S. Rebelsky (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2002 (pp. 1615-1621). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Abstract: ???Heuristic evaluation is a methodology forinvestigating the usability of software originally developed byNielsen (1993, 2000). Nielsen???s protocol was modified and refinedfor evaluating e-learning programs by participants in a doctoralseminar held at The University of Georgia in 2001. Themodifications primarily involved expanding Nielsen???s original tenheuristics (developed for software in general) to fifteenheuristics(designed to be more closely focused on e-learningprograms). The application of this evaluation protocol to acommercial e-learning program supported enhancements in theusability of the program.???(pg. 1615)

Benson et. al found that while heuristic evaluation is fast, convenient, and economical, Nielsen???s original ten usability heuristics were insufficient for e-learning programs. The refined heuristics are an attempt to address this.