A recent study conducted by NASBLA indicates that nearly 70 percent of boaters are choosing to complete their boating safety courses online. With this in mind, it is important to ensure that students taking an online boating safety course are presented the correct information and that the course is delivered in such a way as to support learning. Researchers from the University of Missouri worked alongside members of the NASBLA Education & Awareness Committee to craft a set of online course delivery and presentation standards that have been included as Standard 10 in the National Boating Education Standards. The researchers share the preliminary results of their research into the efficacy and usability of online boating safety courses which led to the new set of standards.

1. 10/8/09
Joi L. Moore, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
moorejoi@missouri.edu
NASBLA Conference – Corpus Christi, Texas
October 1, 2009
A Common User Experience?
Happiness
Confusion
Frustration
Despair
Usability Goal:
Make this an uncommon experience
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2. 10/8/09
International Standards Organization
9241 Usability Definition
The effectiveness, efficiency, context
and satisfaction with which
specified users can achieve
specified goals in particular
environments.
content users
Myth of the average user
There is not one
Web users are unique
Cultural Differences
Experiences
Expertise
Socialization
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3. 10/8/09
User Centered Design
Older users
Problems with: small fonts,
pointing devices, multiple Visually impaired users
windows Need text equivalent for
every non-text element on
websites
Younger users
Like lots of colors and animation;
need large clickable objects
Usability and Learning
1. When system usability increase, overall student
learning also increases
• Meiselwitz & Sadera, 2008
2. Tool design and efficient usage significantly
influences student learning outcomes and
attitudes.
• Fredericksen et al., 1999; Oliver & Herrington,
2003; Valenta, Therriault, Dieter & Mrtek, 2001
3. Student interactions with interface is positively
correlated to success in the course (Hillman, Willis,
& Gunawardena (1994)
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4. 10/8/09
Information Experience Lab
Project Tasks
1. Usability Evaluation:
• Navigation, appearance, multimedia, and
organization of the courses
• Instructional and message design strategies
2. Methods:
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Usability Testing at Boat Shows
• Usability Testing at IE Lab
Working and Long Term Memory
Clark, R. (2007). Leveraging Multimedia for Learning
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5. 10/8/09
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning
1. Multimedia - Link pictorial and verbal
presentation together
2. Modality - Animation with narration is better
than animation and on-screen text
• (Exception: instructions and second language)
3. Redundancy – If animation and narration, no
need for additional on-screen text
4. Interactivity principle - students learn better
when given control of the media
Mayer, 2002
Elements
Course A
Course B
Course C
Reading Time Requires amount of Recommends No time
Control/ time before amount of time requirement
Information
proceeding to next before proceeding
section
to next section
Audio
No narrative text, Narrative text
No audio or
but narration/audio narration
with video
Animation
Interactive Practice Content Animation
None
Activity
Video
Video with audio
None
None
Images
Static
Static
Static
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6. 10/8/09
Florida and Minnesota Boat Shows
Florida and Minnesota Boat Shows
N=90
• Age: Mean (46.39), Min (18), Max (70)
• Gender: Males (56) Females (34)
• Internet experience: Advanced (21), Intermediate (43), Novice (15),
Non-users (11)
• Online course experience: Yes (34), No (56)
• Preferences
• Content on one page (25 ) More than one page (65)
• Testing
• Review content first then test (48)
• Test first then review content (28)
• Keep taking the test without reviewing the content, until pass
(14)
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7. 10/8/09
Florida and Minnesota Boat Shows
A one-way ANOVA test showed that non internet users
tend to prefer Course B (animation with narration) over
the other courses.
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8. 10/8/09
Course
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Total
A
2
0
2
6
4
14
(video)
B 0
2
7
4
7
20
(animation)
C
2
6
12
10
10
40
(text)
Results for incorrect responses
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9. 10/8/09
Course
Mean
St. Dev.
N
A
(video)
8.80
3.15
20
B
(animation)
21.09
5.127
20
C
(text)
9.55
3.15
20
Time in minutes
Observations of User
Behaviors
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10. 10/8/09
Confusion when placing text
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11. 10/8/09
Recommendations
for
Online Course Delivery
and
Presentation
An online course should be organized into at least 5
chapters.
• There is no research stating an “ideal” number of
chapters
• Depends on the content and number of learning
objectives
• Chunk content into related units to prevent long
durations of processing
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12. 10/8/09
The credited time on any given content page should
not exceed three (3) minutes.
• Recommend 2-5 minutes for lessons (Clark, 2007)
• Students can learn more from “leaner” lessons with
less but meaningful text (Mayer, 2005)
• Working memory capacity should be considered
The minimum number of content pages for the entire
course should be at least ninety (90).
• There is no research stating an “ideal” number of
pages
• Chunk at the screen level: Topic, learning objective,
or concept level
• Ensure that chunk does not require the learner to
hold more than a few things in working memory at
one time
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13. 10/8/09
Whenever a video or animation is used within the
course, a written script of the narration should
accompany it.
• Provide text for hearing impaired (Section 508
compliance)
If the state permits, a student may opt to take a
challenge exam prior to beginning the course.
• Boat show data: 46% wanted to take the test
without reviewing the content.
• 28 wanted to take test first then review
• 14 wanted to keep taking test until they passed
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14. 10/8/09
Throughout the online course, an e mail link or phone
number should be provided for students to use to
contact the course provider. All inquiries should be
responded to within two (2) business days.
• Instructor-student interactions are important
components of elearning (Moore, 1989; Davidson-
Shivers, 2009)
• Inexperienced online learners need to know that
there is support
• E-learning evaluation instruments include “contact
information” as criteria: Reeves et al. (2002)
Provide “engaging” practice activities and appropriate
feedback before the test
• When comparing courses, participants wanted
interactive “drag and drop” activity represented in
Course A (video).
• Provide feedback for response and input errors
• Have simulation type interactions dispersed
throughout lesson
• attention and continuous processing of new
content is important (Clark, 2007)
• Gagne’s 9 events of instruction (1985)
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15. 10/8/09
Minimize line lengths to approximately 60-75 cpl and do
not create large chunks of text with little white space
• Moderate line lengths of 50 – 60 characters are
optimal for reading from screens (e.g. Dyson
Kipping, 1998; Dyson Haselgrove 2001).
• Adults prefer medium line length (76 cpl) and
children prefer shorter line lengths (45 cpl),
Bernard, Fernandez, Hull, Chaparro (2003)
• IE Lab observations: older users 40+ used mouse/
cursor to read, and positioned finger on side of
monitor
Joi L. Moore, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
moorejoi@missouri.edu
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