Being in the users' shoes: Anticipating experience while designing online courses

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

British Journal of Educational Technology

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

While user-centred design and user experience are given much attention in the e-learning design field, no research has been found on how users are actually represented in the discussions during the design of online courses. In this paper we identify how and when end-users' experience - be they students or tutors - emerges in designers' discussions during their meetings in well-established open universities. More precisely, we observed 15 design meetings of two design teams during the development of specific online courses. Designers' discourse was analysed on the basis of six dimensions regarding relevant actors, contents and strategies (purposes) of user experience anticipation. Results show the emergence of a solution-oriented anticipatory discourse in form of scenarios regarding how learners and tutors will react to the course and the proposed activities. Moreover, this discourse is related to an emergent type of users-based expertise, translated as the capacity of some designers to empathise with the end-users more than other designers do. The participation of designers with this type of expertise in e-learning design teams emerges as relevant for the decisions related to the course activities, interface or overall experience. Further research is invited towards this direction. © 2013 British Educational Research Association.

ISSN

0007-1013

Publisher

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Volume

45

Issue

5

First Page

765

Last Page

777

Disciplines

Education

Keywords

Curricula, Design, Teaching, Design team, E-learning design, End-users, Online course, Open universities, User centred design, User experience, E-learning

Scopus ID

84906783954

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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