Lessons for (Pedagogic) Usability of eLearning Systems

The usability of an eLearning system is a key feature for its success. This paper describes several aspects of the usability evaluation of the user-adaptive eLearning system ActiveMath to exemplify how usability engineering techniques can be applied to and adapted for an eLearning system and what the particularities of an eLearning system compared with a ‘conventional’ application are. Topics tackled in the usability evaluation include the presentation and manipulation of the user model, the implementation of support systems and the design of onscreen texts. The benefits of an iterative approach to system design and of a close collaboration of developers, usability engineers and interface designers who have their expertise in diverse fields are described.