A Bacteria Learning Object Gets User-Tested

Last week I was giving a tour around the OUSL facilities and when I reached the Computer Training Lab in the Media House, I came across two people I didn’t recognize on the computers.A bit of an odd site I thought, since I did not recognize the program the two were working on, either.Then Geetha Kulasekara, whom I did recognize as a common fixture doing development work in the lab, explained she was doing user-testing.As my eyes widened with both interest and surprise, I knew I had to learn more!

I discovered Geetha was finishing up a project under the direction of Dr. Gayathri.Geetha was performing a usability test on a product she created for Microbiology.Dr. Gayathri told me that Geetha had first surveyed the students in this level 5 course to discover the ‘stumbling blocks’ or difficult sections of the course.In some learning object design circles these would be called the “hiccup points” in a course. Next, she created a program to help students learn these concepts. She chose content that could be better explained using animations rather than the text found in a textbook.She also included self-correcting tests to help the students learn whether or not they understood the concepts. What amazed me further was that Geetha developed the program in Director… an application she learned as she developed!!

Here is a photo of Geetha’s usability testing in action.She is using real students, doing real tasks within the program – She explained that she could not go near the students but must observe from afar so as to make the experience more realistic (excellent methodology!):

You’ll notice she is taking notes as the students work through the product.She also explained that she has created a questionnaire for the students to complete once they are through her software.

Geetha will have a great future in instructional design, teaching, and course software development with such a logical and scientific approach to the design of learning materials!