LONG PAPER C. Ardito Æ M. F. Costabile Æ M. De Marsico R. Lanzilotti Æ S. Levialdi Æ T. Roselli Æ V. Rossano An approach to usability evaluation of e-learning applications Published online: 8 December 2005 Ó Springer-Verlag 2005 Abstract Despite recent advances of electronic technol- ogies in e-learning, a consolidated evaluation method- ology for e-learning applications is not available. The evaluation of educational software must consider its usability and more in general its accessibility, as well as its didactic effectiveness. This work is a first step towards the definition of a methodology for evaluating e-learning applications. Specific usability attributes capturing the peculiar features of these applications are identified. A preliminary user study involving a group of e-students, observed during their interaction with an e-learning application in a real situation, is reported. Then, the proposal is put forward to adapt to the e-learning do- main a methodology for systematic usability evaluation, called SUE. Specifically, evaluation patterns are pro- posed that are able to drive the evaluators in the analysis of an e-learning application. Keywords E-learning Æ Learner-centered design Æ Usability evaluation 1 Introduction In the age of Information and Communication Tech- nology, it should be possible to learn being ‘‘far away’’ from the teaching source. There are unique advantages to distance education. Its ‘‘any time, any place’’ nature could be part of a winning strategy for particular needs such as decongestion of overcrowded education facili- ties, support for students or teachers who live far from schools and universities, long-life education. Moreover, it could be a valuable opportunity for specific groups of students, such as disabled students, if the learning material is actually accessible to them. E-learning is the most recent way to carry out dis- tance education by distributing learning material and processes over the Internet. Making remote data and tools available to users requires to consider their differ- ent characteristics, such as cultural background, tech- nical experience, technological equipment, and physical/ cognitive abilities. It is very important to provide the widest access to e-learning facilities, in order to avoid the digital divide phenomenon in this socially and culturally fundamental application field. Ensuring usability and accessibility to the largest number of users should be one of the main goals of e-learning application developers, as well as a prerequisite that should allow users to profit- ably exploit such applications. The purpose of educational software is to support learning. A major challenge for designers and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers is to develop software tools able to engage novice learners and to support their learning even at a distance. Clearly, edu- cational software should take into account the different ways students learn and ensure that student’s interac- tions are as natural and intuitive as possible. This could require revising traditional interaction paradigms to provide new flexibility and adaptiveness, suited to the peculiarities of the specific application field. Towards this end, there should be a synergy between the learning process and a student’s interaction with the software. Usability features should not only allow people to effi- ciently manipulate the interactive software, but should also be appropriate for the intended learning task. In Ref. [36], Squires and Preece argue that researchers have not considered enough the implications of usability features of an educational application in order to achieve educational goals. To this end, these authors C. Ardito (&) Æ M. F. Costabile Æ R. Lanzilotti T. Roselli Æ V. Rossano Dipartimento di Informatica, Universita` di Bari, Bari, Italy E-mail: ardito@di.uniba.it E-mail: costabile@di.uniba.it E-mail: lanzilotti@di.uniba.it E-mail: roselli@di.uniba.it E-mail: rossano@di.uniba.it M. D. Marsico Æ S. Levialdi Dipartimento di Informatica, Universita` di Roma ‘‘La Sapienza’’, Rome, Italy E-mail: demarsico@di.uniroma1.it E-mail: levialdi@di.uniroma1.it Univ Access Inf Soc (2006) 4: 270–283 DOI 10.1007/s10209-005-0008-6