Output details

The Pivotal Role of Staff User experiences in Moodle and the Potential Impact on Student Learning

This investigation comprised an initial scoping questionnaire, a detailed QUIS questionnaire, followed by a deeper lab-based user experience study, the direction and design of which was informed by findings from the scoping questionnaire. The final stage was a focus group for staff.

The rapid and extensive adoption of Moodle warrants an in-depth evaluation of its users’ experience as a key part of determining its suitability as a platform for teaching and learning.

The results of our qualitative study show that the very different needs of the two user groups require a broad scope evaluation of all elements of the user experience, including aspects that affect the users’ emotional and motivational responses e.g., the potential for a poor UX to impact on staff motivation has not been acknowledged in the field.

This paper reports on new research that combines the richness of an in-depth qualitative investigation with statistically significant sampling. The novelty of this work is derived from the detailed mapping of models based in psychology then re-applied and tested in an HCI-design context, informing the design of the user tests. A literature search reveals a lack of research that sets out to compare staff Moodle user experience with that of students although significant realisations have occurred as a result of this approach. This addresses an under-recognised area, as this approach to understanding the user permits the presentation of a novel evaluation of experiencing the Moodle software. The results of this study can inform new design guidelines.

Justification for duplicate output: Walker, Prytherch and Saxon co-designed the novel study structure and rigorous methodological approach whilst Walker, Prytherch, Turner and Saxon conducted the lab based user experience tests and focus group studies. A report on the user experience tests was written by Turner. Walker and Prytherch completed the analysis and correlation of the results from all the study stages and developed conclusions and recommendations based on new observations and theoretical developments derived from the user-centred research.