Asma Siddique siddiquefis'utoronto'ca Liliana Castano Rios riosfis'utoronto'ca

1
DatasphereAn Educational Toolkit
Asma Siddique siddique_at_fis.utoronto.ca Liliana
Castano Rios rios_at_fis.utoronto.ca Faculty of
Information Studies University of Toronto. Canada
Results
Tasks Analysis
Background
Cognitive Walkthrough The task of Managing time
was analyzed. Zero-click access to the course
timetable is a key feature of the implementation.
The layout suggests a monthly calendar. Every
activity is represented as a colored button
(every color means a different course). A flaw
is found here because the system relies on color
to differentiate among courses, therefore, it
will not help colorblind users to quickly
identify related activities (Nielsen Tahir,
2002). However, users should be able to recognize
the activities to belong to a specific course by
name.
" Using Datasphere makes me feel like I am my
own teacher! Now I know my mistakes, my timings
and ranking right away COOL!!!
DATASPHERE project is being designed for
university level students for the study of
courses they are enrolled in. The idea behind
implementing this system is to design and develop
a self-learning interactive tool to enhance the
course delivery and to get personalized user
feedback by providing intelligent tutoring to
students and instructors. Moreover, this online
tool should supplement formal teaching techniques
by allowing students to work at their own
pace. DESIGN CONCEPT We suggest a design in
which the activities are shown in a monthly
calendar. The ability to see the whole picture of
how students activities are distributed
certainly allows them to balance their activities
more efficiently. In the prototype, the
possibility of getting results of a finished task
is made possible from the Home page this is a
one-click functionality.
Scenario Managing Time Mary, a young undergrad
student, needs to balance her time between her
personal activities and study. She likes going
out, meeting friends, and watching TV, but at the
same time she wants to be a step ahead in her
studies and education. She relies mostly on
online help and support provided by her
professors to get her work done. Tasks
Heuristic Evaluation The system positively offers
current status of the student activities,
organized in a chronological order. This
organization simulates an activity planner, which
makes users see the whole picture of the month at
a glance. The labeling is based on the names of
the courses that are familiar to the students.
The system violates the chunking principle for
some pages contain documents larger than a single
display page (i.e. Syllabus page). Precise and
constructive error messages are seldom provided,
the user receives very little feedback from the
system. The system lacks the capacity of
informing the user her or his current position.
This is particularly important when executing the
tests. Knowing how many questions are left may
minimize anxiety principle violated
Navigational feedback. The system does not
provide any online help and documentation
regarding the system usage. Users are left to
work through the system on their own experience
and expertise - principle violated Help and
Documentation. The principle of User Control and
freedom is violated because the system fails to
provide undo or redo functions.

• Defines the course to plan.
• Checks the course timetable.
• Lists out exercises and projects due dates.
• Determines the readings and resources required
  accomplishing those activities.
• Plans her/his personal activities accordingly.
• Starts working on the activities, if s/he feels
  like.

 
Only the most immediate set of tasks is visible
- to see the rest more navigation is required.
Prototype
Navigational links on the left side relate to the
browser functionality

• Lessons learned
• Users should be interviewed at the completion of
  each phase of the project.
• Users should be interviewed by using both
  structured and unstructured interview techniques.
  
• Functionality and simplicity of the interface
  should be considered simultaneously.
• Rapid prototyping really works well in designing
  User Interface.
• It's good to have some programming background!

Only application-related links - to separate the
browser functionality from the applications
(Shubin Meehan, 1997).
Student goes to any task from the Home page
this is a one-click functionality.
Not allow the student to leave the interface with
the work undone (Shubin Meehan, 1997).
This interface has links that may distract the
student.
Acknowledgements Psychology Lab at UTM. Dr. Jeff
Graham, Keith Seim and Paul Daro.