TURKU UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

Business Information Systems (MBA)

Master's Thesis Presentation

May 2014

By

Youssef Hammouche

� The rapid changes of information technology, present a new challenge and awareness of the necessity to adopt new tools and processes to improve the quality of education system.

� In confronting this challenge it became obligatory to know the complexity of the education system from student’s perspective and related problems that should be addressed.

� every education system must have an independent strategy of changes to determine the affecting factors of failure or success in education system.

� The usability testing represent one of the success factors to be implemented into any LMS to evaluate the examined interfaces by testing it on users.

� It became an essential component of LMS development process similar to software testing and system design.

� LMS might be very difficult to use by students if usability problems are not identified in early stage

� Many LMS projects have failed during last few years to stay among the top existing systems, reasons could be numerous but lack of usability usability usability usability testing testing testing testing is considered as one of the most common reasons.

� especially that students interactions with system is highly impacted with various barriers: lack of available support by teachers, poorly motivated to understand system's features, students are unsure in the use of ICT.

� Therefore it is mandatory to conduct usability testing during the system development cycle.

CONTENTCONTENTCONTENTCONTENT

LIST LIST LIST LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS (OR) SYMBOLSOF ABBREVIATIONS (OR) SYMBOLSOF ABBREVIATIONS (OR) SYMBOLSOF ABBREVIATIONS (OR) SYMBOLS

1. INTRODUCTION1. INTRODUCTION1. INTRODUCTION1. INTRODUCTION1.1. Problem Statement and Research Objectives

1.2. Research Methodology

1.3. Optima LMS

2222. LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS . LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS . LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS . LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS LMSsLMSsLMSsLMSs2.1. Open Source LMS

2.2. CLOUD LMS

2.3. Steps in Selecting a LMS

2.4. Key Factors of Successful LMS

3. THE USABILITY TESTING PLAN OF OPTIMA 3. THE USABILITY TESTING PLAN OF OPTIMA 3. THE USABILITY TESTING PLAN OF OPTIMA 3. THE USABILITY TESTING PLAN OF OPTIMA LMSLMSLMSLMS3.1. The Concept of Usability Testing3.1. The Concept of Usability Testing3.1. The Concept of Usability Testing3.1. The Concept of Usability Testing

3.1.1. What is Usability?3.1.2. What is Usability Testing 3.1.3. The Purpose of Usability Testing3.1.4. What to Test?

3.2. Usability Test Plan for Optima LMS3.2. Usability Test Plan for Optima LMS3.2. Usability Test Plan for Optima LMS3.2. Usability Test Plan for Optima LMS3.2.1. Problem Statement and Test Objectives

3.2.2. User Profile 3.2.3. Methodology

3.2.3.1. Participants 3.2.3.2. Length of Sessions3.2.3.3. Quantitative & Qualitative Data 3.2.4. Scenarios and Tasks

3.2.5. Test environment and Equipment

4. EMPIRICAL USABILITY TESTING IN OPTIMA 4. EMPIRICAL USABILITY TESTING IN OPTIMA 4. EMPIRICAL USABILITY TESTING IN OPTIMA 4. EMPIRICAL USABILITY TESTING IN OPTIMA LMSLMSLMSLMS4.1. Data Collection4.1. Data Collection4.1. Data Collection4.1. Data Collection

4.2. Test Results and Analysis4.2. Test Results and Analysis4.2. Test Results and Analysis4.2. Test Results and Analysis

4.2.1. Top Negative Finding

4.2.1.1. Website Layout and Login Process 4.2.1.2. System Features and Editing Options

4.2.2. Top Positive Finding4.2.3. Findings Log from the Observer4.2.3.1. Task Completion Rate4.2.3.2. Time on Task4.2.3.3. Problems and Helps required

4.2.4. Presenting Results Based on Post-task and Post-test

Questionnaires

5. USABILITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OPTIMA 5. USABILITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OPTIMA 5. USABILITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OPTIMA 5. USABILITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OPTIMA LMS DEVELOPERSLMS DEVELOPERSLMS DEVELOPERSLMS DEVELOPERS

6. DISCUSSION 6. DISCUSSION 6. DISCUSSION 6. DISCUSSION

REFERENCESREFERENCESREFERENCESREFERENCES

APPENDICESAPPENDICESAPPENDICESAPPENDICESAppendix 1. Pre-test Questionnaire. Appendix 2. Post-task Questionnaire. Appendix 3. Post-test Questionnaire. Appendix 4. Usability Testing Video Permission Form

� Discendum is the optima system developer; they consider it as a high-quality system with an easy tool to be used by users to build a perfect online environment.

� Optima service aimed to become one of the best existing platforms for eLearning courses, information management, networking, and supporting learning on the job.

� Actually, more than 200 educational institutions and companies have implemented Optima to support their education and projects.

� Actually, more than 200 educational institutions and companies have implemented Optima to support their education and projects.

� Based on the cited quality of Optima and growing interest of customers, the system is not yet classified among the top learning management systems.

� Only a few academic literatures have been written under the name of Optima.

� often those documents belong to libraries of universities which kept a right for only their users to access into it.

� This limitation makes the case more complicated and stands as a barrier of sharing Optima researches to external readers of Finnish universities

� Additionally, lack of usability testing researches has been conducted on the subject, which makes my research a bit difficult to collect necessary information and to reach my study goals.

� On the other hand, similar learning management system has taken a wide attention across the world, despite that Optima has improved all interfaces by merging versatile tools, flexible online environment, and high security access "Moodle serve over 70 million users“

� Do Optima system provide enough functionality to users to help them achieve their study goals?

� Is the slow success of Optima due to the usability of system which would reflect the users’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction to the system?

� Is Optima system afford enough information and help to users with less effort and less clicks of navigation?

� Is Optima Easy –to- use?

� In order to get responses to the previous questions, a usability testing should be taken into consideration to find out how real users use the system in real life, and which kind of difficulties and problems users might encounter during their daily tasks?

� This thesis concentrates onto students interface only, to design a test plan based on the literature of Carol M. Barnum (Usability Testing Essentials Ready, Set…Test), and Joseph S. Dumas (A Practical Guide to Usability Testing), and other resources as well.

Constructive Constructive Constructive Constructive research,research,research,research, it is considered as one of the options currently available for a case researcher, and it has been widely developed in the field of business administration and IS.

It has gained significant results by implementing new construction to solve problems faced in real world, and this involves the analysis of the users and performance of the system design in order to understand, explain, and improve the designed systems.

� This research method matched much on my study research, where I am supposed to understand Optima system environment, and try to find usability problems encountered by users.

� The new construction issue in this research is to design a test plan based on theoreticaltheoreticaltheoreticaltheoreticalpart which frequently includes a test objectives, methods, and scenarios.

� The practicalpracticalpracticalpractical part is reserved to apply the test plan and to collect data based on the selected methods, for a goal to be analysed, interpreted, and presented in form of recommendations to project stakeholders.

� Optima is a Finnish company developed by Discendum together with its customers, company was established in 2001 for a goal to create and implement online learning managements and related training consultation services.

� Company has delivered over 200 online learning solutions to various sorts of customers such as institution of higher education, companies, and other organizations.

� Optima is a web-based learning platform that supports learning environment and delivers extensive training programs, managing sales trainings, and offers opportunities to utilize different learning models and pedagogical ideas.

� Optima is a web-based learning platform that supports learning environment and delivers extensive training programs, managing sales trainings, and offers opportunities to utilize different learning models and pedagogical ideas.

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