USABILITY OF A WEB-BASED SCHOOL EXPERIENCE SYSTEM: OPINIONS OF IT TEACHERS AND TEACHER CANDIDATES

Abstract

With advances in information and communication technologies, the classical nature of educational institutions has changed. One innovative effort within teacher training is the Web-Based School Experience System (WBSES) developed by the researcher. In this study, the usability of an existing WBSES is evaluated from both teachers' (n = 13) and students' (n = 96) perspectives. A non-experimental survey method was applied to collect participant opinions. A usability questionnaire was designed, and analysis yielded five significant factors for the system: usefulness, helpfulness, visual effectiveness, customizability, and smoothness. To obtain more in-depth information, participants were asked to delineate their responses to five open-ended questions. Generally, students and teachers liked the tool in terms of its usability, but they also provided recommendations for design issues.