Design guidelines for e-learning systems

The effectiveness of an e-learning system of actually transferring knowledge to the users is strictly related to its level of functionality and usability. Evaluation is usually performed through methods that are mainly subjective and qualitative. A new evaluation methodology has been developed within the European IST Project E-TRACKING which is based on the analysis of exploration eye movements made by the subjects during interaction with c-learning systems. Thus the methodology has the main characteristics to be objective and quantitative. This methodology has been applied to the evaluation of three e-learning systems by examining a wide population of subjects. Quantitative results derived from eye movement analysis have been further processed by statistical methods and the results have been used to identify a number of guidelines related to browsing and page layout aspects. These guidelines are aimed at the development of e-learning systems optimized in terms of usability and functionality. Guidelines have been implemented within the same e-learning material used for the experimentation and further validated through eye movement analysis.