Link to academic resources, as appropriate (such as Office of Disability Services, Learnin

The content needs to be grounded instated course learning goals and be organized into content segments/modules.a. Structure the course to support the learning goals.b. Arrange the course content in a linear, logical structure, and organize the content intomanageable segments/modules.c. Use consistent organizational structure, color scheme, and textual components throughoutthe course to help students navigate the course.d. Provide course materials (graphics, media, documents, etc.) in accessible formats (ADACompliance for Online Course Design).

ate overall course learning goals clearly and measurably

For completing tasks such as reading instructions, submit-ting an assignment, and posting to the discussion board,a chronological layout was more efficient. Figures 7 and 8are an example of individual participant’s gaze plot for eachgroup while completing the second task of reading the assign-ment instructions. The visualizations show that when giventhe instruction to complete a task by week or module, thechronological layout was more compelling at guiding partici-pant’s visual attention to the weekly modules on the naviga-tion menu. Not to mention, those in the Chronological groupcommitted fewer mistakes than participants in the Functionalgroup for all instructional activities, with the exception oflocating grades.What was les

Functional group completed the prescribed tasks fasterthan the participants in the Chronological group. In particu-lar, the completion time was faster in the Functional group forstudents to locate the syllabus, look up their grades, and findthe help link. With the precise name of the link to the coursesyllabus directly at the top of the main navigation area, it wasextremely easy for participants to find correctly without delay.Similarly, looking up grades and finding the help link wasstraight-forward in the functional layout.

Some participants alsocommented on the lack of organization with the menu items orhaving extra menu items that were not used in the course, whichled to confusion.

The overarching motivation behind this line of research isan interest in developing course sites that are potentially moreintuitive to navigate for students, which could potentiallyenhance student learning experiences through the reductionof extraneous cognitive load (Sweller, 2016).

usability looks at how easy the interface is to use andconsists of five quality components: learnability, efficiency, mem-orability, errors, and satisfaction

posit that without specialconsideration, the typical asynchronous discussion format of many onlinecourses aligns poorly with constructivist theory and the nature of learningcomplex course material, such as that which is found in most MAEdcourses.

were significantly more likely to saythat assignments were the most important factor, and they ranked course organization significantly higherthan students who chose face-to-face classes