Learning Assistance Center Website

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Learning Assistance Center Website

• ICS 691, Fall 2006
• Dr. Luz Quiroga

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Group Members

• Diane Kunichika
• David Kamigaki
• Rachel Gushiken

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Our Client

• Learning Assistance Center
• Queen Liliuokalani Student Services Center
• Rosie Woodruff, Director

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Learning Assistance Center Mission Statement

• The Learning Assistance Center provides programs
  to help students achieve academic goals.
  Developing independent, effective learners who
  are confident participants in a learning
  community is a major focus. Programs are designed
  with a holistic paradigm that maintains
  sensitivity for the influence of multiculturalism
  on learning.

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Purpose of our project

• Create a website for the Learning Assistance
  Center (LAC)
• The LAC is a relatively new organization
  associated with UH-Manoa, as a result this
  presented with us a few issues to contend with
• No existing website
• Practically no existing documents to build off of
• Very limited resources
• As a part of UHM, the site must be accessible for
  everyone (508 compliant)

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Purpose, continued

• Consequences
• Research methods needed to be adjusted due to
  lack of content.
• Site design had to be kept relatively simple no
  dynamic pages utilizing server-side scripting.
• Simple HTML and CSS used to create static pages.
• Only rough template pages could be setup with
  actual content to be filled by LAC staff.

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Audience of the website

• Primarily undergraduates with auxiliary services
  to faculty and graduates
• Students wanting to be tutors

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Research Method Interviews

• Rosie Woodruff
• Background information about the office
• Desired qualities in a website
• Unnamed User
• Experience using the Learning Assistance Center

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Research Methods Benchmarking

• Benchmarking
• 18 sites
• What we looked for (as we had no existing site,
  no documents) wanted to see what other sites
  contained
• Categories, services offered, taxonomy,
  presentation

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Sample Sites Hooray!

• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• Learning Assistance Center
• http//success.uncg.edu/lac/

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Sample Sites Boo! Hiss!

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Advising and Learning Assistance Center
• http//j2ee.rpi.edu/alac/setup.do

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Research Methods Surveys

• Surveys
• -came up with several questions to ask but we
  were shot down as Rosie did not want her users to
  be bothered.

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Conceptual Design

• Blueprints
• Wireframes
• Content Mapping
• Controlled Vocabulary
• Prototype

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Blueprint

• The blueprint can be found online at
• http//www2.hawaii.edu/kamigaki/ics691ia/blueprin
  t/blueprint.html
• Created using Visio 2003 and utilized the
  built-in export to html functionality of the
  application.

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Wireframes

• Primary wireframe (that mirrors the Prototype)
  with horizontal navigation available at
  http//www2.hawaii.edu/kamigaki/ics691ia/wirefram
  e.doc
• Alternative wireframes available at
  http//www2.hawaii.edu/kamigaki/ics691ia/Alternat
  eWireframes.doc
• These try a vertical navigation approach.

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Content Mapping
Want to be a Tutor Minimum Requirements Scheduling
an Interview Expectations Tutoring
Theory Resources for Faculty Make an appointment
for your class Workshops Workshop 1 Workshop
2 Workshop 3 Know someone who would be a good
tutor Know someone who needs tutoring Supplemental
Instruction Calendar of LAC Events Upcoming
Events Event1 Event2 Workshops Workshop
1 Workshop 2 Workshop 3

• LAC Information
• Hours
• Address
• Phone number
• Email
• Map
• Calendar of Events
• Site map
• Contact Us
• Contact Information
• Address
• Phone number
• About Us
• Contact Information
• Mission Statement
• Hours of Operation
• Staff

Student Services Workshops Workshop 1 Workshop
2 Workshop 3 Tutoring Peer Assisted Study
Sessions Peer Mentoring Coaching Academic Skill
Guides Other Resources URL1 URL2 Tutoring Sign
up for tutoring Tutors Tutor A Tutor B What to
expect Tutoring Successes/Testimonials Peer
Assisted Study Sessions
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Controlled Vocabulary

• Available online at http//www2.hawaii.edu/kamig
  aki/ics691ia/vocabulary.html
• Very simple, nothing too complicated.
• Also a simple thesaurus with variant terms,
  related terms, and specific terms.

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Prototype - Template
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Prototype
http//www2.hawaii.edu/dianemk/ics691/lac2/lac1.h
tml
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Usability Tests

• 8 people tested in various settings (party, work,
  home)
• Purpose Determine if site was easy to
  understand, use, and navigate.

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Usability Tests

• Consisted of
• Background information about users experience
  with computers and websites.
• Scenarios
• As a student
• As an instructor
• As a potential tutor
• Post-test questions about their experience using
  the Learning Assistance Center prototype

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Usability Results

• The comments
• supply a picture and a bio of the tutors.
• making the link of Rosie's name to show her bio
  rather than email.
• make the LAC banner link to the homepage.
• increase the size of links ("Home", "Site Map",
  and "Contact Us") listed on the top right hand
  corner of the screen.
• when signing up for tutoring or appointments for
  Rosie to speak to classes, an online form was
  preferred to an email address.
• informational sections should be chunked in a
  logical order.
• the black borders on the left and right are too
  big.
• the picture on the local navigation system is too
  small. (The picture was of Rosie as she sat at
  the desk in Sinclair Library.)
• the global navigation string should not wrap but
  go straight across the screen.

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Implementation

• Supply initial content, including tutor
  information, tutor photos, workshop information,
  etc., for the various pages where applicable.
• Implementation of the various forms for
  students/faculty to fill out can be performed in
  a relatively simple manner for the initial site
  implementation. A form can be setup to simply
  e-mail its contents to a Learning Assistance
  Center email address there is no need for
  advanced server-side scripting.

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Implementation, continued

• Take additional digital images and insert them on
  the pages. These can include students
  participating in LAC events, or just bright,
  cheerful images of things happening on campus.
  This is to spruce up the site and make it more
  visually appealing to users.
• Documents linked to and created by the LAC should
  use the Portable Document Format (PDF) or some
  other open widespread format rather than
  proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word or
  Excel.

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Implementation, continued

• Insert a hits counter to track the number of
  users who visit the page. This could be used as
  statistical information in departmental reports.
• Local navigation for the website still needs to
  be implemented. The recommendation for the local
  navigation is that the individual subsections be
  made part of the local navigation (anchor and
  identification linking).
• Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in the
  implementation of the site. The prototype makes
  use of CSS to generate the presentation layout.

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Implementation, continued

• Finally, use the preferred terms provided in the
  controlled vocabulary. This encourages
  consistency throughout the website which is very
  beneficial to the sites usability. If a term is
  later found to be less than satisfactory, update
  the controlled vocabulary and update all content
  on the site appropriately.

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The Future

• Suggestions for the future
• Consider server side scripting (PHP, JSP, ASP,
  etc.). As the site gets larger, and maintenance
  becomes an issue, sever-side scripting can make
  changes to the site much easier to implement.
  For example, server side scripting can be setup
  to automatically and consistently generate
  website features such as navigation, header
  banner, footer, etc. As a result, changes in
  content can be made once and the changes will be
  automatically propagated to all affected pages
  instead of having to change individual files.
• Consider a database backend. A lot of the
  functionality in the prototype can be largely
  implemented using static pages, but a database
  backend would make maintenance much easier. A
  database backend will be beneficial in updating
  and keeping information consistent, especially
  those items that may appear in more than one
  location (staff biographies, workshops, etc.).

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The Future, continued

• Collect and display relevant statistical data.
  It might be useful to collect and display
  relevant statistics relating to the center.
  These can include number of students helped,
  numeric breakdown by field of study, improvement
  in grades, satisfaction ratings, etc.
• Feature Wishlist (to be implemented as resources
  allow)
• Discussion boards
• Online scheduling
• Online chat/instant messaging

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The End

• Any questions?

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• Happy Holidays
• http//www.sundog.net/carolofthechins/flash/index.
  html