Abstract
The paper deals with an interdisciplinary field of developing language and digital competences in university students via usability testing of English websites by students themselves. The researched issue covers two areas which mingle and influence each other: functionality of web-sites and educational benefits arising from non-standard approach in the university setting where language is used as a tool not as a main goal to fulfil technical tasks. Comparison of the outcomes gained from the user-testing forms conducted by part-time and full-time students showed their positive acceptance of the new approach to getting acquainted with selected websites and readiness to their incorporation into the process of education. Students are given a way of getting the mastery of exploring language websites and learning how to navigate themselves in them, use functionalities like connection to social applications, practice tests or self-diagnose of language competence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Černá, M., Poulová, P.: User testing of language educational portals. E+M. Ekonomie a Management XII(3), 104–117 (2009)
Nielsen, J.: Why you only need to test with 5 users. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/
Nielsen, J.: Usability 101: introduction to usability. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
Flavián, C., Guinalíu, M., Gurrea, R.: The role played by perceived usability, satisfaction and consumer trust on website loyalty. Inf. Manag. 43(1), 1–14 (2006). doi:10.1016/j.im.2005.01.002
Duncan, A.S.P., Durrant, F.: An assessment of the usability of the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica) Main Library’s website. Electr. Libr. 33(3), 590–599 (2015). doi:10.1108/EL-11-2013-0207
Debopriyo, R., Crabbe, S.: Website analysis in an EFL context: content comprehension, perceptions on web usability and awareness of reading strategies. ReCALL 27, 131–155 (2015). doi:10.1017/S095834401400024X
Černá, M., Svobodová, L.: Development of financial and language competences via on-line games and tests. In: European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2015). Academic publishing, Reading (2015)
Hwang, G., Wu, P., Chen, C.: Test article sample title placed here. Comput. Edu. 59, 1246–1256 (2012)
Comenius, J.A.: The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius. Russell and Russell, New York (1967)
Černá, M., Poulová, P.: Reflection of Comenius’ didactic principles in ESP instruction. In: ICIBET 2013: International Conference on Information, Business and Education Technology. Atlantis Press, Paris (2013)
Zhang, L., Shang, J.: How video games enhance learning: a discussion of James Paul Gee’s views in his book what video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. In: Cheung, S.K., Kwok, L.-F., Yang, H., Fong, J., Kwan, R. (eds.) ICHL 2015. LNCS, vol. 9167, pp. 404–411. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)
Wuensch, K.L., Aziz, S., Ozan, E., Kishore, M., Tabrizi, M.H.N.: Pedagogical characteristics of online and face-to-face classes. Int. J. e-Learn. 7(3), 523–532 (2008)
Černá, M.: Potential of social media not only in collaborative learning: expectations and reality, case study. In: Cheung, S.K., Kwok, L., Yang, H., Fong, J., Kwan, R. (eds.) ICHL 2015. LNCS, vol. 9167, pp. 137–148. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)
Dialang. Lancaster University. http://dialangweb.lancaster.ac.uk/
English exam. http://www.examenglish.com/
Acknowledgment
The paper is supported by the SPEV Project N. 2108.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Černá, M. (2016). User Evaluation of Language Websites as a Way of Students’ Engagement into Blended Learning Process Case Study. In: Cheung, S., Kwok, Lf., Shang, J., Wang, A., Kwan, R. (eds) Blended Learning: Aligning Theory with Practices . ICBL 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9757. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41165-1_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41165-1_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41164-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41165-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)