There are some usability problems with the tab order:
- When you press the tab key it goes from one item to the help button, which is not really usable because the help button is not frequently used.
- When you edit a text and you press a tab in order to go to the text field and write something, the tab goes first to all the
Two possible solutions would be:
- Set a tabulation preference order so that the components that are usually skipped are at the end
- Control with Javascript specific cases
I also made an information architecture study of the gradebook which resulted of this organization of the information:
Edit Gradebook: In this category there will be: Compute final score List of course assignments Edit course settings Grade letters: grade letters will replace letters because most people does not understand the meaning of letters. Grade scale: the same as grade letters.
View Grades: 4 reports are in this group: Grader report Outcomes report Overview report User report
Import/Export: As there are only 6 elements and it is not a frequently used functionality, the import / export group is in the same category
Finally, I made some usability tests of the gradebook which resulted of this actions:
* Task #1: Change the information architecture (this is specified in the study of information architecture)
* Task #2: Selecting the maximum grade of the courses with a scroll bar is not really usable. It would be better to allow the user to type the number.
* Task #3: It would also be far more intuitive to click on the last column (where the final score is automatically calculated)and putting there the formula.
* Task #4: It makes the user angry to introduce the equal sign every time a calculation should be done. It would be nice that the = is used automatically.
* Task #5: It would be great if there would be any connection between the grading menu and the adding assignment page.
* Task #6: There is too much information in the help menu of calculating the final grade. At least a summary would be helpful for a quick help.
* Task #7: It should be easier to return to the initial grade page from some pages (this functionality should be checked).
* Task #8: Calculate the final mark in the way calculus tools do (such as calc of open office or excel)
* Task #9: Add a help button next to the turn editing on button so that the functionality of the turn editing on button will be explained and perhaps they would notice the button easily. Another possibility would be to activate the turn editing mode in another way (redundancy is used in some applications such as text editors and sometimes can be useful for starters).
* Task #10: It would be useful too to be able to select other types of grading system such as the Spanish or European one (MH, Excellent, Good, Passable and Fail) automatically (without having to translate the American system to the European system) although this functionality is not a critical one.
* Task #11: A demo of how to use the gradebook would be very useful. What do you think about this?
Thanks in advance,
Laia
(Edited by Martin Dougiamas to fix formatting a bit - original submission Wednesday, 30 July 2008, 02:20 PM)
