Abstract
As the use of online learning tools (e-tools) becomes increasingly prevalent, there is a strong need for practical design guidelines and recommendations to facilitate an efficient and effective e-learning environment. The main focus in this paper is to identify usability elements of educational websites. Finding usability problems was the main focus of the three usability studies conducted using twenty-six participants. One study evaluated the effectiveness of the navigational system; the two other studies assessed the usability of interactive simulations. While the initial focus was on the website specifically, collective information gathered from the three studies further identified usability guidelines useful for educational websites. The results from these studies support thirteen key guidelines that could inform guidelines for online educational tools that differ from those guidelines for commercially focused websites.
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