NDLW: The UX / UI of an Online Course
Online courses and degree programs are becoming more and more prevalent in Higher Education. Quality Matters (QM) recommends online courses are structured and establish a social presence and interactions among students and the instructor. This requires a shift in instructional tactics from the instructor’s point of view where implementing these recommendations is often met with skepticism without consideration of the user experience’s online experience. This instructor resistance is detrimental to the quality of the online course design and, consequently to student learning outcomes. A correlation has been found between students’ grades and the resources accessed in online environments (Crampton et al., 2012, as cited in Redmond, P., et. al, 2018), as well as the emotional and intellectual investment made by students when studying online (Pittaway & Moss, 2014, as cited in Redmond, P., et. al, 2018). Consequently, the User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design are crucial considerations in course design and pedagogy, especially when seeking to maximize the engagement of online students. The proposed topic demonstrates the importance in considering UX/UI in online course designs while using QM instructional methods of social presence, interactions, and structure. Considering the student experience can produce learning outcomes that can be as good as or better than traditional, face-to-face courses.