Quality Matters in E-Learning - 27 (The Good, the bad and the Ugly of E-Learning)

Dr Richard Hyde of Atlantic Link Ltd has a presentation on "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of e-Learning".

His presentation addressed the screen design issue of e-learning.

According to him, good e-learning should be designed with the following guidelines:

• Avoid long lines of text
• Use good quality media not clip art
• Don’t just plonk media on a page
• Don’t be afraid of empty space
• Be consistent in type and graphic design

He coined the following acronym for good screen design:
CRAP

1. Contrast - make things different
2. Repetition - reuse design
3. Alignment - line things up
4. Positioning - group related elements together

To reinforce his CRAP approach of evaluating screen designs, he put up 17 examples of e-learning screen designs in his presentation.

You can download his presentation file and check for yourself which screen design is good, bad or plainly ugly. Good screen design will help the student learn better whilst poor and ugly screen designs will make it difficult for students to learn better. Even

1. Fire Module - on Health and Safety (Very cluttered screen - too many things!)
2. Hotelscene Xtranet online training (Screen is pleasing to the eye.)
3. Let's Make Scotland More Activ-e: a Physical Activity eLearning course (Good and clean design)
4. Prince2 Foundation: Basic Concepts (Simple and effective design)
5. What is Money Laundering? (Engaging - use of dialogue is effective)
6. Examples of Heat Transfer Processes (Simple and effective design)
7. Terminal Emulator course: Find passenger (Poor design - too many things on the screen)
8. SPICS - Marketing Enquiries & Parts Master Enquiries (Don't know what this course is all about!)
9. Online Training System for an airline: Assessment (Oh no! The red colour is really painful to my eyes!)
10. Settlement course (probably insurance company application) (Don't know what this course is all about!)
11. Induction: Mission & Values (Pleasing layout and design)
12. PTP: Platform Transformation Programme - Guide to the New Features of Word 2003 (Minimal, just-in-time learning)
13. Module 1: How to shop (Objectives are too long! This is also page 1 or 120! Just too much content!)
14. Course on Data Protection - Legislation and Voluntary Codes (Good layout and design)
15. Order Tracking Systems Training Course - Confirm Delivery (More for training staff at the operational level)
16. Benefits of paying ONLINE (Simple and effective layout and design)
17. Why Diversity, Understanding and Valuing Differences (Attractive and stimulating design)

He has put up his comments in the presenter's notes area.

I hope this contribution can help you to differentiate good e-learning screen design from the poor ones.