week 8 : A Need for a Systematic Evaluation !!!

Creating an educational website used as a teaching and learning purpose needs lots of consideration as there is a need to complement a group of target audience. Thus, a rubric works better in helping the one who uses the platform for an educational purpose. A rubric works more as a checklist and reminders for certain aspects that one might not be thinking of when designing a website. Designing a website for an educational purpose needs lots of considerations and modifications. 

Thus, some aspects that should be considered while designing an educational website are:

1) usability criteria : purpose, homepage, navigation, design, enjoyment, readability

2) content criteria : authority, accuracy, relevance, sufficiency, appropriateness

3) educational value criteria : learning activities, activity plan, resources, communication, feedback, rubric and help tools.

4) vividness criteria : links and updating

Why we need rubrics to evaluate an educational website? In my opinion, the reasons are :

a) with the existence of internet and web 2.0 applications such as blogs and wikis, teachers need to clarify whether the website designed is user-friendly or not. This will eventually leads the teacher to first check the navigation of the website. Navigation tools of a website for education must be clear and easy, so that learners are not confused or demotivated while attempting to learn.

b) a rubrics help teachers to make sure whether a website designed is usable and serviceable to avoid users' frustration or dissatisfaction. A poorly designed website will not retain visitors long enough to pursue content.

c) rubrics assist to evaluate the pedagogical and psychological value of an educational website. A good website for primary school children must consist of a good layout with background colour that will not hurt the users' eyes.

d) Rubrics determine whether the website is being developed, changed and updated continuously. For example, Science subject is a dynamic subject. There is always new invention and discoveries made. Thus, the site should always being updated, so that students will feel that there is always new things learned and discovered.