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Easy ways to make your Blackboard site more user-friendly
Matching information to styles of learning
Points to consider…
What does it mean to be more user-friendly?
Blackboard features
Material for use on Blackboard
Text read back software
Bandwidth for home downloads
‘Reasonable adjustments’ – Senda legislation
User friendly = ?
Awareness of how differently people learn
Looking for the most simple way to explain what you are doing…without being patronising!
Putting yourself in the user’s head and check what your site looks like frequently – from their point of view
What does this mean in practice?
Blackboard features
Buttons
Font colour for headlining information
Instructions for accessing information
Assessment on Blackboard can be a minefield….
Designing material
Print style
This is Times New Roman. It is not recommended for ease of reading because of all the extra ‘bits’ it has on it.
This is Comic Sans, which is a very popular font. It is smooth and easy to read, though some people find it too ‘informal’.
Arial, this font, is the college ‘house style’ font. It is also plain and easy to read.
This is Tahoma. This is Verdana.
Summary
Keep it simple Keep the individual user in mind and check
your site frequently for clarity Vary what you do if you have the time Remember that some will be using Blackboard
with text read back software and find out what that means in design and usage terms
Some things are not better if they are on a computer or Blackboard!
Ellen Lessner, Abingdon and Witney College
