Running head: AUDIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Audience and Environmental Analysis

Anna Stirling
Capella University
ED7814: Interface Design
Vern Czelusniak, PhD
January 8, 2015

AUDIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

In 2013 the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative was formed as
part of a legislative grant initiative. The mission of the California Community Colleges Online
Education Initiative (OEI) is to dramatically increase the number of California Community
Colleges (CCC) students who obtain college associate degrees and transfer to four-year colleges
each year by providing online courses (California Community Colleges Online Education
Initiative, 2013). Additionally, OEI will pay special attention to the success and retention rates
of distance education courses.
The California Community College system educates over 2 million students each year
(Scott, 2011). In the 2009-2010 academic year, over 600,000 of those students enrolled in one of
nearly 40,000 distance education courses offered (Scott, 2011). However, success rates for
distance education courses for that same year were only 57% compared to 67% in traditional
classrooms, and retention rates were similar with 78% online and 85% traditional (Scott, 2011).
While there are numerous variables that contribute to the differences in success and retention
rates, course design is one variable that can be addressed. In the California Community College
system professors have academic freedom; this means that they can design and deliver
instructional materials and assessments without interference by administration. Although all
faculty members are required to use the same learning management system at the institution
where I work, this academic freedom still poses a problem for online students. Students struggle
with online success because every course is laid out differently, requires different tools to be used
and has varying expectations for technology skills in addition to the course curriculum.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, many online courses offered in the California community college
system are poorly designed. Not because the faculty who teach them are not subject matter

AUDIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

experts, but simply because they are just that, subject matter experts. They arent course design,
or even education, experts.
After teaching online for numerous years, and assessing my students performance
throughout those years, I realized that my students were not prepared to be successful in my
course. In fact, many of them were unprepared for college curriculum in general. ACT (2013)
corroborated this sentiment in their 2013 The Reality of College Readiness report by stating that
only 25% (p. 3) of high school graduates met all four benchmarks of college readiness. In
addition to being unprepared, students are required to learn how to use a variety of tools both in
and outside of the learning management system to successfully complete each online course.
Because course requirements and design are not standardized, students may need to learn a
different set of tools for each course. Furthermore, they may be using the same tool, but in a
different way or to accomplish a different type of task across courses.
When these two conditions, poor course design and student unpreparedness, are
combined students are set up for failure; low success and retention rates are the manifestation of
that failure. While students in online courses have a wide variety of experience and comfort
levels with learning management systems, all students must understand the expectations for each
course they enroll and determine how the tools will be used for each. This can reduce the
amount of time they have available to learn the course curriculum reducing success rates. It can
also cause stress, and potentially cause students to withdraw from a course (lower retention
rates). In an effort to help students be able to navigate the course environment and use the
desired tools with ease, I plan to design a course specific online orientation for an online
Microsoft Access course taught at a California Community College. The orientation will

AUDIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

introduce course expectations and provide a low risk practice environment for students to
become comfortable with the specific tools used to meet the course objectives.
Audience and Environmental Analysis
Focus of
Investigation

Information Gathered

The domain

The orientation will be located in the MSJC Blackboard LMS. Users

will have varying levels of proficiency, from none to competent, with
the LMS.

The users

Primary users are MSJC students (CA community college), secondary

users are MSJC faculty, support staff & administrators

Characteristics of
the users

MSJC students have a wide variety of characteristics, including

demographic and cultural, that influence learning. Currently MSJC
serves approximately 18,000 students: 58% of those students are female;
60% of the student population is under the age of 25; 38% of students
are Hispanic; 6% are disabled; and almost 90% assessed into below
college level English (MSJC Institutional Research Department, 2013).

Characteristics of
the task

Users are required to learn how to use a variety of tools both in and
outside of the LMS to successfully complete the course requirements.
Because course requirements and design are not standardized, students
may need to learn a different set of tools for each course. The goal of the
orientation is to provide a low risk practice environment for users to
become comfortable with the course LMS environment.

Physical
environment

The course and orientation are offered online, so the physical

environment of users will vary greatly depending on where they access
the course from. Users may access the course from any computer with
internet access.

Social
environment

The orientation must be completed for users to continue participation in

the online course. This may increase the pressure to perform; however,
in an effort to reduce associated stress, users have multiple attempts to
complete the orientation activities. Users may seek help from peers or
tutors to complete the orientation activities, but collaboration is not
required.

AUDIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Focus of
Investigation

Information Gathered

Organizational
environment

MSJC is dedicated to providing online courses in an effort to meet the

needs of a diverse student population. As this course is offered as an
academic course that is part of a degree program, the course must
comply to all public education rules and regulations prescribed for
community college courses by the federal, state and local agencies.
Users will earn a letter grade upon completion of the course the
orientation activities will be part of the formative assessment procedures
used to earn the letter grade.

User support

The orientation is designed as a help guide for navigating and

interacting with the online course environment. In addition to the
resources provided in the orientation activities, users may seek help
from peers, the course instructor, and college provided tutors and
support staff. Users may also research additional help resources on the
internet.

Qualitative
usability aspects

The goal of the orientation is to help users understand and develop a

level of comfort with the LMS. As such, the interface should be easy to
navigate and learn and should take advantage of user preconceptions.

Quantitative
usability goals

By the end of the course specific orientation users will be able to

navigate the online course environment and use the desired Blackboard
LMS tools with ease.

Constraints

The orientation is constrained by the capabilities of the Blackboard

LMS. The cost associated with the development of the orientation will
be assumed by the instructor as part of the course design and delivery
compensation. All activities will be created using free or previously
licensed software (no additional software will be acquired to complete
the design or delivery of content).

Trade-off

The orientation will replace the first week of course curriculum delivery.
This will require adjustment to the current course design, potentially
combining curriculum objectives later in the course delivery.

AUDIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

References
ACT. (2013). The reality of college readiness 2013 national. Iowa City: ACT.
California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative. (2013, November 14). About.
Retrieved from California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative:
http://ccconlineed.org/about
MSJC Institutional Research Department. (2013). MSJC Stats AY12-13. San Jacinto: Mt. San
Jacinto College. Retrieved from
http://www.msjc.edu/CollegeInformation/Administration/InstitutionalResearch/Documen
ts/MSJC%20Stat%20AY12-13.pdf
Scott, J. (2011). Distance education report. Sacramento: California Community College
Chancellor's Office.
Stone, D., Jarrett, C., Woodroffe, M., & Minocha, S. (2005). User interface design and
evaluation. San Francisco: Elsevier.