Journal of Online Learning Research and Practice Volume 7, Number 2, 2019 | Page 40

Spectrum Educational Tool: Animated Scenarios for Teacher Preparation
Results and Analysis
One of the objectives of this project
was to investigate methods
that facilitate preservice teachers’
understanding of traditional classroom
experiences. Another focus was
to investigate the affordances and constraints
involved in developing an interactive
online application that was easy
to use, meets all of the requirements,
and was engaging for learners. We successfully
developed this application to
be accessible across different web and
mobile platforms.
Participants responded that the
system was comfortable to use and that
they had no problems with navigating
it. We found existing preservice teacher
training tools to be very static, with
very little user interaction. The Spectrum
educational tool provides a system
that is easy to navigate, provides
case studies to support reinforcement
of classroom management strategies,
and includes great animations with interactive
content.
Results of Usability Testing
Again, we tested the Spectrum application
tool with three groups, including
university students, teacher education
specialists, and HCI experts, using a
SurveyMonkey questionnaire. The results
from the surveys provided information
about the developed application
and whether it was acceptable for
preservice teacher training. Thirty-nine
users participated and gave their opinions
in the usability testing survey.
The usability testing consisted
of three sections. The first section was
a pre-survey to collect demographic
data. The second section had non-trivial
tasks to be performed by the participants.
The third section was a post-survey
consisting of questions regarding
information quality and interaction
quality. A Likert-type scale was used for
the questionnaire and the results of the
pre-survey are provided in Table 3.
Table 3 provides a summary of
the pre-survey results reported by the
participants. Of the participants, 68%
Table 3 Pre-Survey Results.
Question
Do you have prior experience working in an online learning environment
(i.e., Blackboard, Moodle etc.)?
Do you feel you and your peers can learn better through online
learning environments than traditional classrooms?
Do you feel that online materials can enhance traditional classroom
materials?
Do you believe teacher training should involve more online
teaching tools as a method to supplement traditional classroom
learning?
Response
Yes – 68.2%
No – 31.8 %
Yes – 68.2%
No – 31.8 %
Yes – 91.1%
No – 8.9 %
Yes – 83.3%
No – 26.7 %
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