Usability evaluation of a virtual lab by adapting structured & unstructured techniques

Usability of any web-interface plays an important role in its successful adoption by its user. One of the goals of an e-learning web-site is to offer learners the possibility to become skilful and acquire knowledge in a new domain. Learning online deals with a complex set of skills required for knowledge assimilation and learning effectiveness. In addition to usability, accessibility and didactic effectiveness are the key evaluation parameters. This paper reports usability issues that arose during the development of an e-learning web-site. An usability evaluation tool was developed to evaluate effectiveness and learning experience delivered by the web-site. The paper discusses attempts to bring together different evaluation mechanisms and proposes a blended and appropriate evaluation framework.