The success of advanced learning technologies for instruction: research and evaluation of human factors issues

The development and implementation of new advanced learning technologies is an important achievement at all levels of education and in business and industry. However, the benefits of advanced learning technologies are often not fully realized until human factors issues surrounding the use of that technology by instructors, students and other users are recognized and taken into consideration. These human factors issue can often have a major influence on the success of technological applications. This paper identifies a range of human factors issues of importance in a variety of settings. Recent evaluative and research information describing human factors in three graduate programs using advanced learning technologies are presented and discussed. A summary discussion of these results and their impact on human factors interaction with technology is also presented