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SITI4 learning site - Summary
Didactic
interface: four learning routes
Example
submenu France (clickable)
The SITI4 learning site distinguishes itself from
other learning sites by the fact that all the subjects are developed according
to the SITO didactic interface : Study – Inform – Test - Overview. A
subject developed according to the SITO-interface offers four learning routes: Study:
basic contents; Inform : extra information; Test: to self-assess ; Overview to table of contents and registers.
The home page offers learners a
main menu
(top), all the subjects, presented in a horizontal way : France | Egypt
| Spain …
Once learners have chosen a subject they get direct access to the Study
route where they are immediately confronted with the first item of the first
topic (i.e. a combination of different choices reduced to one: learning route,
topic, item). In this way the complex process of making different choices before
reaching any content is avoided. Learners seems to appreciate that immediate
access to the first item. Especially those not familiar with the learning site,
tend to follow the topics and the items in a linear way. The
homepage of the site also offers the possibility to click on ‘Eerste keer’ 'First time' as a subject. The learner then jumps to a page where the
different navigation options throughout the site are explained.
Standardization
lay - out
As an element of standardization all pages
consist of a table against the same background. Pages only differ
with regard to the color of the table border:Home page (First time,
English) : brown; Study-route : yellow; Inform-route : blue; Test-route : red;
Overview-route: green.On all pages the background color of the table is #E7E7CE.
For texts within the table Verdana (size 10) is used as a font. Once
learners are familiar with the learning site, they appreciate the difference in
the color of the table borders. It enables them to recognise immediately which
learning route they are exploring.
As mentioned before the heading of the siti4 homepage describes all
webbased subjects in one or a few words. These are represented horizontally,
separated by small vertical scores. The words describing the subject are
clickable : France | Egypt | Spain | …
When learners click on a particular subject, they jump immediately to the first
webpage of the Study-route, in particular to the first topic.The URL of the
first page of the Study-route always ends in ../index.htm The
second webpage of the Study-route is ../s2.htm
Consequently webpages in the Inform-route end on /i… .htm,
and those in the Test-route on ../t… .htm.
Study
At the top of the page, learners get a menu of the
different topics treated with regard to a certain subject (approximately 4 to
5). Each topic deals with ten items. The
items of the first topic are presented in a vertical way, indicated with
clickable words against a yellow background, which describe each item. The
choice to present them as a list is based on the fact that reading happens much
faster when people read texts in a vertical way. The list allows learners to
jump to another item (thereby studying the same topic within the Study-route).
If learners prefer to follow the subject according to the structure presented by
the developers, they click on the first subtopic. This underlined subtopic is
defined as a hyperlink with the name #v1.The program then presents a
window with four elements, each on a separate line.
-
a Yes/No question (bold). The question is
formulated in such a way that it contains the subtopic, indicated in
italics against a yellow background.
-
the alternatives Yes and No (both clickable).
-
the clickable words ‘next’ and ‘survey’,
separated by a small vertical score.
If they click on ‘next’ in the question /
answer or on ‘survey’, the result is the same.
Clicking on ‘next’ presents the next question. When
clicking on ‘survey’ they jump to the top of the page, where they find a
survey of all the items, allowing them to choose another one. As already
mentioned the top of the page also offers them other choices such as jumping to
another topic , to the home page, to another learning route, to another course
to access search engines and digital encyclopaedia.
All questions are constructed in a similar way.
The feedback when clicking on the alternatives Yes/No is defined as a
bookmark which refers to the question: e.g. the feedback on question 7 is
defined as bookmark #a7. The alternatives Yes and No in the question are defined
as hyperlinks towards the corresponding bookmark on the same webpage: e.g. when
learners click on Yes or No in question 7 there is a hyperlink from #7 towards
the bookmark #a7 on the same .htm-page.
When a learner decides not to answer a question; e.g. question 4 (cf. hyperlink
#v4) and clicks on ‘next’ there is a hyperlink to question 5 (cf. bookmark
#v5).
When a learner decides to click on ‘survey’ and clicks on ‘menu’
the program jumps to the head of the page (cf. bookmark #menu).
Working with bookmarks and hyperlinks on the same webpage prevents learners from
scrolling. User-friendliness and efficiency are also a main topic when
developing the learning site, e.g. by making use of ‘includes’ for enabling
hyperlinks regarding the questions and answers, or by avoiding the use of
frames.
Learners are free to give an answer. If they do so,
they click on Yes or No.
As a consequence they get immediate feedback which
contains consecutively
Inform - Test -
Overview
Inform
When they click on the blue Inform button, the program makes a hyperlink
to the webpage …/i1.htm within the same subject. Here they are confronted with
the top of the page and the first Inform-topic. However they can switch to
another topic by clicking on one of the different alternatives, also represented
in a list, much similar to presentation of the items in the Study-route: in a
vertical way and described with clickable words. The words give an indication of
the content and refer to a bookmark on the same page.
Test
With regard to the lay-out, the Test-route
resembles the Study-route. Since the purpose of Testing is to determine to what
extent learners have acquired the necessary knowledge and skills, the same
topics are treated as in the Study-route. With most subjects, about half of the
Test-questions are even the same as in the Study-route.
There is however one substantial difference : the question may be the same; the
feedback is much more limited compared to that in the Study-route.
Overview
The Overview-route refers to the learning
site as a whole than to a particular subject.
It offers the learners on one page a compilation of all the topics and the items
in the Study, Inform and Test -routes of the different subjects.
It also refers to interesting websites regarding the different subjects.
(c)
Copyright
2009 - 2015 by
s
i
t
i
4
bvba Georges De Corte.
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