Improving the usability of Blackboard Ultra modules

Although Blackboard has developed the new Ultra interface to be more accessible and usable for students, there are still opportunities to improve the usability and accessibility of your module in order to enhance students' learning experiences.

Photograph of two Ulster University students laughing while using the Computer in the library

What is usability?

Usability is defined as the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of a specified users' interaction with a system to achieve a task in a particular context of use (ISO, 2018). In the context of the university’s digital learning experience, usability concerns the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of student’s interaction with Blackboard Ultra to achieve the module’s learning objectives. Usability minimises the cognitive load for the learner, facilitating greater memory capacity for the learning process, enabling students to achieve their educational objectives online (Davids et al., 2014).

Why does usability matter?

Poorly-designed digital learning tools cause extraneous cognitive load for students, reducing their capacity for acquiring new knowledge (Costabile et al., 2005; Davids et al., 2014). If technology is not usable then the student must spend more time trying to learn to use the interface, leaving less time for the module’s pedagogical aims (Costabile et al., 2005). Overly complex interfaces may act as a barrier to those students of lower confidence or digital skills who will abandon their digital learning task, further exacerbating the digital divide (Costabile et al., 2005; Davids et al., 2014). Incorporating usability principles into the design and development of online learning content minimises learners' cognitive load, allowing students to focus on their learning process, thereby making the digital learning experience more inclusive (Davids et al., 2014; 2015; Hadjerrouit, 2010).

What about accessibility?

There is an overlap between accessibility and usability. Usability concerns understanding and designing for the user, their needs, task and context. In the context of the university, good usability practices should encompass the diverse learning needs of the student body and reflect those needs through thoughtful design and the adoption of accessibility guidelines.

Top ten student learning tasks in Blackboard

You can make your learning content more usable by understanding how the student interacts with your module and presenting learning in a way that facilitates their learning tasks. The following top ten student tasks comes from 2023 Digital Experience Insights survey of 1550 Ulster University students:

Accessing course materials
Watch a recorded lecture/class
Participate in live online class
Complete a computer-marked test/assessment
Mixed face-to-face/online class
Online quizzes
Online research
Collaborating online
Live polling
Online text-based discussion

Usability heuristics

Usability heuristics are usability guidelines that can be readily adopted and integrated into the design of your module. Petersen (2007) adapted Nielsen & Molich’s (1990) usability heuristics for interface design in the education technology domain: ‘consider the user’s mental model of the system’, ‘maintain status and navigational awareness’, ‘strive to minimize the need for support’, ‘carefully planned error control’, ‘adopt and follow a consistent set of standards’ and ‘user control and flexibility’. Each of these heuristics can be incorporated easily into design decisions for your module.

student on bed beside dog, studying on laptop

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

‘Consider the users’ mental model’ encourages a module designer to align their perspective with that of the student, to develop an understanding of their motivations and reflect that in their design decisions. Consider your students' learning tasks, and their location while trying to accomplish them. Are they in a lecture theatre, a lab, at home or on a bus? What device are they using, mobile or desktop, what’s their connection like? What’s their knowledge level, what language makes sense to them? Questions like these will help you to select the most appropriate presentation, format and structure of your module and its learning and assessment content .

'Maintain status and navigational awareness’ ensures that learning materials are well-structured, connected, and contextualised, helping the learner to understand their location in the system and how to navigate to relevant learning content. Like signposting in an essay or paper, a simple hierarchical structure and intuitive naming convention will help your students to find the right material to support their learning task.

‘Minimise the need for support’ encourages the use of simple, intuitive design with clearly indicated functionality, reducing the learner’s need for help documentation. Keep online tasks simple and try switching on Student Preview; attempt to complete your students' home or class work or try the top ten students' learning tasks. This will help you identify and minimise any potential issues students may encounter within your module.
‘Carefully planned error control’ limits the occurrence of errors and ensures that learners can understand and remedy problems that do occur. Providing students with links to support, for instance Digital Services helpdesk and Student Blackboard Support, as well as sharing an appropriate means of contact for members of staff, will allow students to quickly troubleshoot any problems they may encounter.
A ‘consistent set of standards’ promotes a consistent learner experience. Adopting a consistent naming convention within a module will help students find content quickly. Maintaining the same module template throughout a course allows students to transition seamlessly between modules, rather than adapting to a new approach for each module.
‘User control and flexibility’ allows learners to access learning content by multiple means, facilitating different learning styles. Try finding your learning content and assessments via the search functionality or the Activity Stream as well as from directly within the course.

Find out how to apply these usability principles to your module.

Useful Links

Nielsen & Norman group 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Blackboard Ultra staff support