『学習院大学

経済論集』第50巻第1号（2013年4月）

Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website
Pamela Stanworth*, Yukari Shirota**

Abstract

Web:How2SolveIt is a website provided for Gakushuin University to help students understand maths

concepts, mainly in the areas of Economics and Business. The site offers a practical collection of quality
study material, with useful videos.

The site has been evaluated by “walking through” the student interface, applying some typical usercases, which are typical usage stories of student users. We recommend a few changes to the site, which
would help students to find what they need easily, making it more attractive for students and foracademics who contribute their materials. For example, the Home Page should give more useful context
information and a text-entry search box should always be visible, with which students can navigate thecollection of teaching resources.

An attractive feature of the site is the hand-written question sheets, which explain or amplify

important teaching points. Some changes to the presentation of the sheets and the videos would makethem easier for students to follow.

A usability study, where a small number of volunteers from the target demographic are observed while

carrying out typical tasks, would quickly and cheaply give valuable insight into the way that real users
respond to the site.

Directions for possible future development of the site include:

Adding further explanations, videos, notes and formulae to cover further topics in Business Maths
Adding further content from other lecturers

Offering the site to other students outside the Economics Faculty
Offering the site to High School Students

Developing a bi-lingual version of the site for teaching through the medium of English as well asJapanese

These future directions would involve varying degrees of additional effort and investment.

*)**)

University of Oxford IT Learning Programme, 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN, UK
Gakushuin University, Faculty of Economics, 1-5-1 Mejiro, Toshimaku, Tokyo, 171 8588, Japan.

11. Purpose and Context of the Website
1.1 Context
Web:How2SolveIt is a website
provided for Gakushuin University
to help students (mostly undergraduate)

understand maths concepts, mainlyin the areas of Economics andBusiness (see Figure 1). It offers alarge collection of explanations forsolving set questions in Business
Maths.

The main developer of the site is

Shirota and her purpose in creating
this website is “To reduce humanlabour cost in teaching andexplaining a concept repeatedly”.
The Web:How2SolveIt website andassociated workflow have been

designed at reasonable cost, having

Figure 1: The Home Page of Web:How2SolveIt

regard to the present scope of use within a Faculty of the University.

The site was initially conceived as a supplement to the Shirota’s own book (Shirota, 2009) and courses

taught by her in the Faculty of Economics at Gakushuin University. Further material has been added byother teaching members of staff, and it is hoped that this collection will grow (see parts 5.3-5.5 below).

Although many other e-learning systems for math education offer only simple drill problems,

Web:How2SolveIt provides higher-level problems such as financial mathematics to the students. This

site is intended for individual study and the key feature is in-depth and careful explanation to students,using audio and visual media.

1.2 Purpose of This Report
The site offers a practical collection of quality study material, with useful videos.

A few changes would make it easier for students to find what they need, making it more attractive forstudents and for academics who contribute their materials.

The site was developed during 2011-2012 and came into service in May 2012. Then, in September

2012, we asked Stanworth to evaluate the site in detail, at the campus, and give us technical advice for
improvements to the site. The report describes improvements of the current version of the site and our
future work.

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Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website (Stanworth and Shirota)

1.3 Resources Provided in the Website
The teaching sheets presented in the Web:How2SolveIt website have been collected over some yearsof teaching Business Maths to undergraduate students at Gakushuin University.

When a student asks the lecturer a question about his/her work, both question and answer are

handwritten on a specially-designed enquiry form. These teaching sheets are uploaded to
Web:How2SolveIt for the benefit of all the students (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: A sample question written by a student and responses written by the lecturer
Icons such as

indicate where extra material such as a note, formula or video is available.

A notable feature of the system is the video material created by the lecturer which would answer the

student’s question.

2. Method of This Report
In this report, we review the website as it stands (autumn 2012) with some suggestions for possible

improvements and revisions that would make it more user-friendly and some comments about future3directions for the project. This section will describe how the site was evaluated, which features anarrative approach, a heuristic evaluation, and user cases.

2.1 Narrative Approach
The authors visited the student interface of the site, and “walked through” a typical journey around thepages, exploring as a typical user might do, noting features and likely uses.

The site designer and developer (Shirota) assisted the evaluator (Stanworth) in exploring the site,

explaining the purpose of each part and translating some of the text from Japanese to English.

We do not comment here on the editor’s interface, which is used by just a few members of staff increating material.

2.2 Heuristic Evaluation
Nielsen (Nielsen, 2005) provides a useful framework for evaluating the usability of a website(summarised in Appendix One). We shall use his framework to evaluate the site. Web:How2SolveIt is

unusual in being intended for a narrowly-defined audience, that of undergraduate students of Business

Maths, so the requirements of a commercial or information site for the general public do not all apply.

Basically Nielsen’s framework is one for general service sites. However, Nielsen’s framework gives us agood basis for thinking systematically about a website.

2.3 Note on Translation
We now comment on the question of language translation. The command menus are all in Japanese,and almost all the teaching materials are also written in Japanese. As Stanworth does not understandJapanese, some translation was needed for her. In addition, we used the translation function of Google
Translator. The live site was viewed via the Google Translator (in the Chrome browser) as shown in

Figure 3. The machine-translated phrases sometimes appear clumsy in English, but we cannot commenton the phrasing in Japanese.

2.4 User Cases
In evaluating the website, we should consider several common user cases which are typical stories ofstudent usage. By considering these cases of typical usage, we will be able to evaluate the site more

effectively. These “stories” help us focus on likely ways that visitors may use the site. They are notexhaustive but provide a useful basis for exploring and for examining the use of the website. In thefollowing, nine user cases we are aware of in student experience are described.

Coursework
A student is following a taught course at the University. In a recent lecture, a topic was discussed but
the student did not understand it. This student would like to read about the topic with an explanation. For
example, Figure 4 shows a topic about compounding interest rate.

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Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website (Stanworth and Shirota)

Figure 3: View of the Web:How2SolveIt site in English translation (Google Chrome)

Figure 4: Sample of a coursework topic
5

Standard FormulaeThis student attended a lecture or read part of the text-book, which mentioned a concept or formulawhich the student does not recall. The concept or formula may have been covered earlier in this course, orin a previous course. This student would like to be reminded of a standard concept or formula.

Derivations and Algebra
Figure 5 shows a hand-written question from a student about an algebraic transformation.

The question is underlined in red. This student followed a lecture or read a text-book chapter but did

not understand the way the expressions were derived. The student would like the steps of the derivation
to be spelt out in more detail. The lecturer’s video explaining the answer is also available. In the video,

the lecturer’s voice is heard explaining the transformation on this teaching sheet, as the mouse pointermoves.

Figure 5: Sample of an explanation of an algebraic transformation
Topic Revision for ExamThis student is revising for an exam at the end of term. He does not understand a certain concept in
the text-book, and would like an explanation that fits coherently with the printed account.

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Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website (Stanworth and Shirota)

A Model Exam Answer
Just after examinations, thesolutions are published on thesite, where students can browse
and study the model solutions (seeFigure 6). Students revising for alater exam would like to workthrough past exam questions, withindications of what would be
expected in a correct answer.

A Common Difficulty
The lecturer is aware that

Figure 6: Model answer for an examination

students often have trouble with a particular maths concept. Knowing that some will need help, thelecturer wants to provide an explanation that they can find whenever they need it. Several students will
benefit, at any time during the academic year. These are also presented as questions and answers, using
the enquiry form.

A Busy Lecturer
This lecturer does not have time to invest in
helping individual students with their work (seeFigure 7). The lecturer would like to explain aconcept once, and have all the students make use of
the explanation when they need help.

Public Presentation of University Teaching
It is sometimes said, both in Japan and in the UK,that the standard of maths skills among students, on

arrival at university, is declining. When this iscombined with the fall in population numbers inJapan, there is said to be is a downward pressure on

university teaching. A university needs todemonstrate that it is providing an excellent
education with good personal support and help foreach student.

3 Narrative Tour of the Site

Figure 7: A busy lecturer uses
Web:How2SolveIt to avoid repeatedly
explaining the same topic to the samequestions; furthermore, students can study
the topic at any time

3.1 General Appearance and Layout of the Site
The website has a clean, sober appearance. The blue and grey colour scheme implies authority and7does not distract from the content. However, a slightly larger and more attractive font could give a more
modern appearance.

3.2 Header and Footer
It has become standard website design to have a link always available which visitors can click toreturn to the Home Page, and it is useful to provide this at top left. The Web:How2SolveIt label does

this well, and it could be made bigger and more distinctive, perhaps developing it with a characteristic
font into a simple icon. Meanwhile, the exact spelling of Web:How2SolveIt may need to be checked.

Other features to put in the header would be anything that always needs to be visible, such as a searchbox (see part 3.6 below) and a toggle between languages if that is implemented (see part 5.8 below).

In a footer, it is common practice to provide links to related webpages, in support of the present

content. This might include links to a simple Contact Us page, a statement of copyright, the Gakushuin
University or Economics Faculty home pages or perhaps other pages that visitors to this site would alsofind useful. This approach is illustrated at the University of Oxford’s website “ITLP Portfolio” (ITLearning Programme at Oxford University, 2012)

3.3 Login and Logout
Visitors to the site must log in before they can see the content.

However, once a visitor is logged in it is not clear how to actively log out. Internet users are often

encouraged to remember to log out of any site they visit, to maintain the security of their resources, so it
would be good practice to provide for this, e.g. with a Logout link at the right of the header.

3.4 Static Information Pages
The site would benefit from having a few static webpages, giving extra information for users. This

would typically include brief instructions on how to contact the site owner, how to report any problems,
advice for new visitors, and a statement of copyright information. These pages would be found using
links in the footer (see part 3.2 above).

This improvement is likely to reduce the numbers of enquiries received from students.

3.5 Home Page
The Home Page is the first part of the website that visitors see. This is the place to provide information
for all visitors, to set the tone and to manage their expectations of the content available.

The Home Page needs a prominent explanation for new visitors who do not know the site already,perhaps along these lines:“Welcome to the Web:How2SolveIt website. This site provides … [what kind of information isavailable] … . It will be useful for … [what sort of people] … .”[Briefly explain the relationship between this material and one or more text-books, giving reference
information … ]An “Announcements” panel would be another useful provision, where a variety of time-dependent

announcements could be posted as they occur, and removed as they go out of date. For example a brief
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Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website (Stanworth and Shirota)

note could announce the arrival of new material, or highlight material that is relevant to an imminentexam.

3.6 Searching
At present, a useful search box is provided at top of search results page. This is central to the use of
the site, especially as the amount of content grows.

The most significant change to make the site more usable would be to provide a more detailed way ofsearching, in line with what is found in other similar websites.

Work with the student and young adult demographic (Radia, 2011) has shown firmly that a “searchbox” is their preferred way in to any new site - as popularised by Google. This is a type-in box where thevisitor types one or more keywords, which are matched in a list of search results. The search box should
appear prominently on the Home Page, with a smaller search box always available in the header.

It may also be useful to offer other routes for searching the site. Each search route could be offered on

the Home Page as a pick-list or combo box that lists the options available, for example:
・Choose a chapter in the text-book(by selecting the text-book then the chapters and sections)

・Choose a taught course (selecting the title and the lecturer)・Choose a previous exam paper
・Choose a topic
・Choose a formula (from a list of those available)

3.7 Search Results Page

A search box is currently

provided on the search

results page (see Figure 8),

where its operation can be
unpredictable. It needs tobe made clear whether inapplying a search string theuser is further filtering theresults currently shown, or
doing a fresh search.

In the list of teaching

sheets, the first column
currently shown is a serial
Figure 8: The current search results page

number, and this is set as

the “hot link” which thevisitor clicks to view the chosen teaching sheet. This serial number is not directly meaningful to thevisitor (although it has meaning to the lecturer and editor of the material), so it should not be displayed.
Another field, such as the sheet title, would be a more intuitive choice for the clickable link.
9It may be more efficient to display the name of the lecturer who contributed each teaching sheet, as aseparate field in the search results. At present this is usually combined as part of the title such as“Shirota: drill2-1(a)”. As a separate field, this would provide a good basis for sorting and searching.

If the collection of resources grows significantly, then a future development would be to provide afacetted search. This is where the user has controls for reducing the number of items listed by choosing

between categories. An advanced example of this is familiar to users of Amazon’s shopping website. A
simpler example is implemented in Oxford’s ITLP Portfolio (IT Learning Programme at Oxford
University) (where the facetted search is provided by the “API Search” module of the Drupal content
management system).

3.8 Teaching Sheets
An attractive feature of the teaching sheets is the hand-written explanations. These are scanned by theteacher, to create JPEG images for students to study.

The author Shirota has a professional commitment to the value of both students and teachers

handwriting their material, which stimulates clear and logical thought. The paper-based enquiry forms
which provide the basis of the Web:How2SolveIt material, and the videos derived from them, arepresented in the teacher’s and the students’ authentic hand-writing. This gives a strong personal
impression of the teacher helping the student.

Some teaching sheets are a response to an individual student’s enquiry: students write questions intheir own handwriting and underline the questions in a different colour. The lecturer provides an
explanation and a recommended answer in different coloured ink.

Creating teaching sheets and videos is a low-cost activity for lecturers: it is reported to take around

5 minutes to write out a clear hand-written question-and-answer teaching sheet, and around 20 minutes
to rehearse and record a video. This report cannot comment on the maths used or the explanations given.
3.9 Videos, Formulae, Notes
If a student still requires help, after reading a teaching sheet, more support is available:
a formula that students may recall, found in the formula databasea note: a reminder of a standard fact or principle, which is well-known or has been
covered in other teaching materiala video with voice-over sound-track, where a teacher explains how an equation isderived, line by line
Figure 9: Icons for additional material in a teaching sheet

These notes, formulae and videos have been created separately and organised into a database where

they can be linked efficiently. Links to relevant notes, formulae and videos are embedded in the teaching

sheets, where the visitor can click to view and hear them. For example, a particular formula may bereferenced from several teaching sheets and vice versa.
10Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website (Stanworth and Shirota)

If it became necessary for students to refer directly to a formula, note or video (rather than via ateaching sheet) a separate search tool would be needed for selecting these. This does not seem to beneeded at present.

Videos with Voice-over
The video voice-overs have an informal, friendly style. If a few stumbles and pauses occur, these add
to the personal style and the sense of being helped by the lecturer. Gakushuin University has a traditionof personal teaching attention and face-to-face communication, and the Web:How2SolveIt site supports

this traditional approach.

In the videos, the lecturer’s face does not appear. The screen-captured recordings are offered as video

material with voice-over only. This approach greatly reduces the cost of making the videos and thelecturer’s work-load.

Some of the videos might be made simpler to follow if the algebra was revealed progressively. So,

while working through a derivation, each line of algebra is revealed as it is discussed, so the viewer canfocus on one line at a time. This can be achieved by dragging a white box gradually down the screenover the Q&A form, revealing one line of algebra at a time. This helps the student concentrate on thelines of the maths derivation as it develops. In the videos, some of the software toolbars and menus
could be hidden or cropped away, to help the student to focus on the progress of the derivation (asillustrated in Figure 10).

Figure 10: Effect of cropping to clarify a video explanation
Formulae
A formula may appear within a teaching sheet, marked with an icon.

The database of formulae is a collection of expressions which are well-known or have been covered inother teaching material. Each formula is built using LaTeX, and uploaded to the formulae database. The
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same formula may be referenced by several teaching sheets or videos.

Many widely-used standard maths formulae are given at the front pages of the accompanying textbook(Shirota, 2009), and widely-used standard economics formulae are given at the end pages. Conventional
notation and symbols are used, as seen in internationally-recognised text-books such as (Jacques, 2003).

4 Summary of Recommendations
In this account, a “link” is a piece of text or an image or button that a user can click to move toanother web-page.
Search:provide a more detailed way of searchinga Google-style type-in text box is a popular way for students to search for the material they needa prominent search box on the Home Pagea smaller search box always visible in the header

consider providing several modes of searching, such as by text-book chapter, by course, by topic,
by teacher

The search function needs to be clearly understood:in entering a search string the user must know whether they are doing a fresh search or filtering theresults currently shown

Font:

a larger and more attractive font, especially for headings

Header always visible:

a distinctive icon with a link that returns to the home page
search box

Login / Logout link

flip-flop between languages (if implemented in future)

Footer always visible has links to:Contact Us pagea statement of copyright

the Gakushuin University or Economics Faculty home pages
other useful pages

Static pages with context information for visitors, such as:
brief instructions on how to contact the site owner
how to report any problems
advice for new visitors

a statement of copyright information

The Home Page needs:

a prominent explanation for new visitors of the purpose and context of the siteannouncements panel, announcing new material or high-lighting items of current interest

Search results page:

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Review of the “Web:How2SolveIt” Website (Stanworth and Shirota)

do not display the sheet serial number to student visitors

to choose a teaching sheet, the user should click a “hot link” which is the sheet title or anotherfactor easily understood (rather than the sheet serial number)display the name of the lecturer who contributed each teaching sheet, as a separate field

consider offering a facetted search for filtering the search results, if the collection of material grows
large (as available in content management systems such as Drupal)

Videos with narration:

reveal the page of algebra progressively, as each line is mentioned in the narration - this helps
students concentratehide or crop away any toolbars or menus that are not relevant to the teaching point

5. Future Work
The significance of the Web:How2SolveIt website is that it adds value to an existing taught course. A

student who is following the Business Maths course in the Economics Faculty can find extra support, tohelp them understand the material covered in class and in the text-book. Explanations are presented in
the teacher’s own handwriting and narrated by the teacher’s own voice.

Many web sites are targeted at the general public, and their materials designed to be widely available.

In the present case, however, Web:How2SolveIt is not targeted at the general public but offers services

to individuals who work together. The student users of the system are assumed to know the lecturer who

made the video materials. Then the lecturer’s personal voice effectively encourages the students. This isconsistent with the “Many-to-One” approach to effective teaching described by Arnold King (King).

This project could develop in several different directions; some are likely to take a higher priority withthe department, whereas some are more long-term.

5.1 Usability Study with Typical Users
Nielsen (Nielsen, 2005, 2012), Krug (Krug, 2010), Snyder (Snyder, 2003) and other experienced web
designers recommend that any website benefits from a brief and informal usability study.

This is a practical exercise where a set of user cases are drawn up (a user case describes a particularkind of user and a typical task they might want to carry out in the site) and tested. Some volunteer users,

who are typical of the expected audience but have no previous experience of this site, are invited to try
out the site and attempt one or more tasks. An evaluator observes their progress and notices points where
the user is surprised, confused or stuck.

Such a study can quickly give valuable insight into the way real users find their way around the site,

and will suggest changes that would bring real improvement.

Experience at the IT Learning Programme at the University of Oxford (Radia, 2011) has proved that ausability study with just 4 to 6 typical users quickly and cheaply provides valuable insight.

5.2 Developing Traction in the Target Community
As more content is added, the collection will grow in value and is likely to develop traction in the13student community at Gakushuin University.

As students become familiar with the site, and discover the range of high-quality materials available

which directly support their studies, they will develop the habit of looking here for help and explanation.
This would gradually reduce the load on lecturers, of handling repeated enquiries.

5.3 Additional Content
Shirota intends to build up this collection of explanations, videos, notes and formulae to cover further
topics. This will support Shirota’s teaching at Gakushuin University and her Business Maths text-books.

Initially, the website offers a number of teaching sheets in the “Business Maths 1” category and a few

in “Special Lecture in Business Admin”. Here the category name corresponds to the lecture title. Other

categories, such as “Business Maths 2” or “Introduction to Management Exercises”, are mentioned, so
more teaching sheets are likely to be planned, as resources allow.

Shirota’s next ambition is to create teaching sheets and videos to accompany each worked example in

the text-book (shown printed in grey boxes), with voice-over to provide extra help in understanding thework.

5.4 Wider Range of Text-Book Support
At present, the whole site is closely tied to the text-book by Shirota (Shirota, 2009). A student is
expected to ask a question by reference to the chapter number and the question number. This is an

inherent limitation on the structure, but could readily be expanded. A key strategic decision is needed, on
whether or not to develop this.

The material in the website is organised in terms of the chapters of the text-book, but it could equally

be managed by topic or theme, while still citing the connection to a text-book where relevant.

5.5 Other Teachers Contributing Material
Other members of the Economics Faculty staff at the University may add their own materials, as could
contributors from further afield.

Some more materials have already been uploaded to the Web:How2SolveIt site, by Mr Ichikawa, thefirst “guest teacher”. He chose to create some simple explanations without voiceover. It seems likely thateach contributor will have their own style when creating materials, videos etc.

Other lecturers may need some encouragement to participate: they may not want to invest time increating materials, but can be reassured that it will save them time in the long run.

Other teachers may create materials that are not organised by reference to a text-book, but may give

each teaching sheet a description or theme. A decision to extend to other material from other courses orby other lecturers would of course mean a growth in the quantity of material stored, but need not change
the structure of the content management. This would however affect the website design, particularly of

the search tools on the Home Page. Some labels and descriptions would need to be more generic, as forexample allowing reference to different text-books and different lecture series.
See Appendix Two for notes on creating these learning materials.
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5.6 Other Students Outside the Economics FacultyThis material is not intended for broadcast. It is designed to work hand-in-hand with a taught course.
The personal style of writing and audio, and the close link with a text-book, give the material an
immediate appeal to students who are following this or similar courses.

A user who visits the site regularly, as part of a course or sequence of homework tasks, will learn their

way around and become familiar with the layout. Users who visit only occasionally will require moreassistance with orientating themselves, and will be much less tolerant of unfamiliar terms andprocedures.

Users who are not attending a course at Gakushuin University nor reading one of the text-books

already linked with the site may require a very different approach.

5.7 High School Students
The author Shirota would also like to add more general explanations, for other readers beyond thestudents in the Business Maths class. For example, high school students1) with links to Gakushuin

University could benefit from the opportunity to study maths concepts in more detail. The extra
explanations and detailed derivations in Web:How2SolveIt are available for students to study in theirown time, at their own pace even when no teacher is on hand to help.

The personal style of writing and audio is suitable for a wider audience, however if the site is toappeal to teenagers, it may need a brighter look & feel, without being childish. Some expert advice
would be needed for this: for example refer to the BBC’s Bitesize website (BBC) GCSE revisionmaterial which is designed for 16-year-old students preparing for UK national exams.

5.8 Bi-Lingual Version of the Site
There is an interest in using a resource of this kind for teaching students in other languages, notably
English.

At present, the target users of the site are Japanese students. It may be that some students would

benefit from seeing the site content in English as well as in Japanese. In particular, anyone following an
International Studies curriculum may be being taught wholly or partly through the medium of English2).

In future, we expect that Japanese students will also have to solve business math problems in English
and this may later extend to use by English-speaking foreign students.

One arrangement on the website might be to provide a button on the site header (visible from any

page in the site), with which the visitor can flip-flop between the Japanese and the English versions.

At present the site appears in Japanese characters. It is possible for non-readers of characters to use amachine translator such as Google Translate (Google), which gives a reasonable view of the site

contents. However non-Japanese-speaking users could not read the pages to look for their desired

material and information. A bilingual set of command menus and web pages is one of the mostsignificant future areas for future work.
1)
2)

For example, at Gakushuin High School and the sons and daughters of Gakushuin University alumni in Indonesia
This is potentially a big development for the University, as it considers providing international teaching.

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Further, the contributed materials (videos, audio narration, teaching sheets etc.) are handwritten andspoken in Japanese and cannot be machine-translated.

Therefore the system was designed to be flexible, allowing the lecturer to create bilingual materials.

The contents can alternatively be written in English: English-speaking students can write their questions
in English and the lecturer can answer in English.

Converting to a bi-lingual version of the website would be a major task, essentially duplicating muchof the site and its contents:

・Write all the teaching sheets, formulae, notes and videos in natural English
・Record the voice-overs with a native English speaker・Write the website text in natural English (including the Home Page, search results, menus andstatic pages)
・Provide a chooser button on the Home Page and/or in the header, with which the user can selectto visit either the Japanese or the English version

This would also add a permanent overhead to the editing cost, whenever the site is added to or edited

in future.

Advice is needed here from web developers who are experienced in creating bi-lingual sites and also

from translators who are experienced in presenting technical (maths) material in English, and are alsofamiliar with current trends in web design. The style of the text on a site and the way it is worded(vocabulary, sentence construction, use of idiom) makes a real difference to the impression that users
form, and can affect their attitude to the contents.

This may be considered as a future phase of the project.

5.9 Editors’ Interface
There is a separate interface which a teacher or editor uses for creating and collecting the materials.
The fairly plain tabular layout is simple and direct. Because a small number of individuals are likely to
use this interface, it is not being developed for the time being.

We have not considered the tools used to create teaching materials, notes, videos and formulae, andfor adding or editing material in the collection. Individual teachers may have their own preferences fortools that suit their own work.

Appendix One: Ten Usability Heuristics
by Jakob Nielsen (Nielsen, 2005) (Nielsen, 2012)

These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called “heuristics” because they

are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines.

Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback
within reasonable time.

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Match between the system and the real world
The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user,

rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in anatural and logical order.

User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” toleave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing.
Follow platform conventions.

Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in
the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with aconfirmation option before they commit to the action.

Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should nothave to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of thesystem should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators - unseen by the novice user - may often speed up the interaction for the expert user suchthat the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequentactions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of
information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative
visibility.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, andconstructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary toprovide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s
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task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Appendix Two: Creating the Learning Materials
Creating these materials, especially the videos, is a substantial undertaking. Producing even a 1minutevideo takes several steps:

Plan the sequence of steps (they must be logical, clear and easy to follow)

Write out the demonstration teaching sheet and scan to make a JPG or PDF that can be displayedon the screen

Practice the narration with actions and mouse gestures

Record the steps as actions, mouse gestures and voice-over
Save the recording

Upload the recording to Web:How2SolveIt and annotate it

These resources were created using ViewLetCam and Web:How2SolveIt software. This author

Shirota is very experienced and fluent at this, and can produce a finished video in the extraordinarily
short time of around 30 minutes to rehearse and record a video. However, it is generally recognisedamong elearning practitioners that a more typical author should allow substantially more time to designand create a recording.
References

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IT LEARNING PROGRAMME AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY. 2012. ITLP Portfolio [Online]. Oxford:
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JACQUES, I. 2003 Mathematics for Economics and Business, FT and Prentice Hall.

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