Rivera-Nivar, Mericia

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Development of universal design guidelines for e-learning and e-training
(2009) Rivera-Nivar, Mericia; Pomales-García, Cristina; College of Engineering; Medina-Borja, Alexandra; Irizarry-Serrano, María de los A.; Department of Industrial Engineering; Rodríguez Rivera, Néstor
The purpose of this work is to develop design guidelines for distance education as well as professional training modules considering aging differences as an important factor. A controlled experiment was designed and conducted to evaluate the effects of module design characteristics on information recall, satisfaction, disorientation, and task workload, and the implications for E-Learning and E-Training. Sixteen Web modules with two different lesson content types were developed for this study, considering different independent variables such as camera focus, environment simulator, video size, and instructor’s gender. The experimental results revealed significant differences between a wide age range of experimental subjects. Results suggest that different users can be partially accommodated by “Universal Design”. Specific preferences in design are discussed when each population segment is individually targeted. Experimental task results revealed that aging adults manage to moderately compensate for their declining cognitive functions even when the design displayed is perceived as visually overwhelming.