Moodle Using Eye Tracking to Study Usability and eLearning

Another study using eye tracking we came across at Eye Tracking Update has to do with a program called Moodle, which appears to be an e-Learning (teaching and learning) program used by Austrian students (please correct me if I’m wrong or if you have any more information about the program).

Gergely Rakoczi of the Vienna University of Technology set out to study how Moodle’s components and teaching materials are “seen” by various Moodle users. He wanted to study navigation schemes and usability aspects as well as the learning process itself, and so eye tracking, naturally, came in handy. In an effort to find out how students use the program, Rakoczi hoped to help teachers by pointing out which elements are preferred during the learning process, something he considers to be highly relevant for efficient teaching. Rakoczi also hoped to provide some insight for the developers of Moodle, perhaps enabling them to improve quality of use.

The foundation for eye tracking, of course, is an assumption that there is a relationship between eye movement and cognitive processes. This is a debatable topic, and we’ve posted a few other articles touching on the reasons why the relationship between cognitive processes and location of gaze may not be so concrete. In any case, assuming that symbols or elements on a screen attract a user’s attention, gaze can serve for some relatively safe conclusions on a user’s thought process. Eye tracking technology is especially useful when it comes to E-learning software, like Moodle, as it can help to investigate usability and the “pedagogical” – as Rakoczi puts it – value of such software.

For the study, Rakoczi had a selection of participants explore Moodle as they pleased over the course of a 90-minute session, more or less. Using a Tobii eye tracker that was calibrated for the participants, and sessions began with the goal of exploring a few questions: How do users navigate within Moodle? How do learners behave after accessing single pages of the learning environment? Which type of elements do they fixate on first and which elements are ignored? And what components are among the highest fixated?

A brief look at the heat map results show that much of the participants’ time was spent looking at the upper left corner and continuing down and across the page in the classic “F” shape which we’ve discussed in earlier posts. Smaller details like participants difficulty in finding certain buttons led to disorientation among some students.

Cast your Eyes on Moodle: An Eye Tracking Study investigating learning with Moodle

Related articles:

1. Framework for Eye Tracking Patterns and Usability Problems: Pt 3
2. The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt1
3. Eye Tracking Web Usability Study Reveals the “Golden Triangle”
4. Eye Tracking and F Patterns: Recurring Theme in Web Usability
5. Framework for Eye Tracking Patterns and Usability Problems: Pt 2
6. Eye Tracking: Evaluating Landing Page Usability With Surveys
7. Eye Tracking and Style Guides
8. The Latest in Eye Tracking Web Usability Research pt2
9. Eye Tracking: Facebook and LinkedIn Usability
10. Text 2.0 Uses Eye Tracking to Customize Reader Experience