SmartSites Toolkit for Evaluating Course Web Sites

Abstract

To facilitate the design of effective web sites for classroom-based courses, we developed a systematic heuristic evaluation methodology and relevant heuristics. To facilitate reuse of the methodology, we developed an evaluation toolkit. The toolkit provides detailed instructions on all aspects of the methodology and an example assessment. Assessments that are carried out with the toolkit can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a course web site. Furthermore, heuristics provide actionable feedback on how to improve sites. The toolkit is available as a zipped archive.