USABILITY STUDY OF AN ONLINE TUTORIAL FOR VOLUNTEERS AT A HOSPITAL RESOURCE LIBRARY

by Jenks-Brown, Angelique R.

An online tutorial for training volunteers at the Women™s Health Information Center (WHIC) at the Women™s Hospital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was created. It was intended to be understood by all adult age groups from any walk of life for such complex topics as the reference interview, ethics, and evaluating online health information. Usability testing was conducted using "think aloud" protocols and a questionnaire. This study identified specific aspects of the WHIC tutorial that can be improved, such as creating consistent links, clarifying terms and phrases, and adding more sample conversation dialogs. This study has implications for tutorial design generally, because certain aspects of this tutorial worked very well for learning, such as the sample conversation dialogs, and the lesson opening statements, summaries and exercise reviews.