Matt is a fellow English teacher at my school, and he is also my co-teacher for 11th grade. Before becoming a teacher, he worked at Oregon Health and Science University as a data processor. Because he has some beginning knowledge with CSS coding and developing websites, I asked him to evaluate my page as my HTML developer. Although he forewarned me that he knowledge is quite limited and he wasn't sure how much corrections to my site he could offer, he was willing to look it over and give as much feedback as possible. He evaluated my website using his Macbook AIR laptop and our school's DSL connection.
Catherine is a fellow English teacher at my school as well as my instructional coach. I asked her to be one of my user testers. She has over twenty-five years teaching expereince in our specific builiding and with our specific student population, and she is very open about the fact that she is "tech-illiterate". Although she is not personally confident with technology herself, she is very vocal about how she feels that technology is an essentail and crucial need in the classroom. I asked her to review my site, specifically to review for its ease of use, overall design, purpose, information, and usefulness for teachers. Catherine used a MAC book laptop and our school's DSL connection.
Jenell is the Site Technology Coordinator at my school. I also asked her to review my code as well as my overall website, so she worked as both an HTML developer and a user tester. Begin a Site Technology Coordinator, Jenell has her Bachelor's of Science Dregree in Computer Science, although she vehemently told me that the last time she coded any kind of website was "at least fifteen years ago!" However, being that she has been working at our school for the past four years and she does have expereince with coding in the past, I felt that her knowledge and insight made her a good candidate for obtaining some insightful feedback. Jenell used a Macbook AIR and our school's DSL connection.
| Category | Average Score |
|---|---|
| Design | 5 |
| Content | 5 |
| Credibility | 4 |
All of my evaluators really liked the overall design of my website. They all agreed that the navigation of the site was easy to follow, and that having the links to all the pages consistently on the left side was a smart and efficient choice. All of my evaluators did suggest that I should separate my links in my navigation menu a bit more with some spacing, because having them on top of one another as they currently are makes it difficult to view them as separate links. All of my evaluators liked my color choices, although Matt did mention how some people (not himself specifically) said that my color choices may not appeal to some uers. One comment that both Jenell and Catherine also agreed on was changing my hyperlinks so they opened into extrenal pages outside of my webpage. They did not like the way my page was replaced with the new link, and then they would have to go back to find my original page.
Catherine and Matt also spoke with me in person, and told me how they appreciated the fact that I included content in two different formats for people to consume: video and text. Catherine, one of my user testers and fellow English teacher, said that she felt it was a great idea to give people the option to watch a video or to read text, because so many people nowadays would rather watch a two or three minut video than sit down and read two or three pages of text. Matt, another fellow English teacher, agreed with her same feelings. All three evaluators said they had no issues accessing the videos on their computers.
Neither one of my HTML developes found any issues concerning my coding. Although, both of them vehemently stated how they haven't reviewed coding in several years. Jenell, one of my HTML developers commented that she thought my coding was well organized and appeared very "profeesional-looking" for a beginner. The only thing Matt mentioned as a side note was how he remembered coding always weaving in and out on the left side, with lots of indents to indicate new tags and content. He felt that my coding could reflect more of these indents and specifications to make it easier to read.
The main area of conern centered around credibility. Catherine expressed concern with the way in which I was giving credit to additional sources of information, such as my multimedia elements, PDF's hyperlinks, images, etc.; whereas my other evaluators seemed to think that my citation of evidence within my text was acceptable. For the other evaluators, providing links directly to the original content, as well as specifying names within the description of the matieral was suitable for them with regards to giving adequate credit to the original source.
Here are links to the evaluations submitted by all the evaluators of my website: Matt, Jenell, and Catherine.
Based upon the feedback I received from my evaluators and classmates on the discussion board, I plan on making the following changes to my website:
It was very nerve-wracking and also exciting to have my fellow colleagues review my website. After working on it for so long, I wasn't sure if I was ready to hear their criticisms. But I was really happy with how open and honest they were with me with their overall suggestions and impressions with my site. Being that Catherine considers herself "tech-illiterate", I was really thrilled to see her navigate my site with ease when we had a chance to sit down and talk. Understandably, she was more concerned and focused upon the content included in the site, and she said she was really excited to see all of the great ways that technology is being used in an ELA classroom!
Matt and Jenell both were gracious enough to review my coding, despite the fact that they both told me time and time again that their coding knowledge was limited and outdated. I am very thankful for the input, especially with Matt's side comment on how my coding just doesn't quite "look" the way he remembers coding looking from his past expereinces. That comment was enough to make me want to go back and revise my coding, so it is more literate and functional.
I'm still personally wavering about the credibility issue, especially since Catherine was so passionate about the fact that we must give properly cited credit to all sources. My research regarding this topic is not done yet! All in all, I have lots of great feedback to use to improve my website.