A Usability Study of an Online Parent/Teacher Collaborative Environment
Abstract
Greater parental involvement in children's education has been shown to have a positive influence on the academic performance of students in K-12 (Hoover-Dempsey, 2001). Teachers in grades 6th-12th are aware of this fact and often try to encourage parents to become more involved in their child's academic careers. At the same time, parents often feel that there is a lack of dialogue coming from their child and child's teachers regarding how their child is performing academically. This project consists of a usability study of a mockup parent/teacher online environment. The purpose of this mockup is twofold: 1) to create an easy and convenient means for teachers to collaborate with parents by encouraging involvement in children's education, and 2) to keep parents better informed of their child's performance at school so that they may give the child any necessary help.