Evaluation as Impetus for Innovations in Elearning - Applying Personas to the Design of Community Functions
Stefanie Panke, Birgit Gaiser, Benita Werner · 2007
The necessary intertwining between the evaluation on the one hand and the implementation of elearning environments on the other hand is often hampered by organizational settings and political conditions. A possible solution for bridging the gap between evaluative processes of quality assurance and the creative activity of design is the Personas approach. These fictional, but databased user archetypes serve as a foil to embed the needs of different user groups in the design process. Based on findings from evaluation research and experiences gained through a case study, the article incorporates the Personas method into an overall model of quality assurance for the design of educational webportals. The transferability of the personas approach into other elearning related settings is critically discussed.