Summary

Summary
Below are some issues we find with Portal that we believe should be redesigned:

- Login screen is not the main screen anymore, you have to navigate to it. -  Attempts to make it more informational resulted in more clutter. - Courses are listed incorrectly and sometimes there are multiple versions of the same course, some outdated. -  Old courses are shown even after one year completion. -  Crowded and confusing. - Maintenance occurs at random intervals, or students are not informed ahead of time. -  Down at the worst times, can conflict with grade submissions. -  Also conflict with slides downloading before test for example. -  Submission itself is not comprehensive and confusing (save/send).


 * a) Statement of user study goals. What are the major questions you want answered regarding how users use the technology in question? About what they may want to see as an alternative?**

- Do they procrastinate, use portal late at night/right before due dates? - Experience, using other portals/UTM portal/overall computer skills - How many of their classes use Portal - Are they satisfied with Portal as a means of communication. - How regularly do they check/use Portal - If English is not the main language, is Portal hard to understand? - Maintenance - <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> If regular timings, professor should provide times on syllabus - <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> If random, Portal should schedule them at predicted times -<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Use Portal, however: - <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Less ‘informative’ and cluttered, keep it simple. - Classes should use just one type of communication, not having to re-learn different types (Portal/Wikispaces/Slate/Prof. Websites) - <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Provide simple language, easy viewing, and translations
 * //Questions//**
 * // Alternatives //**


 * b)** **Provide notes on research methods considered to answer the questions noted above. Why these methods? Why not others?**

-<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Qualitative research methods, since it’ll be questions about experience -<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Use of survey’s to conduct the research -<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> The sample will be taken of UTM students -<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Mainly ordinal questions to get ranking answers (Likert Scales), but some nominal to get the basic gender/year information.

-<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Quantitative can be important, such as finding out percentages. - <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Ex. % of the time Portal was slow or unavailable.

-<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Use Qualitative because it gives us more detailed answers -<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Quantitative gives us accurate results for the whole population

**c) Are there any ethical issues that you may encounter? How will you address these?**

-<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Considering everyone uses it, there isn’t. -<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> People may be vary about giving information regarding their courses/majors or their views on Portal, as a part of a large institution. - <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Easily addressed via confidentiality.