A Study of Visual Design for Open Courseware in Japan

Abstract

Summary Currently, to convey the charm of the university and utilize knowledge effectively, information from open courseware (OCW) is actively being disseminated by universities to the public. However, in the process of OCW promoting activities in universities, some problems have arisen, such as insufficient use and low recognition. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate a method to improve the utilization rate in OCW.

This study included interview surveys and impression evaluation experiments for the improvement of the utilization rate of OCW. The interview survey comprised interviews with four national universities (Hokkaido University, University of Tokyo, Nagoya University, Kyoto University) that actively promote the spread of OCW in Japan. The results of the interview survey with operation management confirmed the status quo of operation management and initiatives for the visual design of those universities. For the impression evaluation experiments, experimental collaborators were asked to browse the four OCW websites; subsequently, a questionnaire survey was conducted. The recorded data of the usage process were also analyzed. The impression evaluation experiments confirmed the impressions that users felt and the actual usage status of OCWs at the four universities. The results showed that among those four universities, Hokkaido University was highly evaluated because, comparatively, it had a unified visual design and a consistent image. Furthermore, based on analysis and consideration, it was found that there was a common process in the behavior of users to search for content in OCW. Through this research, the following three points were presented as issues of OCW in Japan from the viewpoint of visual design: 1) searching for images; 2) public relations activities; and 3) improvement of interface design.