JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Acquired brain injury (ABI) is a leading cause of death and disability in children and can lead to a variety of lasting cognitive, physical, and psychosocial outcomes which affect students’ school performance. Students with an ABI experience challenges returning to school due in part to persistent lack of educator support and awareness of ABI. Educators feel unprepared to support students with ABI in the school environment due to lack of knowledge and training. Teach-ABI, an online professional development module, was created to enhance educators’ ABI knowledge and awareness to support students post-injury at school.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to assess the usability of and satisfaction with the Teach-ABI module by elementary school educators. The following research questions were explored: 1. Can elementary school teachers use and effectively navigate Teach-ABI?; 2. Are the content and features of Teach-ABI satisfactory?; and 3. What modifications are needed to improve Teach-ABI?

Methods:

Elementary school educators currently employed or in training to be employed in Ontario elementary schools were recruited. Using Zoom, individual online meetings with a member of the research team were held, where each educator actively reviewed Teach-ABI. The usability of the Teach-ABI module was evaluated through qualitative analysis of think-aloud data and semi-structured interviews, direct observation, user success rate during task completion, and the System Usability Scale (SUS).

Results:

Eight female educators participated in the study. Educators were classroom (n=7) and pre-service (n=1) teachers from public (n=7) and private (n=1) school boards. In terms of task performance, 85% of participants independently completed 10 out of 11 tasks and 100% of participants independently completed seven out of 11 tasks, demonstrating the module usability goal was met. The average overall score on the SUS was 86.25 (range: 65 – 100), suggesting a high level of satisfaction with the perceived usability of Teach-ABI. Overall, participants found the content of Teach-ABI valuable, useful and aligned with the realities of their profession. Participants appreciated the visual design, content organization, and varying use of education strategies within Teach-ABI. Opportunities for module enhancement included broadening content case examples of students with ABI and enhancing the accessibility (e.g. font size) of the content.

Conclusions:

Validated measures of usability combined with qualitative methodology revealed educators’ high level of satisfaction with the design, content, and navigation of Teach-ABI. Educators engaged with the module as active participants in knowledge construction, as they reflected, questioned, and connected content to their experiences and knowledge. This study established strong usability and satisfaction with Teach-ABI and demonstrated the importance of usability testing in building online professional development modules.