Evaluating the learnability of college management system of International Islamic College / Suhaila Ab Kadir

Leamability is a major component of usability, a non-functional requirement of a software system. Up till now, leamability is not unanimously defined, measured and evaluated by the researchers and it is not extensively studied. Good leamability is not considered as an important aspect in the design of a system, especially in the custombuilt system. Many educational higher institutions customised their campus management system due to the specific requirements which are not featured by on-the shelf products. Similarly, International Islamic College also has its own system to manage the everyday processes. This research is conducted with the aim to evaluate the leamability of the College Management System of International Islamic College, due to the dissatisfaction expressed by users for inability to easily use the system, which hinder their productivity. Their remarks are obtained from the preliminary interviews With five users using leamability related questionnaires extracted from System Usability Scale. Hence, the objectives of the research are to identify the leamability attributes to evaluate a system, evaluate the leamability the College Management System and subsequently propose the design elements that will improve its leamability. The scope of the research is on the Lecturer's Portal only. The leamability attributes are selected based on the previous studies in the same area, coupled with the user interface design guidelines. Ease of learning, consistency, predictability, informative feedback, continuity of tasks, error messages and help documentation are the attributes of leamability, modeled to be the evaluation aspects of the College Management System. The system is evaluated qualitatively using think aloud protocol observation on five real, novice users of the system. After the observation sessions, users are interviewed to gather their thoughts on the system leamability to support the earlier findings. The findings are evaluated using the thematic analysis, based on the selected attributes. It shows that the system needs to be improved as it does not offer the leamability design features to the users. Among the suggestions for leamability enhancements to the system are to provide standard training to users, apply consistent, predictable design elements, provide informative feedback and error messages for users in the logical task sequences as well as ensure the help documentation is available for all the functions. These suggestions are conveyed to the system administrator of International Islamic College for further action.