User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities

User-centered design (UCD) is gaining popularity in both the educational and business sectors. This is due to the fact that UCD sheds light on the entire process of analyzing, planning, designing, developing, using, evaluating, and maintaining computer-based learning. User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities explains how computers can be used to augment human intellect for productivity and innovation, both nationally and globally. This book gives guidance to all stakeholders involved in online learning: organizations and businesses, developers, tutors, students, and evaluators; as well as provides best practices for the different phases of developing online learning communities from the analysis and design phase to the development, use, evaluation, and maintenance stage.

About the Author :
Niki Lambropoulos (Lampropoulou) is specialised in sociocultural learning, creative collaborative learning in small groups and communities, creative storytelling, in the classroom as well as Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments. She holds a PhD from London South Bank University, followed by a Marie Curie postdoctoral research funded by the EU, and an MA in ICT in Education from the Institute of Education, UCL, University of London. She finished her BA at the Pedagogical Academy of Tripolis and University of Athens in Greece, has a Diploma in Education from Maraslio and over 30 years of educational experience in primary and higher educational levels in Greece, U.K. and France. She also writes screenplays for the big screen (https://www.imdb.me/nikilambropoulos). Panayiotis Zaphiris is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design, School of Informatics of City University London (UK). Before joining City University, he was a researcher at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University (USA), where he also got his PhD in Human-Computer Interaction. He also holds an MSc in Systems Engineering and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. His research interests lie in human-computer interaction with an emphasis in inclusive design and social aspect of computing. He is also interested in internet-related research, such as Web usability, online communities, e-learning, computer aided leanguage learning (CALL) and social network analysis of online computer-mediated human-to-hman interactions. Panayiotis was the principal investigator of the JISC Information Visualisation Foundation Student an a co-investigator on the DRC Formal Investigation into Web Site Accessibility (managing the automatic testing of 1000 websites) and the JISC Usability Studies for JISC Services and Information Environment projects.