If you’ve been following my blogs over the last few months, you know I’ve shared some of the things we look for and questions we ask during our reviews.  In this blog post, I’m going to share the questions we ask during our Functionality Review.  Our course is online, we have reviewed content, instructional design strategies, and punctuation and grammar.  Now, does the course function the way it should?!?!

To help manage the review and revision process, we create a checklist for the reviewers (like the one we posted here as a resource to our E-Learning Uncovered: From Concept to Execution book) and a tracking log for requesting, making, and confirming corrections and changes (like the one we posted here).

The types of issues we look for vary based on the specific features and functions of the course, the development process, the authoring tool, and on what platforms (such as PC, Mac, mobile operating system, browser and version of the browser, etc.) the course needs to work on.

While our checklist might vary greatly for a particular course, here is a list of typical questions we ask for our courses:

Course Navigation

• Does each section launch properly from the menu?
• Do the course extras (such as How to Use This Course and Resources) function as required?
• Are all screens from the storyboard included in the online course?
• Is the screen counter accurate?
• Do all of the navigation buttons function properly?
• Are the module titles accurate?

Individual Screen Elements

• Is the slide heading correct?
• Is the correct text taken from the storyboard?
• Is the text formatted properly?
• Is the correct media shown?
• Does the media play correctly?
• Do buttons function properly?
• Are unneeded buttons inactive?
• Does the audio match the transcript?

Rollover/Pop-Up Screens

• Does the correct text correspond to the correct rollover/click area?
• Is it clear what information has been accessed?
• Is it easy to understand the instructions?
• If the course requires that all rollover/click areas are visited before the NEXT button is active, does that happen?

Test/Quiz Questions

• Is the question programmed correctly?
• Is the feedback programmed correctly?
• Is it easy to understand the instructions?
• If the course requires the question be answered, does it function that way?

By the way, you may not need to check EVERY screen for EVERY item on the checklist.  For example, if your course authoring includes an automatic screen counter, you may not need to go through the whole course and make sure it is accurate on each page (except maybe for the prototype to make sure it works as expected).  However, if you need to enter the page counter manually, then you would want to check it on every screen.

During a future blog post, we’ll wrap up the review process with the questions we ask during the Technical and End User Reviews.