The Usability of an Early College Online Resource

Abstract

The Early College High School program at the University of Hawaiʻi — West Oʻahu was designed to provide high school students with the opportunity to earn high school and college credit simultaneously while still enrolled in high school. High school counselors are often charged with helping these students apply to the Early College program; but oftentimes do not have enough information about the program to offer comprehensive assistance to students. It is clear that counselors need resources to adequately help students. An effective way to provide information to school counselors is through online sources. However, no online resource for high school counselors exists in the state of Hawaiʻi. This usability study was conducted to evaluate an online instructional resource website and ascertain its ease of use for counselors seeking to learn more about the Early College program. Data from the study found the online instructional resource to be a highly valuable source of information, with functional accurate content, and easy to navigate. The results of the study suggest that the instructional resource provided high school counselors with a single online source which provided tutorials, instructions, and Early College course information, enabling them to better help their students.