Informal Learning Environments

The two informal learning environments that I chose to evaluate were:
1. www.doityourself.com
2. www.hgtv.com
Both of these sites center around home and garden decorating and improvements. Both sites give tips and supporting links and examples for do it yourself decorating. I specifically chose these two sites because they both broadcast their information on their own television channel. I felt that there would be a sense of competition between the two sites, and a more equal playing field than comparing a small one man decorating site to one of these larger ones.
The www.doityourself.com’s home page is a predominantly simple white masked background, with pops of blue and black in the text. There are very few pictures to support the information which can be both a positive and a negative. I say this because it gives my eyes and mind a break by not being constantly distracted by the next picture, but the lack of pictures also makes the task daunting and a bit boring. The hgtv.com site also has a white background, but there are many more pops of colors from the added pictures.

Both sites are targeted to a more mature age group, I would say starting at about 18 years and up. Much of the information on both sites requires you to own your own home, but they have plenty of alternate information that could work for renters or as preparation for buying or selling a home. The do-it-yourself site seems to cater more to an audience that is in search of specific knowledge and help, while the hgtv site acts more as inspiration with plenty of examples from decorators and designers as well as the average person.

I prefer the hgtv site to the do-it-yourself site because of the layout and the before and after blogs and photos. Both sites have forums where online users can interact and ask questions, but www.doityourself.com takes a more how to and book knowledge approach, while the other site shows more real life scenarios and examples. When it comes to decorating, I prefer visual aides to accompany instruction. This helps to boost my creativity and spark inspiration for the current project that I am on. The do-it-yourself site is more specific dedicated, which would be good for projects that I may have no idea how to do myself, such as putting up crown moulding or the difference between tools.

Kevin Kruse talks about the importance of chunking information and organizing the menu structure in his article, “Designing e-learning User Interfaces Part 1: Assisting User Memory.” One of the points made in the article was concerning the number of items on a menu. “A menu should ideally have no more than seven items on it. If a menu has more than seven items, see if it can be split logically into a higher-level menu and a sub-menu.” The hgtv site does a good job of limiting the amount of items under one menu, making it easier to find what I am looking for, and remembering for the future. The do-it-yourself site has an overwhelming amount of information laid out on the home page with some menus being too broad. I feel that the site could benefit from some submenus by making the learning process quicker and less frustrating.

Another one of Kevin Kruse’s articles, “How to Write Great Learning Objectives,” talks about the use of Mager’s theory of behavioral objectives in the design of instructional materials. The three components that a behavioral objective should have is behavior, condition, and standard. After looking at specific topics on each site I found that they both did a good job in utilizing them. For example, on the do-it-yourself site, the behavior that was researched was how to remove paint. The condition was explained by stating three different methods, the tools needed, and definitions for terms that were used. The different scenarios that were stated helped to create the standard, and show a range of acceptable answers for the issue.