EYE-TRACKING – A NEW TOOL FOR IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF E-LEARNING MATERIALS IN TEACHERS’ TRAINING

Teaching how to write learning materials is a part of curricula for teachers’ trainings. We have a wide range of methods how to write effective printed materials for children and students, but we have no longtime experience on efficiency of digital learning materials.
Contemporary teachers have to own competencies for developing digital learning materials which are able to grab the attention of their readers, or to transfer the information to the learners in a short time. How can we teach the students for creating such learning materials? What kind of techniques can we use for teaching it?
In our courses in teachers’ training, we use the methods and results of eye-tracking examinations for showing to our students how people read digital materials on a computer’s screen, where are the hot and hidden parts of a material.
Eye-tracking is a method that can show us how the gaze of users move on the examined surface, what they look at first and second, and later, how their eyes move on the examined surface, how long they look at an element, etc. This is a kind of measurement that is used for examining e.g. costumers in shops or users looking at the web page of a shop, i.e., in off-line and on-line commerce as well. We have adopted this methodology for teaching and learning materials. During the courses we examine digital learning materials, how people read them, and give suggestions for wording, formatting and placing materials for reaching a higher efficiency.

This research was supported partly by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund under Grant No. OTKA K‑105262.