After a total of 4 weeks testing the LUCie users or learners have given quite a bit of feedback.
A few lessons learned:
Although Moodle is used by many in their respective universities, the navigation in the system is a problem for many. That is understandable as it violates a few very basic usability rules; e.g. its completely different navigation in different parts of the system.
One of the most discussed issues was that there is so much writing to do. Some people raced through the pages, reading everything, skipping the exercises. That leaves me a bit clueless - how do you expect to improve your writing other than write? Oh, and then write a bit more.
Peer reviews do not work well. Collaboration was not popular. Participants want “the teacher” to correct their writing.
Many of the participants have not used a wiki before and found it very difficult. Everything new needs a good, simple introduction!
But the internet has a big impact on the way people learn after all: most people find it tiring to work their way through the lessons. They would rather just have activities; they browse, choose, complete and then pick something else.
I can understand that many found FreeMind a bit difficult to use, but everybody liked it in the end. It requires to understand the concept of mind mapping AND getting to know a new tool at the same time.
I wonder about this Digital Natives hype; the testing so far shows once more that you cannot take anything for granted. Users still shy away from new tools. Most not only require some written introduction, but also ask for some face-to-face tutor support.