Using the Hybrid Interactive Rhetorical Engagement (H.I.R.E.) Metrics to Analyze the Effectiveness of E-Learning Websites
The rapid development of Web-based learning technologies has become a global phenomenon that affects higher education institutions. Both developing and developed countries are eager to take advantage of the multi-modal and asynchronous technical capacities that Web 2.0 can provide to college students. The “E-learning Phenomenon” has also prompted the development of different types of learning tools, ranging from commercially-developed Blackboard, open-source learning platform Moodle, or less popular platform developed by individual universities around the world. This study applied a theoretical concept, Hybrid Interactive Rhetorical Engagement (H.I.R.E.), and a series of quantitative metrics derived from H.I.R.E., to assess the Digital Learning Website developed at Kainan University, Taiwan. Exploratory empirical findings help college instructors to understand whether H.I.R.E. serves a good system design concept explain and predict users' learning behaviors and can be used to assess a variety of web-learning technologies in the market.