Usability Evaluation of a Web-Based Platform for Connecting Professional and Educational Communities: Instructors' Perspective

Equitable access to communities of practice for future workforce development has been challenging for construction education instructors. This has been identified as one of the triggers of deficiencies and disparities in the skills and competence of new construction engineering graduates and consequently, dissatisfaction of employers. To address this challenge, a web-based collaborative platform was designed and developed to integrate both communities. This study presents a usability evaluation of the web-based platform from instructors' perspective using quantitative and qualitative analyses. The results from semi-structured interview, ratings of system usability scale, and trust scale were used to infer users' acceptance of the platform. The results reveal high acceptance of the platform by end users as a tool to connect with practitioners for workforce development collaborations. The results also show required improvements to enhance users' experience. The study provides a guide for the usability evaluation of similar matching platforms.