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|a The Usability Measurement Index (UMI) for Higher Education websites is an instrument to measure the usability of higher education websites using the weightedpoint based system. It has been proposed to overcome the shortcomings of Webometrics, which merely rank HEI websites based on certain criteria that are not related to usability. Testing of UMI has shown that it can be used to measure the usability of HEI websites. However, this is based on a small-scale study comprising of two HEI websites and 40 respondents. Thus, the aim of this research is to validate the instrument. In order to successfully validate it, ratings were given to each category and factors that had been previously proposed. Then total score were given based on both weights and ratings. Besides that, the Think-Aloud method had been applied as an appropriate add-on value to the UMI in order to increase its validity. In this research, two of the HEI websites from the Webometrics rank were used and an increased number of participants that is 60 participants were involved. The results were compared with their rank on the Webometrics ranking. The result showed that the gap between the two HEI websites were not as huge as shown in the Webometrics ranking. So, the rank of the Webometric is not the true reflection of the overall usability of the website itself. The UMI is considered validated because the instrument had been added an add-on value in Think-Aloud method and higher number of participants involved.
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