My experience is that the case with most of the e-learning / CSCL system are that the designers and developers have not put much effort to make the systems "traditionally usable" - and now I talk about human-computer interaction.

For instance, hardly any e-learning system even tries to follow the accessibility guidelines of the W3 org. They just let the user know that the system works with this or that browser only.

When the system is expected to be used by all, the accessibility and usability issues becomes more important. It is OK if some business solution (e.g. advanced spreadsheets software) requires some time to learn to use it. But in case of services for all - such as e-learning or CSCL - the system should be very fast to learn. The point of the e-learning is not to study to use the system but the themes of the course.

But what kind of methods are you developing? Do you think that the traditional HCI usability methods are not suitable to study e-learning / CSCL systems?