Hasiah Mohamed

Development and potential analysis of Heuristic Evaluation for Educational Computer Game (PHEG)

Heuristic Evaluation has expended tremendously from general interface evaluation to more specific evaluation including for computer games application. Computer game plays an important leisure tool nowadays and the potential of it has been explored and being used in teaching and learning. Combination of evaluation method and computer game application that focus on educational purposes, lead to the realization of having comprehensive evaluation method that able to evaluate elements of fun and educational. As a result, Playability Heuristics Evaluation for Educational Computer Game (PHEG) was proposed because of the needs to address important elements especially fun element in educational computer games so that the produced application is fun to be used as well as it incorporates educational elements to help users during the learning process. The development process of PHEG involved five major steps; initial study, proposed heuristics, experts review, evaluation process and final heuristics. The discussions of this paper only focus on the fourth step which is evaluation process on PHEG. At the end of this paper, a potential analysis for PHEG using quantitative method is proposed.

Quantitive analysis in a heuristic evaluation for usability of Educational Computer Game (UsaECG)

Usability problems found in most of heuristic evaluation process normally being presented based on mean value of severity rating. In some cases, mean value of severity rating is not accurate to determine level of usability problems found. This is because mean value will ignore the most critical problems found in specific part. One of the possible solutions to overcome this problem is by analyzing the numbers of severity rating for critical problem found. Pilot study was conducted using Playability Heuristic Evaluation for Educational Computer Game (PHEG) that being developed based on Heuristic Evaluation technique. Quantitative analysis for PHEG was use as the basis of this analysis. Numbers of subheuristics for each heuristic were used in order to calculate the percentage for each heuristic. Result shows that the most critical problem found in Educational Element and Content heuristics where there are 57.14% critical problems found for each heuristics. The least critical problem found is in Playability heuristic where the value is 18.18%. Mean value (42.42%) for the overall critical problem found in ECG can be referred as an indicator for the overall usability level of the ECG.

Development and potential analysis of Heuristic Evaluation for Courseware

Heuristics Evaluation is commonly used in the evaluation process of websites and system and it has been expended from general interface evaluation to more specific evaluation such as computer games, virtual reality and shared workspace groupware. Developed heuristics evaluations of related multimedia based application were thoroughly analyzed based on specific criteria being used in the heuristics. As a conclusion, Heuristics Evaluation for Courseware (HECW) was proposed to be developed because of the important elements of courseware that need to be addressed in order to develop a usable and acceptable courseware. The development process of HECW involved five major steps; initial study, proposed heuristics, experts review, evaluation process and final heuristics. The discussions of this paper only focus on the fourth step which is evaluation process on HECW. At the end of this paper, a potential analysis for HECW using quantitative method is proposed.

Remote Usability Evaluation System (e-RUE)

Usability evaluation is part of the software development cycle. Throughout the years, various methodologies have been used to evaluate software effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. The capabilities of Internet technologies has make possible to run usability evaluation remotely via online. The usability evaluation can be run from different geographical locations between the respondents, experts and researchers. This paper discusses the development of online remote usability evaluation (e-RUE) in a Web-based environment. The development of e-RUE is a possible solution for usability evaluation.

Exposure of Computer Games among IHL Students in Malaysia: Case Study of Computer Science Students in UiTM Terengganu

A survey on users’ exposure of computer games among students of Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) has been done to gather useful information and relevant data regarding this study. This exploratory study focused on how exposure to computer games influenced students’ academic performance in two computer science related subjects from the student’s point of view. These two subjects were Fundamental of Computer Science (CSC119) and Introduction to Problem Solving (CSC125). The data was gathered from the questionnaire distributed among the whole population of Computer Science students from October–July 2007 intake (67 respondents) and then the data was analyzed using Statistical Package (SPSS version 12). From the analysis done, it is shown that respondents with early exposure score higher when compared to those with the late exposure.

Playability Assessment for Educational Computer Games: Pilot Study for Model Development

This study used the partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modeling (SEM) tool to examine evaluation constructs that are appropriate to evaluate educational computer games (ECG) by real users. The focus of the evaluation constructs are for evaluating ECG that still in the development process. There are five constructs that being derived from heuristic evaluation for ECG known as Playability Heuristic Evaluation for Educational Computer Games (PHEG) that being developed to evaluate ECG by expert evaluators. The constructs are interface (10), educational element (6), content (6), playability (7) and multimedia (8). Total numbers of items for the five constructs are 37. Statistical results confirm that all of the five constructs and 29 items are important to be included in evaluating ECG. The results, besides indicating the suitability of the PLS in statistical analysis, has also contributed to a better understanding of constructs needed in evaluating ECG that still in the development process that has not been tested. Findings are useful for game developers and educational technologist to have a validated model and questionnaire that can be used to evaluate ECG. The result of the evaluation using the proposed model can be used to enhance the ECG before it can be released. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also included.

Enhancement of Mandarin courseware through formative evaluation

A Mandarin courseware has been developed initially to help Bumiputera students to improve in Mandarin pronunciations and speaking skills in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Terengganu. Before the courseware could be distributed to students, a formative evaluation has been done to guarantee its quality as a supplementary learning material. The study has been conducted during July 2008 - November 2008 semester which involved 32 Bachelor of Business Computing students at UiTM Terengganu. The formative evaluation has been carried out using paper based questionnaire presented to the students to evaluate different aspects of the courseware. The result reveals that most of the students agreed that the courseware could be used as a supplementary learning material. Among the recommendations from the students were to improve certain audio with unclear sounds in the Phonetics and Dictionary parts and to enhance the animation in the Chapter section. Based on the evaluation result, the enhancement of the Mandarin courseware was made by stages starting from Dec 2008 - April 2009 semester. There were 3 main things that have been enhanced since the first formative evaluation. The enhancements were the addition of English version of the courseware, the design of new interface (screen design) and the improvement of the sounds in most parts of the courseware.

Microsoft Office Word 2007 Interactive Tutorial CD (WordEASY)

The use of courseware is widely accepted in teaching and learning. Microsoft Office Word 2007 Interactive Tutorial CD or WordEASY is a courseware that serves as a tool in helping students to improve their performance and knowledge in the academic field. The courseware has been developed for students in UiTM Terengganu with the aim to assist them to improve their report writing skills. The content of WordEASY covers topics that will support learners with the knowledge to use Microsoft Word to produce professional-looking reports. In the development phase, graphics were created and edited using Adobe Photoshop, sound files were recorded and edited using MorphVOX pro and Sound Forge 7.0, and text as well as animation were created in Macromedia Director MX. All the multimedia elements were integrated using Macromedia Director MX as the authoring tool to create an interactive courseware.

Strict versus negligence software product liability

The law of products liability in tort is designed to maintain a reasonable balance between the inevitable social costs and the benefits of innovative product technologies. Technological development must be supported not only for the best interests of the public but also the side effect namely product defect into one of the following: (1) manufacturing defect; failures to correctly implement safety measures from the design; and (2) design defects: failures of the design itself to exhibit socially acceptable levels of safety. Software has been described as an artifact with fundamentally different properties than other engineered artifacts. This article will discuss several issues such as identifying the features of high technology products which lead to difficulties in applying traditional tort notions to them.

Computer science students’ opinions on effects of computer games

This exploratory study focus on the effects of computer games from students’ point of view. We observe on the effects of computer games towards students’ academic performance in two computer science related subjects. Two subjects chosen were Fundamental of Computer Science (CSC119) and Introduction to Problem Solving (CSC125). Data was gathered from questionnaire that has been distributed among the whole population of Computer Science students (UiTM Terengganu) from October - July 2007 intake (67 respondents) and then the data were analyzed using Statistical Package (SPSS version 12). Students’ opinions on effects of playing computer games are analyzed and the results are positive. On the other hand, when the result is correlate with students’ academic performances there are no significant relation between playing computer games and academic performances.