Marina Ismail

Usability testing for educational computer game using observation method

For most children the first contact with the computer is through some sort of educational game. Therefore, it is important that computer games for children are well-designed and usable for the children. In order to evaluate the usability of the computer game, children must be observed while exploring and playing the game and given the chance to express their opinions. Therefore, to involve children effectively, appropriate evaluation techniques are needed. This paper will discuss an observation method that has been adopted in a usability testing with the children. In this study, a computer game called Jelajah is chosen as the game to be tested for the usability evaluation with children. Jelajah is suitable for the experiment because it is an adventure game which is a very common game genre for children. Five preschool children aged between five and six years old are selected for this study. During the usability testing session, facilitator observes the child and fill in the observation checklist form in order to track the effectiveness and efficiency of the game. After the test session completed, the child is required to answer a simple interview-based questionnaire to know their level of satisfaction after playing the game. Data collected are both qualitative and quantitative. The collected data are analyzed to determine the levels of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. The levels of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction are being measured by averaging them to a single metric that can represent the usability of Jelajah. The result obtained showed that the approach adopted to conduct a usability testing of a computer game with children using Jelajah can also be adopted for evaluating any educational computer game with children.

Measuring usability of educational computer games based on the user success rate

Children learn through play [1]. According to Crawford [2] educational game is the childrens first contact with the computer. Therefore, it is important that the computer games for children are well designed and usable. Usability testing can also be adopted to assess learners motivation towards learning. Assessing the usability with children requires special consideration. Children must be allowed to play freely and expressed their opinion while being observed. This study explores the measuring consideration for the usability of an educational game called Jelajah. Jelajah, was designed to teach pre-schools children to learn the Malay words and was developed based on a solid research on educational approaches. Five pre-school children were selected for this study. During the usability testing session, children are observed and their behaviors are recorded in an observation checklist. The session was video-taped for further observation. A post test was administered after the session to seek the childrens satisfaction in using the game for learning. Data collected were quantitative and qualitative data. Data were later quantified to measure the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction towards the software. Based on the analysis, children showed interest and were highly motivated to learn when using educational game for learning.

STAr : Story telling for Arabic language

Arabic Language is the language of the Holy Quran. The language is familiar and crucial to all Muslims world wide and Muslims are highly recommended to understand the language of the holy Quran to ease them when reciting the Quran. The Minister of Education has started introducing Arabic language to Muslims primary school children since 2005 under the JQAF program. However, the implementation of most of the foreign language classes are not really successful as those subjects were taught with little or no regards with the current field-tested paradigm of foreign language acquisition. Many teachers are using almost outdated paradigms of learning for their students. This situation is unproductive for a fast growing learner who wants to acquire knowledge. Therefore, this project is conducted to assist the Malaysian Muslim children to understand the Arabic language better as it is part of the JQAF syllabus. This courseware is specially developed to accompany the primary school Arabic language text book and its scope is to ensure that students know how to manipulate the Arabic words according to its gender. Prior to the development stage of this project, a study towards a suitable instructional design strategies of teaching and learning Arabic language grammar especially in differentiating the masculine and feminine words is conducted. As a result, the storytelling approach has been adapted. Storytelling helps stimulates the childrens cognitive skills in recognizing and remembering the words according to its gender. The multimedia elements such as graphic, animation, and audio are fully utilized in this application to create an interesting way of learning and thus gain the students attention. An alpha testing towards the STAr courseware has been conducted to five respondents who are the Year one students. The results shown that 60% of the respondents managed to score 85% marks and above while 40% of the respondents scored at least 67 in the exercise module which included in the STAr courseware. This courseware design can be commercialized and used for developing other courseware to teach other foreign language such as France and German language.

Evaluating the usability and acceptance of multimedia web-based education among children

Development of a software product needs to be evaluated to ensure that it meets the objective. There are many ways to evaluate a software product. Software are tested for its functionality, usability, completeness and also the acceptance. This study evaluated the usability and acceptance of a multimedia web based education among children. The web based education that was tested for this study is called ‘Adikku Sayang.com’, a website that teaches children to learn Bahasa Melayu. The website has been developed based on sound theory in teaching and learning, pedagogical and multimedia concept. Hundred children at the age between 4–7 years old from all over Malaysia have been selected to participate in this test. This research involves ethnography field testing that were conducted through observation and interview. The evaluation components that were evaluated are the speed of systems performance, rate of error, user retention of command overtime, user satisfaction, terminology used, screen testing and learning ability and the acceptance towards the website. Data collected from the study are analyzed using SPSS based on its mean. The result showed that the website is accepted by the children as a website that can be used to teach the introduction to learning Bahasa Melayu. The usability test also showed that the website is usable for children in the age group between 4 to 7 years old.

Applying bee comb architecture to a design of mobile historical event storytelling: A case study of M-Seerah

M-Seerah is an application that was developed to provide a different approach in gaining knowledge on Islamic history. The existing design of user interface and content segmentation of Islamic history content especially mobile Seerah, is rarely discussed. Therefore, this paper will introduce the theoretical and technical foundations for designing an M-Seerah in disseminating the Islamic history content through storytelling approach. This paper proposed a user interface design inspired from the bee comb architecture and derived a theorem that can be used for other mobile application. This paper also discussed the segmentation of history content based on the Ibnu Khaldun theory of history that can be used in any historical narration. Both the design has been successfully applied to the M-Seerah application and gets the positive review from the usability expert in Heuristic Evaluation.

Design of the Icon-Based Interactive Video for English Vocabulary Learning

Videos can be useful for teaching and learning. However, a conventional video does not allow interaction which is the key to learning. Hence, interactive video is recommended. Designing interactive video for learning requires special consideration. It must adopt the suitable learning approach and video development technology. This chapter will discuss the design of an interactive video which uses the picture-in-picture video design approach, iconic metaphor, and storytelling as a learning approach for teaching English vocabulary to Secondary 1 students in Malaysia. The interactive video uses pictures and sounds to assist students in learning vocabulary. Icons are used for symbolic representations. To make learning interesting, the storytelling approach is adopted. Students interact with the video sequence and feedback is provided to create a two ways interaction. The effectiveness of the interactive video has been tested on 50 students from two schools in Kelantan and Selangor. The pre- and posttest evaluation were conducted. Analysis showed that the use of interactive video has attracted students to use the application, and thus remain in the learning process. This has resulted in an improvement in their vocabulary mastery, thus proven that the icon-based interactive video is effective as an additional learning tool.

Weaving the non-pharmacological Alzheimer’s disease therapy into mobile personalized digital memory book application

Advances in mobile technology have lead to a more interesting and inspiring applications that could be used to help people with health problem. Together with rapid progress in mobile devices, new applications to support treatments have been developed tremendously. This technology has also been identified to assist patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This paper describes an application that was developed to improve the quality of life of a person who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It was designed specifically for a patient with personalized contents. It was tested on an Android based mobile device where the patient could easily access the application at anytime and anywhere. Experts were interviewed to evaluate the usability and functionality of the system. The result from this study showed that the application is suitable for non-pharmacological therapy to assist Alzheimer’s patient. It can be used to enhance the reminiscent and stimulate cognitive function of the patient. The application is also being used as a support to improve the quality of life of the patient and encourage communication with the caretakers.

Gamification and Augmented Reality Utilization for Islamic Content Learning: The Design and Development of Tajweed Learning

Gamification and augmented reality are among the technologies that promise a lot of advantages to the learners. Previous studies have shown that both can motivate learners and make a learning process enjoyable. Nevertheless, Islamic content learning such as tajweed is claimed to be a very dry and plain content. The statement is affirmed by the outcome of our preliminary investigation that reveals tajweed learning is not attractive and it needs to be revolutionized as to make it more attractive and interesting to the present digitally native generation. Producing a high-quality tajweed learning tool is possible through good design and development process. Therefore, this study utilized a gamification and augmented reality in the design and development of tajweed learning in order to make the learning more captivating and meaningful. The ADDIE model was employed to conduct the design and development processes. Hopefully, the combination of the two technologies can attract the learners, particularly the children, and engage them in the tajweed learning process.

Prediction Outcome for Massive Multiplayer Online Games Using Data Mining

Received Dec 04, 2017 Revised Jan 11, 2018 Accepted Apr 15, 2018 Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are fundamental technology in health care that permits the information of a patient’s essential body parameters to be gathered by the sensors. However, the safety and concealment defense of the gathered information is a key uncertain problem. A Hybrid Key Management (HKM) scheme [13] is worked based on Public Key Cryptography (PKC)-authentication scheme. This scheme uses a oneway hash function to construct a Merkle Tree. The PKC method increase the computational complexity and lacking scalability. Additionally, it increases expensive computation, communication costs and delay. To overcome this problem, Robust Security for Protected Health Information by ECC with signature Hash Function in WBAN (RSP) is proposed. The system employs hash-chain based key signature technique to achieve efficient, secure transmission from sensor to user in WBAN. Moreover, Elliptical Curve Cryptography algorithm is used to verifies the authenticate sensor. In addition, it describes the experimental results of the proposed system demonstrate the efficient data communication in a network.A Weblogs contains the history of User Navigation Pattern while user accessing the websites. The user navigation pattern can be analyzed based on the previous user navigation that is stored in weblog. The weblog comprises of various entries like IP address, status code and number of bytes transferred, categories and time stamp. The user interest can be classified based on categories and attributes and it is helpful in identifying user behavior. The aim of the research is to identifying the interested user behavior and not interested user behavior based on classification. The process of identifying user interest, it consists of Modified Span Algorithm and Personalization Algorithm based on the classification algorithm user prediction can be analyzed. The research work explores to analyze user prediction behavior based on user personalization that is captured from weblogs.Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are fundamental technology in health care that permits the information of a patient’s essential body parameters to be gathered by the sensors. However, the safety and concealment defense of the gathered information is a key uncertain problem. A Hybrid Key Management (HKM) scheme [13] is worked based on Public Key Cryptography (PKC)-authentication scheme. This scheme uses a oneway hash function to construct a Merkle Tree. The PKC method increase the computational complexity and lacking scalability. Additionally, it increases expensive computation, communication costs and delay. To overcome this problem, Robust Security for Protected Health Information by ECC with signature Hash Function in WBAN (RSP) is proposed. The system employs hash-chain based key signature technique to achieve efficient, secure transmission from sensor to user in WBAN. Moreover, Elliptical Curve Cryptography algorithm is used to verifies the authenticate sensor. In addition, it describes the experimental results of the proposed system demonstrate the efficient data communication in a network.

A review of user aware infographic display system in waiting room area

Waiting room is defined as a room or part of the building that is dedicated for people to wait until the specified event occurs. As the name implies, the main concern of this room to people is how they would cope with the dull, noisy, crowded and long queue environment. Furthermore, lengthy waiting time can create an anxiety which may be happen especially waiting for a result or for uncertain waiting time. Some of the service only provided seating without any substance that can help to occupy the waiting time. Despite having traditional visual aid such poster and pamphlets, these materials are repetitive and outdated in terms of content. Meanwhile, visual illustration is considered important for most people to keep their eye on any information display. Our prior study found in recent years, there is a few researchers have taking the concept of incorporating therapy in waiting room. However, the study of keeping uncertainty of waiting time in check is still under-researched. Hence, the proposed research taking advantage of the focus in principle of keeping-up with user uncertainty waiting time and aware about their status using real-time status-graphic.