Siti Zulaiha Ahmad

Bijak Membaca — Applying Phonic Reading Technique and Multisensory Approach with interactive multimedia for dyslexia children

Reading difficulty is one of the major problems faced by dyslexic children. Reading skill is the most crucial ability as it is required in the upper level of discovery of knowledge. In this research, Phonic Reading Technique and Multisensory Approach are blended with interactive multimedia, which incorporates multimedia elements such as text, graphics, video, and animation. The manner of applying those techniques in “Bijak Membaca” is discussed. The contents of this application are specifically designed to visualize letters, words, sentences, and pronunciations in the Malay language for dyslexics, aged 7–8 years, with awareness of their characteristics. In order to evaluate the design of its content, heuristic testing is conducted among multimedia lecturers and IT undergraduates. The result reveals that the contents are well designed with the inclusion of Phonic Reading Technique, Multisensory Approach, and suitable multimedia elements. It is also concluded as interesting, user-friendly, attractive, valuable, and supportive.

MathLexic: An assistive multimedia mathematical learning aid for dyslexia children

MathLexic is a multimedia application that is designed to improve mathematical skills of dyslexic children. This research is focused on integration of multimedia elements and implementation of multimedia principles in the application, which is intended to deliver an attractive and acceptable multimedia mathematical application for dyslexics. The application allows dyslexics to interact with the tutorials that comprise of recognizing numbers, number sequencing, operation of mathematical symbols, mathematical operations, and activities for their enhancement. User Acceptance Test is conducted with dyslexic and special education teachers in order to evaluate the application. Most of the teachers agree that the application is not only supportive and valuable for dyslexics, but it is also attractive, user friendly, and an interesting educational aid. The research finds that the implementation of multimedia elements and principles can encourage the children to learn mathematics and enhance their mathematical skills as well.

Structure transformation of ZnO thin films properties influenced by substrate temperature deposited by magnetron sputtering

The structure transformation of ZnO thin films properties influenced by substrate temperature deposited by RF Magnetron Sputtering is presented. This project has been focused on electrical, optical and structural properties of ZnO thin films. The effect of variation substrate temperature at 200°C~500°C on the ZnO thin films have been investigated. The thin films were examined using two point probe current-voltage (I-V) measurement (Keithley 2400), UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer, field emmision scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) (JEOL JSM 7600F) and atomic force microscope (AFM) (Park System XE-100). ZnO thin films were prepared at 200 watt by a RF magnetron sputtering using ZnO target using glass as the substrate. The IV measurement indicated as the substrate temperature increase, the conductivity of ZnO thin film increase. All films have show high UV absorption properties using UV-VIS spectrophotometer (JASCO 670). The root means square (rms) roughness for ZnO thin film were about (<;8nm) was measured using AFM. The image form FESEM observed that transformation of structure started to change at high temperature (400~500°C).

An Introductory of Mental Arithmetic Using Interactive Multimedia for Pre-School Children

Arithmetic is an important skill to learn at an early age. However, teaching arithmetic to pre-school children can be challenging as children around that age have short attention span and prefer to engage in interactive activities. Thus, the purpose of this study is to incorporate multimedia elements into mathematical learning to make it more interactive and exciting to the children. The contents have been specifically designed to visualize the introduction of numbers and to encourage children’s interaction by drawing their attention to the courseware. The result revealed that the students have shown significant improvement over the mental arithmetic approach after being subjected to a typical classroom test. This concludes that the mental arithmetic using interactive multimedia could enhance learning experience for pre-school children.

Preliminary Study: An Investigation on Learning Assistance Requirement among Low Achievers in Primary Schools

Learning is crucial for everybody regardless of their ability and achievement.Some children demonstrate inability in academic performance from their early stage of learning process; thus, categorized as low achievers (LA).In order to define learning difficulties and requirements among LA children, a qualitative study was conducted using three different techniques; i) semi- structured interview, ii) document review with LINUS content experts and iii) observation with students from five schools in Kedah and Perlis.The results reveal that, the LA children need a specific computer-based learning assistance as an alternative learning material to facilitate their learning process.Learning concepts are also discussed as an initial suggestion in this study.

Structural and electrical studies of RF magnetron sputtered ZnO films under different RF powered conditions

We report the structural and electrical studies of ZnO thin films under different RF power (50 to 300 Watt in steps of 50 watt). The ZnO thin films were deposited on glass substrate by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method in an argon atmosphere. The surface morphology, crystallinity and conductivity were analyzed by FESEM, AFM, XRD and current voltage (I-V) probe measurement system. The results showed the highest conductivity value at 300 Watt RF power (12.479 Sm-1). The higher conductivity material is preferred due to their low driving power when used as a gas sensor.

Integrating GIS technology and 3D animation in an Event Information System

The integration of spatial and non spatial data in GIS (Graphical Information System) applications has huge contributions in many areas. In this study, we apply an integration technique to incorporate three types of applications: 1) application that manipulates non spatial data, 2) application that generates spatial data (maps and images) and lastly application that generates 3D animation. This integration technique allows us to develop Event Information System (EvIS) which could extract maps and distances, images of respective buildings and 3D animation of route directions. This prototype will revolutionise the way users have access to event information which include views of beautiful buildings and routes to respective events.

Enhanced Interactive Mathematical Learning Courseware Using Mental Arithmetic for Preschool Children

Interactive Mathematical Learning Courseware 2.0 (iMLc2.0) is an enhanced version of multimedia application which aims to expose the pre-school children in mental arithmetic technique with; (i) larger range of numbers, (ii) implementation of standard written method and, (iii) video support to visualize both techniques. The application integrates all multimedia elements and mental arithmetic techniques in interactive and supportive ways which are suitable for pre-school children. It is divided into three modules, addition, subtraction, and quizzes. The addition operation has been designed to apply the finger-brain approach which is a part of mental arithmetic technique while, mental-imagery approach is adapted for subtraction operation. Experimental test and user acceptance test have been conducted to evaluate the application. The implementation of iMLC2.0 in enriched interactive multimedia environment can be used as additional teaching and learning tool since it is supportive and attractive. In addition, it can motivate the preschooler to be prepared for future mathematical learning.

CAPD eBook: Evaluating multimedia application for Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) users

The main intention of this research is to evaluate the usefulness of CAPD eBook, which is an interactive multimedia application. This application is developed by integrating various multimedia elements such as text, animation, graphics, and audio. CAPD eBook is designated for renal patients who undergo CAPD as their dialysis method. This application is used to assist the patients in their CAPD training process. CAPD is one of the treatments that renal patients can choose to remove waste in their body. A Usability Test is performed to assess the application. The assessment includes interactivity, navigation, design, color, and integration of multimedia elements. It is found that by the usage of multimedia elements, significant impact in CAPD training for renal patients is provided.

Measuring Helpful Aspect of User Experience: The Development of Q-iCalH

This paper enlightens the development of an instrument to measure helpful aspect of user experience in interactive computer-assisted learning for low achieving children courseware, namely, iCAL4LA-Bijak Matematik. The iCAL4LA-Bijak Matematik is a working prototype that has been developed based on the conceptual design model of interactive computer-assisted learning for low achieving children in primary school. The instrument was developed in the context of children-tailored questionnaire, named as questionnaire of interactive computer-assisted learning helpfulness (Q-iCalH), which presented in two versions (for the low achieving (LA) children and the facilitator). It contains 11 measuring items that elicited from 12 previous works. This study engaged with 11 experts for content and face validity tests. This study manages to test the instrument, n = with 64 low achieving children from year one to year three. Having conducted the validity and reliability tests, this study found that the instrument is consistent and reliable (α = 0.816) in measuring helpful aspect of user experience.