Suzana Ahmad

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.

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.

Managing access control policy from end user perspective in collaborative environment

Currently, collaborative environments offer unlimited data sharing for users. Data owners are poorly involved in handling their data for such environment when it deals with data policy. Normally, data access control policy consists of a resource and authorization descriptions which are assigned by the administrator. It is the responsibility of the administrator to set and specify the policy for application services. The policy details are massive and complex for administrator to handle where most of the times there will be cases of unreview services. This paper proposes a framework that allows data owners to provision policies for storing and managing their shared data with third parties. By adapting RBAC model and adding owners interest on permissions for data operations and objects, the proposed framework will facilitate data access control whereby owners have the freedom to set their own data access policy.