Abstract-In recent years, many studies have been carried out on how to engage and support students in e-learning environments. Portable devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Tablet PCs, mobile phones and other mobile equipment have been used as parts of electronic learning environments to facilitate learning and teaching for both lecturers and students. However, there is still a dearth of study investigating the effects of small screen interfaces on mobile-based learning environments. This study aims to address two objectives: (i) investigate lecturer and student difficulties encountered in teaching-learning process in traditional face-to-face classroom settings, and (ii) to explore lecturer and student perceptions about learning the subject through mobile devices. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study using structured interviews to investigate lecturer and student experiences and perceptions on teaching and learning Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm via mobile devices. The interview insights were then used as inputs to define user requirements for a mobile learning prototype. The findings show that the lecturers and students raised many issues about interactivity and the flexibility of effective learning applications on small screen devices, especially for a technical subject.Index Terms-Computer network, Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm, mobile devices, perception, small screen interface.
This paper examines usability of user interface styles for learning a graphical software application, namely Adobe Flash CS4. An empirical study was performed to investigate the usability attributes of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction scores for learning Adobe Flash CS4. There were 32 participants recruited whom consist of interface designers and software developers. A set of 10 tasks were designed to compare the different effects of user interface styles between graphical user interface (GUI) and command line interface (CLI). Performance variables (effectiveness, efficiency, duration, number of errors and number of helps) were measured for tasks performed by all the participants in the test. Satisfaction score was measured using QUIS (Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction) tool. The result revealed that the average effectiveness score higher than 75% (96.88%), and average efficiency (7.43) for all the 10 tasks given. The satisfaction score also showed above average (>3.5) for majority of the user interface satisfaction attributes of software regardless of users' background.
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