i-Sign: Sign Language Learning Application Via Gamification

Abstract

Hearing loss is a type of disability where people who suffer from it could not hear a sound or can only listen to a sound with certain levels. People with hearing loss use sign language to communicate with others and to help them in their learning process. For this study, an interview and survey were conducted with teachers and students from SK Pendidikan Khas Melaka and few problems have been identified in the learning spectrum of children with hearing disability. They face difficulties in learning due to the lack of exposure about the correct sign language since young, difficulty in interpreting sign language in the conventional teaching material due to the nature of its static image contents, and hearing loss children are also usually less focused in the learning process and are easily distracted by their surroundings when the class is in session. To solve these problems, i-Sign is developed as a learning application that incorporates simple gamification in its development that could help hearing loss children to learn the alphabet and basic words of sign language. The use of gamification and multimedia elements provide a more interactive and fun learning environment for the students instead of using static contents, and are also used to direct students’ attention to the learning activity making them more focused in the learning process. i-Sign was developed using the ADDIE model which includes the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation phases. In the evaluation phase, a usability test was conducted on 8 children with hearing loss to test the acceptance of the user towards this application and 91.89% of the respondents found that the application meets their expectation of the application capability in terms of its effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. This shows that gamification can be used as an alternative learning material for hearing loss children and help expose the correct sign language to them. The application can also be used by the public that wants to learn about sign language.

An Educational Arabic Sign Language Mobile Application for Children with Hearing Impairment

“…Table 7 presents the calculated Eta as recommended in [42] where it is noticed that children scores increase by almost 60% for group A. This result can be explained due to the fact the children of A were more excited about learning the signs because of the games which had been followed by each module in accordance with [32], [38]. This was excepted because children are more involved and engaged with game-based learning compared to the traditional approach.…”

“…Still a lot needs to be done. As well as screening the work that had focused on academia [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], [13], [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], [34], [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48], the authors searched the Google and Apple stores using keywords such as 'sign language applications', and 'learn sign language application' with approximately 40 applications retrieved. These applications vary in terms of the number of supported words, language focus, ratings, using games, and targeted age.…”

“…In addition, as per the instructor's observation, it is important to choose an appropriate system of reward within such applications to keep students engaged and attracted [22]. Students' performance in the post quiz prove the importance of adopting the gaming approach for learning the sign language using the emerging educational technologies such as mobile devices, augmented reality, and others for children with disabilities [22], [38], [32]. Most of the research and commercial products based on sign language systems focus on adults.…”

“…The primary stakeholders in this research are the children who need to learn basic ArSL through a more convenient, appealing, and cost-effective approach. The priority of this application is to target children younger than 12 years old-this age is a critical stage for children to build their communication and knowledge skills and to guarantee the correct exposure to sign language [38]. Furthermore, the research focuses on teaching ArSL due to a lack of educational ArSL [10].…”

Viewing Gamification Design Limitations and Weaknesses through a Pandemic Lens

“…For example, in their implementation of a sign language learning application, Ref. [1] included the awarding of points and badges, a progress tracker, separate levels, time limits, and random challenges. With the inclusion of these recognizable game mechanics, the application did not cease to be instructional.…”