I-Kids Science Courseware Toward Sustainability Education for Hearing-Impaired Students

Abstract

The learning practice and syllabus used by hearing-impaired (HI) students today are the same as the conventional ones used by other normal students. Through user specification interview, it is found that the learning materials are not tailor-made for HI students and are often claimed to be difficult and unattractive to them. They use different ways of communication that may cause delay in understanding the learning contents. Current learning materials are still lacking for HI students, especially the digital resources that they can use repetitively. The main purpose for i-Kids Science courseware using User Centered Model (UCD) is to help in providing assistive learning material in sustaining learning ability for HI students. Interestingly, it is provided with Malay sign language videos that assist them to study; which is a unique feature added to sustain their learning process. The topic selected is Acid and Alkali which is the hardest topic for the students to understand and practice. The UCD model is used to develop the courseware that consists of four phases: understand user requirements, establish requirements, courseware specification, and design. The evaluation parameters for the courseware are interface design, navigation, multimedia elements, usability, contents, and activities. The results showed on the interface design at the highest mean received is 4.51 with SD = 0.50, respectively. Finally, this approach is expected to improve the learning process among HI students in ASEAN and other developing countries to sustain the lifelong learning among students with disability.