Mobile Usability in Educational Contexts: What have we learnt?

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

doi:10.19173/irrodl.v8i2.356

Abstract

The successful development of mobile learning is dependent on human factors in the use of new mobile and wireless technologies. The majority of mobile learning activity continues to take place on devices that were not designed with educational applications in mind, and usability issues are often reported. The paper reflects on progress in approaches to usability and on recent developments, with particular reference to usability findings reported in studies of mobile learning. The requirements of education are considered as well as the needs of students participating in distance education; discipline-specific perspectives and accessibility issues are also addressed. Usability findings from empirical studies of mobile learning published in the literature are drawn together in the paper, along with an account of issues that emerged in two mobile learning projects based at The Open University, UK, in 2001 and 2005. The main conclusions are: that usability issues are often reported in cases where PDAs have been used; that the future is in scenario-based design which should also take into account the evolution of uses over time and the unpredictability of how devices might be used; and that usability issues should be tracked over a longer period, from initial use through to a state of relative experience with the technology.

Highlights

Mobile learning is proving to be a fertile ground for innovation, but it is important to realise that the success of mobile learning will depend on human factors in the use of the new mobile and wireless technologies
The project concluded that three main issues needed to be considered in future projects of this kind: (1) usability of the hardware; (2) usability of the software; and (3) usability of the text
The paper presented a review of current usability issues in the use of mobile devices in the context of education, almost exclusively in relation to adult learners

Summary

Introduction

Mobile learning is proving to be a fertile ground for innovation, but it is important to realise that the success of mobile learning will depend on human factors in the use of the new mobile and wireless technologies. We have reached the stage in mobile learning research where the considerable body of evidence from various projects and trials can enable us to begin to review in a more global way what has been learnt to date about the usability of mobile devices in education This is a vast topic and it is not possible to generalise from a range of user experiences that span different technologies, contexts of use, study modes and learning objectives. Current solutions focus on adapting existing commercial products to incorporate impairment-specific devices using Braille keyboards, and screen reading/ magnification technology Whilst this solves accessibility problems for a narrow band of users, it does not provide the coordinated approach necessary to support disabled users with more than one physical impairment This parallels developments in the field of mobile learning, in that early projects tended to be based around activities that involved giving or lending mobile devices to students to try out; more recently, due to increased device ownership, there is a growing interest in investigating how mobile devices that are already owned by distance learners could be incorporated into their learning, or how the learners themselves are already using the devices on their own initiative

PDAs for reading course materials

Survey of how MAODE alumni use mobile devices

Conclusions