Abstract:

Mobile learning provides learning anytime and anywhere. Due the its ease of use, flexibility and prevalence, today numerous mobile learning applications are readily available for download at online application stores. However, evaluation of such mobile learning applications are neglected by the current literature and yet, only very limited number of proposed frameworks were located that focused on quality, usability, pedagogical, socio-cultural, economical and technical evaluation of such applications. Moreover, no framework was known to evaluate mobile applications specific to Mathematics learning domain. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to propose and to validate a framework on evaluating mobile learning applications particularly for Mathematics with the emphasis on human computer interaction (HCI) related factors. To achieve this aim, existing relevant frameworks on mobile learning were primarily reviewed. The proposed framework was adopted with the inclusion of criteria specific to Mathematics learning domain and interactivity through incorporating the components from different frameworks which had been formerly constructed. The proposed framework includes a set of criteria, metrics and evaluation questions for each criteria and judgement options for evaluation. As for the second phase of the study, in order to validate the proposed framework, top three highly rated and frequently downloaded mobile learning applications for Mathematics were selected and were evaluated by an expert in the area using the proposed framework. The expert as the decision maker used the evaluation score checklist, set of criteria and the proposed model in order to evaluate each of the three mobile learning applications for Mathematics. The results proved that the framework can be easily and effectively applied for evaluating mobile learning applications for Mathematics which aimed for the use of developers, teachers, learners and administrators. The study intends to fill the gaps of dearth of such evaluation framework specific to Mathematics learning domain and interaction.

Keywords:

Evaluation framework, HCI, Mathematics, mobile learning, mobile learning apps.