Abstract:

In a previous study (Giannakoulopoulos et al, 2018) we noticed a shift on educational apps from the PC environment to mobile. The advance of technology, along with other factors also changed the way people are learning. Not only people are learning online these days, but also the way learning is taking place has radically change. For instance, a lot of people are choosing to learn how to play guitar by using an app on their smartphone or tablet. As smart mobile devices are integrated in our everyday lives, it seems that learning becomes a process of our everyday life.

As of October 2017, educational apps were the third most popular category in Apple Store (Statista, 2018) and it also holds popularity in Google Play as well. This paper makes an analysis in terms of usability in apps in Google Play. For our study we will compare the apps focusing on Foreign language learning. Five apps were chosen in terms of number of downloads from the category “education”. In each app we applied Nielsen’s heuristic evaluation rules combined with users’ comments and checked how the rules are applied.

Google Play was chosen since it is the most popular operating system according to StatCounter (2017). It is worth mentioning that currently there are already some studies examining the effectiveness of learning via mobile devices. This study is different as it will focus in usability, specifically in Foreign Language learning apps. This paper consists of four parts. The first part introduces us to the basic terms of mLearning and Foreign Language Learning. The second part is focusing on Usability. This is followed by the examples of mLearning apps for Foreign Language Learning in Google Play. The last part consists of the useful conclusions we derive from our study.

Keywords:

Education, mLearning, eLearning, Usability, Foreign Language Learning, Self-learning.