Abstract:

The use of multimedia in mobile learning is known to have a positive consequence on the learning process. The proper employment of multimedia in mobile learning produces learning advantages for students. It is broadly accepted that pupils learn better whenever multimedia is used correctly during the design of educational material. By using multimedia in mobile learning, the lesson materials could be designed in a way that improves and simplifies the learning process.

In a previous paper by the authors, we presented an initial method to design multimedia interfaces for mobile learning and evaluated the method for effectiveness. The evaluation gives generally positive results indicating the effectiveness of the method, however, it discovered one issue that needs to be resolved. This includes the mapping process (mapping the information type to specific multimedia). Almost all the participants agreed on the difficulty of choosing a media to specific information type using a decision tree and heuristic guidance within the method. In this paper we define and validate the latest version of the method for mobile learning including the results of five case studies carried out using the method practically to design mobile learning interfaces with multimedia. Specifically, the paper focuses on defining the steps of the final version, explaining the solution to the mapping process in more detail and validation of the method. The validation has been done by testing the usability of the method (to find out whether designers found the method easy to follow) using think-aloud protocol. The think aloud protocol is a qualitative data collection tool, which gives a considerable amount of data, by observing the subject.

The five case studies discussed involve mathematics, programming language and geography educational materials, which were given to participant designers. All designers had at least one-year experience in designing interfaces and they were aged between 30-35 years. The designers followed the method to produce a set of interface sketches for an iPad mini. The researcher recorded, and observed the designer and asked questions whenever the subject fell silence or stopped the task. The participants were comfortable using the method. They suggested some changes to be done on aspects of the methods tool to enhance its usability. Finally, the researcher analysed the qualitative data gathered from the subjects and amended the method to produce the latest version, which is presented in this paper.

Keywords:

Mobile learning, multimedia, educational material, media selection.