User-Centered Design in a mobile learning course

Volume 1, Issue 1, December 2016     |     PP. 65-78      |     PDF (536 K)    |     Pub. Date: December 26, 2016
DOI:    321 Downloads     8236 Views  

Author(s)

Antonio Giardi, University of Florence, Department of Information Engineering, Via S. Marta 3 - 50139 FLORENCE - ITALY; University of Siena, Department of Social Political and Cognitive Sciences, Via Roma 56-53100 - SIENA - ITALY.

Abstract
Mobile learning (or M-learning) is a blend derived from mobile and e-learning presupposing the use of mobile technology to facilitate the learning process. The success of a "mobile course" is influenced by many factors, first of all the fact of being "in motion". To implement a course is essential to define the most appropriate course model to use. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how a "mobile course model" has been designed and implemented using the User-Centered Design and participatory planning methodology. Four experimentations were carried out, in which 20 university students were involved, which have led to production of some "guidelines" to be followed for the construction of a mobile course. As today's students organize a course for tomorrow's students.

Keywords
Usability, Mobile learning, User–Centered Design, Participatory planning

Cite this paper
Antonio Giardi, User-Centered Design in a mobile learning course , SCIREA Journal of Education. Volume 1, Issue 1, December 2016 | PP. 65-78.

References

[ 1 ] Norman, D., A. and Draper, S., W. (1986). User-Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ
[ 2 ] Norman, D., A. (1988). The design of everyday things, New York, NY: Basic Books (pubblicato originariamente con il titolo – The psychology of everyday things)
[ 3 ] Norman, D., A. (1990). La caffettiera del masochista. Psicopatologia degli oggetti quotidiani, Milano, Giunti
[ 4 ] Norman, D., A. (2013). Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded, New York: Basic Books, London: MIT Press (UK edition)
[ 5 ] Iso (web site)
[ 6 ] Crompton, H. (2013). “A historical overview of mobile learning: Toward learner-centered education”, Handbook of mobile learning , Z. L. Berge & L. Y. Muilenburg (Eds.), Florence, KY: Routledge, pp. 3-14
[ 7 ] Neo, K. (2003). “Using multimedia in a constructivist learning environment in the Malaysian classroom”, Australian Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 19, N. 3, pp. 293-310 doi:10.14742/ajet.1721
[ 8 ] Grasso, A. & Roselli, T. (2005). “Guidelines for designing and developing contents for mobile learning”, Proceedings of the Third IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education (WMTE '05), Eds. H. Ogata, M. Sharples, Kinshuk & Y. Yano, IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 123-127 doi:10.1109/WMTE.2005.27
[ 9 ] Seong, D. S. (2006). “Usability guidelines for designing mobile learning portals”, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Mobile Technology, Applications and Systems (Bangkok, Thailand, October 25-27, 2006), Mobility ‘06, ACM, New York, Article No. 25 doi:10.1145/1292331.1292359
[ 10 ] Inkpen, K., M. (1999). “Designing handheld technologies for kids”. Personal Technologies. J 3(1/2), 81–89
[ 11 ] Leung, C.-H., & Chan, Y.-Y. (2003). “Mobile learning: A new paradigm in electronic learning”. Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT ’03). 9-11 July 2003, Athens, Greece, 76-80
[ 12 ] Chen, Y., S., Kao, T., C., & Sheu, J., P. (2003). “A mobile learning system for scaffolding bird watching learning”. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19(3), September 2003, 347-359
[ 13 ] Bremer, C. & Weiss, D. (2013). “How to analyze participation in a (C) MOOC?”. Edulearn13 Proceedings, pp. 992-1002
[ 14 ] Meng, Y. & Jiajun, W. (2013). “The design and implementation of a mobile Massive Open Online Courses platform”. Proc. of International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services. ACM, New York, NY, Pages 663
[ 15 ] Barbosa, J., Hahn R., Barbosa, D., N., F. & Geyer, C. (2007). “Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing in an Innovative Undergraduate Course”. Proc. of the 38th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE ‘07). ACM, New York, NY, Pages 379-383
[ 16 ] Ustek, D., Opavsky, E., Walker, H., M., & Cowden, D. (2014). “Course development through student-faculty collaborations: a case study”. Proc. of the 2014 conference on Innovation & Technology in CS Education. ACM, New York, NY, Pages 189-194
[ 17 ] Academic Ranking of World Universities (web site):
[ 18 ] QS Top Univeristies (web site):
[ 19 ] Times Higher Education (web site):