Impact of small screen interfaces on learning technical subject

This Research describes an experimental study on learning a technical subject named Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm on two different mobile devices. The research is aimed to investigate the impacts of small screen interfaces on learning the subject; its user interface design and practical interaction between mobile devices and users. This research also looks at the investigation of how mobile technology can enhance the Computer Science students' comprehension of the best design strategy on a mobile platform. Hence, a mobile learning prototype was developed for learning the technical subject on two different screen size mobile devices. Firstly, a touch-screen mobile phone, iPhone 4 and; secondly, a tablet PC, Acer Inconia Tab. Students were asked to work on the two mobile devices on learning the subject and testing their performance in a single learning and testing session. Furthermore, students' usability satisfaction with the two mobile devices was measured. The students' performance in learning the technical subject with the two mobile devices was assessed in terms of effectiveness score, time duration of task execution, efficiency rate, number of errors and number of helps.

Autorentext

Mazyar is a researcher in the field of E-Learning and Computer-Assisted Learning. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Software Engineering. He has also received his Master s degree in Multimedia (E-learning Technologies) from Multimedia University. His research interests are e-learning, mobile/web-based learning and human-computer interaction.