International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

search-icon

An In-depth Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design for a University Mobile Learning Educational Website (MLearn): A Malaysian University Context

Open access
The growing popularity of mobile devices, together with the constant technological improvement of mobile websites and applications. However, the particularities of mobile devices require special attention in respect of the usability aspects, such as culture. Therefore, this study evaluated the general usability and cultural aspects in terms of mobile learning for a mobile web system. The research methodology used was focus group discussions with undergraduate students. This research captured the experiences of students in using the MLearn website of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia. This study also identified some usability challenges and suggestions for improvement, particularly in terms of culturally appropriate design principles for a local university context for a mobile website. This study affirmed that general usability and cultural principles in design are important for a usable mobile learning website system in a local university context.
Ariffin, S. A., & Dyson, L. E. (2015). Culturally Appropriate Design of Mobile Learning Applications in the Malaysian Context. In International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design (pp. 3-14). Springer, Cham.
Crompton, H. A (2007). Historical overview of mobile learning: Toward learner-centered education. In Berge, Z.L. and Muilenburg, L.Y. (Eds.), Handbook of Mobile Learning (pp. 3-14). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hazirah, N., & Seman, B. A. (2011) Perceptions of cognitive science majors toward online learning at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Project Report (B.Sc.), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.
Keegan, D. (Ed.). (2005). Theoretical principles of distance education. Routledge.
Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2007). Mobile usability in educational contexts: what have we learnt. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 8(2).
Lim, K. Y. (2005). ‘Minister Speech. The Tele management Forum's Asean Regional Summit,' (2005). http://www.tmforum.org/WhyAttend/2719/home.html.
Motlik, S. (2008). Mobile learning in developing nations. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 9(2).
Nielsen, J. (2011) Mobile usability update. (2011). URL: http://www. nngroup.com/articles/mobile-usability-update
Nordin, N. M., Embi, M. A., Norman, H., & Panah, E. (2017). A Historical Review of Mobile Learning Research in Malaysia and Its Implications for Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Region. In Mobile Learning in Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific Region (pp. 137-150). Springer, Singapore.
O'Malley, C., Vavoula, G., Glew, J. P., Taylor, J., Sharples, M., Lefrere, P., & Waycott, J. (2005). Guidelines for learning/teaching/tutoring in a mobile environment.
Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H. (2011), Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Seong, D. S. K. (2006). Usability guidelines for designing mobile learning portals. In Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Mobile technology, applications & systems ACM.
Sharples, M., Taylor, J., & Vavoula, G. (2005). Towards a theory of mobile learning. In Proceedings of mLearn, 1(1), 1-9.
Shneiderman, B. (2010). Designing the user interface: strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Pearson Education India.
So, H. J. (2012). Turning on mobile learning in Asia: Illustrative initiatives and policy implications. Policy focus: UNESCO working paper series on mobile learning, 1, 1-32.
Valk, J. H., Rashid, A. T., & Elder, L. (2010). Using mobile phones to improve educational outcomes: An analysis of evidence from Asia. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 11(1), 117-140.
Winters, N. (2006). What is mobile learning? (2006). In M. Sharples (Ed.), Big issues in mobile learning: Report of a workshop by the kaleidoscope network of excellence mobile learning initiative. University of Nottingham.
Young, P. A. (2008). Integrating culture in the design of ICTs. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(1), 6-17.
In-Text Citation: (Ariffin, Ismail, Yatim, & Sidek, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Ariffin, S. A., Ismail, A., Yatim, M. H., & Sidek, S. F. (2018). An In-depth Assessment of Culturally Appropriate Design for a University Mobile Learning Educational Website (MLearn): A Malaysian University Context. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(2), 525–535.