RORY'S MATHEMATICS ADVENTURE'S (ROMAAD) MOBILE GAME-BASED LEARNING APPLICATION: AN EVALUATION OF USABILITY

Abstract

Literature reviews suggested that the teachers should try to incorporate digital teaching method such as game-based learning to improve the students’ mathematics skills. In order to investigate and further enhance the suggestion to incorporate game-based learning into the teaching and learning process, a mobile game-based learning application named Rory's Math Adventure (ROMAAD) was designed and developed based on the Year 4 mathematics syllabus. ROMAAD is expected to help reinforce computational thinking skills as well as to motivate students to do more mathematical practices at anytime and anywhere. The mobile game-based learning application’s usability was evaluated prior to the implementation to the real environment. This article presents the results of the usability evaluation of the developed application. A total of 37 Year 4 children from a national primary school participated in this usability evaluation. A questionnaire, adapted from Lund’s (2011) USE questionnaire and Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) (1987) was employed as the instrument in this usability evaluation. The usability evaluation was carried out based on 5 constructs; ease of use, ease of learning, consistency, information structure, and design and satisfaction. Overall, the outcomes of this study revealed that the majority of respondents found the ROMAAD to be simple to use and learn, and that they were delighted to engage it to enhance their problem-solving computational thinking skills. ROMAAD is thought to be highly useful in reinforcing skills, and it is intended to inspire learners to practice mathematical problem-solving at any time and any place.