A mobile course management system: Case study

Abstract

Implementation of a software tool to manage an academic course followed from successful software design and evaluation phases. This mobile phone solution and its system requirements mandated a study that determined its contents and required functionalities from an initial inspection of existing and relevant web-based and mobile systems. A user study involving twenty participants identified user preferences and investigated existing mobile interface design guidelines. With task and user analysis of the application now completed, the initial evaluation of the system followed and this was conducted by implementing a mobile usability checklist. The academic course management mobile software system was then developed with full functionality after modifications followed by final usability testing. The task completion time, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness were measured from experiments. These indicate that the portability of mobile devices affects the learning process positively. Pilot users showed interest in the application and there is intent to deploy it in the near future. © 2012 Springer-Verlag. © 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.