Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Discussion and Conclusion
In light of the user-based usability evaluations, we find the following results:
•
the interaction with cards needs to be improved; children did not often read the
information of the cards, they often quickly looked at the images of the cards,
and flickered through these; some children suggested the GUI display only the
characters of each story, and not of the entire topic;
•
children in Italy generally liked the types of relaxing games; however, all children
were frustrated when unable to play the games, due to the too fast time-out or the
usability of gestures; they were also puzzled by the fact that the relaxing games
were not contextualised in the learner GUI (e.g., missing points);
•
playing with smart games and reading a story are tasks with the highest num-
ber of usability results, which are uniformly distributed between negative and
positive; thus, they are likely to be determinant for the success of the software.
Moreover, analysing the overall results described in [5] we find that the causality
games are more difficult than the time games, which may be well due to the low
affordance of the software version of the causality games, as highlighted by the
usability evaluations. It is remarkable that quantitative results in Italy show a corre-
lation between age and resolution of time and causality games; in particular,
•
the usability evaluations in Italy show that younger learners had more difficulties
with the time and causality games than with the other games, and their highest
resolution time was for the time games;
•
again the usability evaluations in Italy show that deaf learners had more diffi-
culties with the time and causality games than with the other games, and their
highest resolution time was for the time games.
Such results purport that the resolution of time and causality games can give reliable
indications to the adaptive engine and, more precisely, whether this can move the
learners from one story level to another, as designed in [2].
Another issue, is the need of presenting instructions in a different format, clearer
and more appealing. In particular, during the usability evaluations children tended
not to read the instructions or these were not sufficiently clear. Moreover, some deaf
children needed further assistance the first time they played with a new game level.
The usage of contextualised tutorials the first time the learners play with games may
be beneficial.
According to the usability evaluations, some of the vocabulary seems at points
too difficult, also at the simplest story level. However, it was found that, when
prompted to infer the meaning of unknown words from the text, the deaf children
generally were able to do it. All deaf children were invited to re-read the story in
order to allow them to perform the games.
In conclusion all learners, hearing and deaf, were able to perform the designed
tasks. Both of them preferred playing instead to reading. All of them do not really
understand the role of the avatar though all learners like avatar. This is due of the fact
that avatars were not very well contextualised. The difference between the two types
of users is tangible in the administration of the tasks: the presence of the LIS Italian
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