Mobile Educational Applications: Remote Usability Study

Abstract

The self-contained mobile educational applications support the student in the learning process combining technology and pedagogy through the use of mobile devices. The adoption of these applications is closely related to their level of usability. Generally, the usability studies of these applications are carried out through usability metrics or heuristics oriented for generic systems. In this paper, we describe in detail a usability study of two independent commercial mobile educational applications that incorporate interactivity, socialization, and adaptability. The usability study is presented with the intention of evaluating the usability of the applications in terms of the application interface, the educational support functions, and the characteristics of M-Learning. The objective of the usability study allowed us to identify the usability problems present in these types of applications. The application of the usability tests was carried out remotely due to the COVID-19 health contingency period. This usability study can serve as a reference for evaluators to identify and carry out a remote evaluation of these types of applications; as well as the test results could serve as a reference to improve the usability of mobile educational applications.