User interfaces for mobile learning in higher education in Saudi Arabia

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly pervasive within the higher education student community and correspondingly mobile learning applications are increasingly popular as part of the learning process. The purpose of this study was to investigate engagement with, and effectiveness of, different avatar interface types (text, image, audio, video and cartoon) when used within a mobile learning context, and specifically, when used to teach the English language courses mandatory within Saudi degree programmes. One hundred fifty six students from Albaha University participated in this study which involved students undertaking mini lectures delivered onto their mobile devices via each of the five avatar types. The students completed pre/post questionnaires about their perceptions and experiences of mobile learning and undertook a short test to assess their performance and retention of information after the mini-lectures. Results revealed that the majority of students rated the convenience of using m-learning as being very important and showed that they possessed the required resources and underlying technical experience required to adopt m-learning. Results also showed that whilst female students preferred to learn from video or cartoon interfaces they performed best with cartoon and audio interfaces, whilst male students preferred the video interface yet performed better with the cartoon interface.