Usability Study Of Micro Mobile Learning Resources

Building a learning society and a lifelong education system has been an urgent need to respond effectively to the opportunities and challenges at home and abroad in the new era and achieve sustainable and healthy development of economy and society. Lifelong learning is a major theme and an inevitable trend in the development of modern society. Shanghai has also established an overall objective of "preliminarily building a learning society in which anyone can learn anywhere and anytime in 2010".Ubiquitous mobile communication technology and mobile media have contributed a lot to create a social and cultural environment which strongly encourages learning, innovation and promote lifelong and overall development of its members. It also provides seamless interface to achieve a blueprint of lifelong learning that "anyone can learn anytime and anywhere".At present, the research team which the author belong to are doing research of designing the micro-mobile learning, the main concern is to design a micro mobile learning system which is in keeping with adult learning characteristics, and the requirements of mobile learning device, with an aim to design micro learning contents, build a new information system, design a new learning environment, learning style and learning experience for adult learners. However, whether these learning resources can be accepted by the learners depends on their usability.Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of practical learning contents and fragment learning time, it is necessary to pay attention to the usability design of micro-mobile learning from the user's point of view in addition to considering the content and media design. This study attempts to design micro-mobile learning from the point of usability and carry out usability testing.In reference to a large number of domestic and foreign literatures, the author made a comb of the relevant theories; This paper made an analysis of the status of usability research, including the usability of online learning, WAP and mobile devices, as well as the status quo of micro mobile learning resources; According to the characteristics of mobile learning design, a mode of mobile learning usability design and testing is formed combining a variety of usability testing methods and tools; two micro-mobile learning resources named "World Expo English" and "6 Steps of Changing a Tire", which were developed by the research team were tested, and test results were analyzed from the aspects of navigation design, graphic interface design, content design, interaction design, and learner-control design. Several design principles for future micro-mobile resources were concluded followed by design and testing. Finally, the limitations of the study and follow-up research directions were concerned.