addressing pedagogical usabilityand mobility barriers in e-learning systems

Description

Although there has been rapid adoption and implementation of personalized mobile learning systems for youth sustainable skills development in the developed world to bridge youth Lifelong learning gap for sustainable development, but limited adoption and success has been witnessed in the developing world most especially Sub-Sahara Africa. Besides the usual challenge of ICT infrastructure support, pedagogical usability concerns are key undermining barriers to this initiative. And most of the reported systems in developing world are computer access based. The study investigated a youth entrepreneurship skills E-learning system ported on mobile technology with an integrated informal lifelong learning model and a mobile tool that supports access and usability concerns of out-of-school youth lifelong learners in developing countries like Uganda. Main objective addressed by this study was ―To investigate how a personalized smart mobile learning system can bridge pedagogical usability and accessibility barriers in youth entrepreneurship skills development E-learning systems implementation‖. To achieve this, mobile phone services were integrated within an informal out-of-school lifelong learning model designed by the researcher (I) because literature states that majority of the youth in developing countries currently own personal mobile phones. And due to the fact that mobile devices are inexpensive and flexible to use by most of the youth in developing countries, it gives them an upper hand than any other electronic devices to support youth e-learning programs for sustainable development in developing countries. Research objectives were answered by reviewing existing literature on youth sustainable skills development E-learning platforms, and a study of sustainable entrepreneurship providers was conducted to innovatively bridge the gap. Understanding of current system and gathering of user requirements in form of low-fidelity card paper prototypes was also done. System design and development was achieved through a user centered participatory design approach (UCD) in conjunction with Human access point design technique to boost usability. System implementation was guided by the Unified Theory of Technology and Acceptance Model (UTAUT), one of the commonly used technology adoption models in information system research to gather end users feedback on the developed technology or innovation. Findings revealed that youth survival entrepreneurship skills provided by Non-governmental organizations in developing countries like Uganda can be extended on mobile phones and easily be accessed by the youth from whenever they are at a cheapest cost. Similarly, usability evaluation results also revealed that the system is easy to use by the youth and useful in their daily life while acquiring survival entrepreneurship skills for sustainability. And the management staffs of plan international Uganda responses on the developed prototype were also positive in terms of the system‘s ability to reach the unreached, manage and monitor youth active or ongoing projects. Briefly, study findings revealed that a personalized smart mobile learning system tool designed based on a youth centered participatory design approach, streamlined on an informal out-of-school lifelong learning model bridges pedagogical usability and accessibility concerns in out of school youth entrepreneurship E-learning systems implementation in developing countries.