Factors related to tertiary education teachers' use of the Microsoft Teams platform

Previous research disclosed that teachers faced challenges while using different learning management systems during the COVID-19 outbreak. This study investigated teachers' perceptions of Microsoft Teams' functionalities and the extent to which they are related to teachers' time spent on it as well as the various factors associated with their syllabus coverage. Situated within human-computer interaction theory, 157 university teachers at Chouaib Doukkali University, Morocco, were administered a questionnaire that measured their perception of the functionalities offered by Microsoft Teams. Results indicated that teachers' perceptions of the functionalities offered by learning management systems also play an intervening variable in the deployment of these tools in teaching. Hence, this paper calls for an extension and re-adaptation of existing models such as the technology acceptance model and the system usability scale to include an evaluation of the functionalities offered by these tools. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

User Experiences and Usability Evaluation of COVID-19 Application

Tawakkalna is an application developed by the Saudi Arabian government to manage the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Even now that the pandemic is under better control, Tawakkalna continues to offer numerous services to its users. People of all age groups, including children and adults, rely on the application on a daily basis. It is important to evaluate the perceived usability of the Tawakkalna (COVID-19 KSA) application. Accordingly, this study aims to evaluate its perceived usability from the perspective of users belonging to all age groups and to identify whether any particular age group is facing difficulties with using it. The study used two existing and well-known questionnaires: The System Usability Scale (SUS) and the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX). The study performed descriptive and inferential statistical analysis to present an in-depth understanding and comparison of the survey results. A total of 395 responses were received. The SUS score is 71.1. The UMUX score is 72.0. The results indicate that, overall, the SUS and UMUX scores support each other and grade Tawakkalna's perceived usability as good. The results also indicate that the mean rank of the UMUX score is higher for the 18-30 age group than for all the other age groups. In addition, children under age 12 and adults greater than age 50 face challenges while using Tawakkalna. Finally, this study presents recommendations to improve the application's usability. © 2023 Shimaa Abdullah Nagro. This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Automation of the IoT-Based COVID-19 Isolation Room Temperature and Humidity Control System at Telkom University

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the large number of positive cases of infection has resulted in medical institutions lacking personnel to treat patients who continue to arrive. As a result of these problems, supervision and monitoring of room conditions is still lacking or even non-existent, so that the recovery process can be hampered or can facilitate the transmission of the virus to other people. It takes a device or tool that can monitor conditions and regulate the isolation room so that the temperature and humidity remain in the optimal zone so that recovery can be optimal and also reduce the risk of virus transmission. Based on this description, the author applies the concept of IoT by utilizing the IoT platform system and designing a system and tool that can monitor and regulate the COVID-19 isolation room and convey this information quickly and concisely. In addition, this study also examines how well and easily understood the system is when used by end-users by using the System Usability Scale or SUS as its usability testing method. The results obtained from this study are that the system and equipment function properly, the automation system and the method used are able to mitigate changes in temperature and humidity in the isolation room, and through the SUS method, the level of usability for end-users is deemed quite sufficient. © 2022 IEEE.

Development of a mobile tele-education system to assist remote otolaryngology learning during COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Developing clinical thinking competence (CTC) is crucial for physicians, but effective methods for cultivation and evaluation are a significant challenge. Classroom teaching and paper-and-pencil tests are insufficient, and clinical field learning is difficult to implement, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Simulation learning is a useful alternative, but existing methods, e.g., OSCE, 3D AR/VR, and SimMan, have limitations in terms of time, space, and cost. Objective: This study aims to present the design and development of an Otolaryngology Mobile Tele-education System (OMTS) to facilitate CTC learning, and to evaluate the system's usability with senior otolaryngology experts. Methods: The OMTS system utilizes the convenience of mobile learning and the touch function of mobile devices to assist users (medical students or post-graduate physicians) in learning CTC remotely. Clinical knowledge and system functions in the OMTS system are defined by senior experts based on required CTC learning cases. Through simulated clinical case scenarios, users can engage in interactive clinical inquiry, practice required physical and laboratory examinations, make treatment decisions based on simulated responses, and understand and correct learning problems through a diagnostic report for effective learning. Usability testing of the OMTS system was evaluated by three senior otolaryngology experts using measurements of content validity, system usability, and mental workload during their available time and location. Results: Statistical results of experts' evaluation showed that the OMTS system has good content validity, marginal-to-acceptable system usability, and moderate mental workload. Experts agreed that the system was efficient, professional, and usable for learning, although the practicality of the clinical inquiry and hands-on practice functions could be improved further. Conclusions: Based on the OMTS system, users can efficiently hands-on practice and learn clinical cases in otolaryngology, and understand and correct their problems according to the diagnostic report. Therefore, the OMTS system can be expected to facilitate CTC learning according to experts' evaluation.

User Experience Evaluation of IT Support Mobile Application Using System Usability Scale (SUS) and Retrospective Think Aloud (RTA)

The development of today's digital world has been running more rapidly at the time of the presence of covid-19 pandemics, in which all aspects of life are very dependent on digitalization that time, and companies keep doing the work of enhancing innovation in their businesses, which is the developing of IT such as mobile application. PT XYZ is one of the companies engaged in printing and digital services. PT XYZ uses the mobile application IT Support to assist technicians in completing reports of printer damage experienced by consumers. During the order services process, users oftenly feel that menu on mobile application IT Support not effective and efficient yet on helping them to process order service, the elements in the mobile application are inconsistent so it complicated the user. To improve and finding the usability problem specifically needed the process user experience evaluation mobile application with system usability scale (SUS) and retrospective think aloud (RTA). Total sample used in the research was 52 respondents from active user IT Support using purposive sampling technique. The SUS score result is 50.77 in grade D. The less satisfied, because the SUS score is still smaller than 68. Retrospective Think Aloud (RTA) results with 11 respondents showed problems with usability and needed recommendations for interface improvements. The result of user experience evaluation is user interface recommendation to enhance the technician's performance to be more optimal. () © 2022 IEEE.

Development of Signer Portal for Digital Products by Using Iterative Model at PT RST

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way people work, forcing people to reduce physical contact with other people. So, legalizing documents by adding a signature and stamp in PT RST now requires a new method. Electronic documents with the legalization using digital products become legal for use. Digital products for legalization include electronic stamps, signatures and seal stamps. Adding a digital product to a document is done on a web application that provides document legalization services. Currently adding digital products to web applications is only for one or two products, for example electronic stamps, so to be able to add 3 products we have to use 3 different web applications. This method makes the process of adding digital products done in many stages. Therefore, it is necessary to create a web application portal that combines all services such as e-stamp, e-sign and e-seal stamp in one application. The web-based portal is developed using agile software development methods. The development process is done iteratively in 3 iterations. The result of this research is a web-based portal that can provide services for adding e-materai, e-stamp and e-sign for oneself, other people and collaborate with several people. Furthermore, user satisfaction was measured with the SUS questionnaire and the usability measurement result was 80.3. This score is in the 'Acceptable' acceptability range, acceptable with efficient use, easy to understand, and has a simple user interface. The signer portal development process for PT RST can be a reference for other industries to implement similar products in their organization, both in terms of technology and business processes. © 2022 IEEE.

The Influence of Phygital Learning: The User Expectations of Perceived Usability of Practical and Theoretical Courses

Recently, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are experiencing a revolution that is transforming the way, the education has now shifted to an "physical plus digital” or "phygital” multimodal. This paper analyses the students' behavioral intention to the phygital learning, meaning how students use online learning platform (e.g. Moodle), collaboration application (e.g. Microsoft teams), chat application (e.g. Wechat) and device (e.g. smartphone, laptop) of a course. For the evaluation purpose is followed by using the Semantic Differential Technique to distinguish the usage attitude of computer and smartphone. The Usage Questionnaire is followed by the System Usability Scale (SUS), which is a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) based approach, and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is an Information Systems (IS) based approach. The sample size consisted of 68 participants completed the survey questionnaire measuring their responses to perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and attitudes towards usage (ATU). Through simultaneously both these instruments in one work for the purpose of usability evaluation. By doing so, this work attempts to streamline and unify the process of usability evaluation. Results that are obtained from a large-scale survey of university students show the attitudes towards usage on phygital learning. Moreover, this work also considers the digital-divide aspect (mobile v.s. web environment) whether it has any effect on the perceived usability. Results show that the multiple education modal could reduce the stress on the learning. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Translation, Psychometric Evaluation, and Validation of the Croatian Version of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ)

The User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) is a standard, widely used questionnaire for evaluating user experience with many (software) products and services. This article describes UEQ translation into Croatian, which involved English and German language experts, and its verification based on an online survey conducted among 231 university students about perceived experience with different video conferencing tools in online learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. The sample was large enough to confirm the construct validity of the questionnaire. Psychometric evaluation and validation relied on factor and reliability analyses of all six scales of the full, 26-item UEQ and of the pragmatic and hedonic scales in the short, 8-item UEQ version. All scales show a rather high internal reliability, which confirms the validity of the Croatian translation. Croatian-speaking user experience researchers and practitioners can use it with confidence.

Analysing and Identifying COVID-19 Risk Factors Using Machine Learning Algorithm with Smartphone Application

This study is divided into risk factor analysis (RFA) and proposed system architecture (PSA). The light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) algorithm in the RFA will work with the PSA to predict the risk factors. The results, efficacy, and performance will be validated via a ROC-AUC curve. Therefore, a system usability scale (SUS) procedure will be implemented to increase the performance. If the SUS score reaches 85–99 and 100 thresholds, it will be classified as appropriate for use and robust. The prediction score thresholds will be 0–100. If the score is below 25, it will be classified as normal, 26–50 as moderate, 51–70 risk, and 71–100 as severe. Due to a shortage of experienced staff and intelligent technology, it is becoming progressively difficult to reduce COVID-19 fatality rates. In this research, a lightweight mobile application has been suggested from which the significant patterns and factors can be recognised. Furthermore, it will assist both doctors and patients become aware of COVID-19 risk factors and take the required steps to mitigate them. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

High User Acceptance of a Retina e-Learning App in Times of Increasing Digitalization of Medical Training for Ophthalmologists.

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to identify changes in continuing education and training in ophthalmology in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and advancing digitalization and to analyse the acceptance of e-learning tools among German ophthalmologists using a novel Retina Case App as an example. METHODS: The participants' training behaviour before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was surveyed. Furthermore, the acceptance and usability of the Retina Case App were evaluated using the System Usability Scale (SUS). A possible influence of the app on everyday clinical practice was assessed. RESULTS: A total of 145 ophthalmologists participated in the survey. The frequency of continuing medical education did not decrease for 62.8% of ophthalmologists during the pandemic. A significant increase in at least monthly use of online courses or lectures has been observed (90.3% vs. 28.2%, p < 0.001). No significant difference was identified in terms of frequency of use of print and digital journals or printed textbooks. The majority of participants stated that online training platforms are well suited to replace the absence of face-to-face events (73.8%). The mean SUS score was 87.7 (SD 11.9), which categorizes the app's usability as excellent. The majority agreed that the newly developed app enables faster learning (82.1%) and leads to increased motivation (71.7%). Most ophthalmologists (80.7%) felt that regular use of the app would improve confidence in the treatment of retinal diseases. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant change in training behaviour in ophthalmology towards e-learning and online courses, which has not been accompanied by a general decline in training activity. The exemplarily investigated application showed a high user acceptance among ophthalmologists.

Perceived Level of Usability as an Evaluation Metric in Adaptive E-learning: A Case Study with Dyslexic Children.

The global spread of COVID-19 has shifted the learning process towards e-learning. In this context, a critical challenge for researchers is to understand and evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning, especially when the learning is adapted to the needs of individual users. In this work we argue that the learner's perception of the level of usability of a system is a valuable metric that gives an insight into the learners' engagement and motivation to learn. Little attention has been paid to this metric. In this paper we explore why this is important and valuable. We present a case study which uses the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire to measure the user's perception of usability as an indirect (proxy) measure of engagement. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 41 learners with dyslexia. The intervention group used the adaptive version of the e-learning system that matched the material to the needs of the learner. The control group used a standard version. At the end, learning gain and SUS scores were assessed. The correlation between learning performance and the perceived level of usability was positive and moderate (0.517, p < 0.05) among participants in the intervention group. However, learning performance and perceived level of usability were unrelated in the control group (- 0.364, p > 0.05). From this, and other work, it appears that using a learner's assessment of the usability of a system is an effective way to measure their attitude to their learning. It reflects their perception of its suitability to their needs and this, in turn, is likely to affect their engagement and motivation. As such, this provides an effective instrument to judge whether adaptation based on learner needs has been successful.

Contextual Conversational Agent to Address Vaccine Hesitancy: Protocol for a Design-Based Research Study.

BACKGROUND: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been exposed to misinformation, leading to many myths about SARS-CoV-2 and the vaccines against it. As this situation does not seem to end soon, many authorities and health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), are utilizing conversational agents (CAs) in their fight against it. Although the impact and usage of these novel digital strategies are noticeable, the design of the CAs remains key to their success. OBJECTIVE: This study describes the use of design-based research (DBR) for contextual CA design to address vaccine hesitancy. In addition, this protocol will examine the impact of DBR on CA design to understand how this iterative process can enhance accuracy and performance. METHODS: A DBR methodology will be used for this study. Each phase of analysis, design, and evaluation of each design cycle inform the next one via its outcomes. An anticipated generic strategy will be formed after completing the first iteration. Using multiple research studies, frameworks and theoretical approaches are tested and evaluated through the different design cycles. User perception of the CA will be analyzed or collected by implementing a usability assessment during every evaluation phase using the System Usability Scale. The PARADISE (PARAdigm for Dialogue System Evaluation) method will be adopted to calculate the performance of this text-based CA. RESULTS: Two phases of the first design cycle (design and evaluation) were completed at the time of this writing (April 2022). The research team is currently reviewing the natural-language understanding model as part of the conversation-driven development (CDD) process in preparation for the first pilot intervention, which will conclude the CA's first design cycle. In addition, conversational data will be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively as part of the reflection and revision process to inform the subsequent design cycles. This project plans for three rounds of design cycles, resulting in various studies spreading outcomes and conclusions. The results of the first study describing the entire first design cycle are expected to be submitted for publication before the end of 2022. CONCLUSIONS: CAs constitute an innovative way of delivering health communication information. However, they are primarily used to contribute to behavioral change or educate people about health issues. Therefore, health chatbots' impact should be carefully designed to meet outcomes. DBR can help shape a holistic understanding of the process of CA conception. This protocol describes the design of VWise, a contextual CA that aims to address vaccine hesitancy using the DBR methodology. The results of this study will help identify the strengths and flaws of DBR's application to such innovative projects.

Investigating the impact of personality traits on perceived usability evaluation of e-learning platforms

Purpose>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of personality traits on the perceived usability evaluation of e-learning platforms. In specific, perceived usability levels of the educational platforms and tools used in primary and secondary education in Greece are demonstrated. The impact which personality traits and other individual-related factors have on the perceived usability were also examined.Design/methodology/approach>In total, 2,239 Greek primary and secondary education teachers participated in the study through an online survey. The system usability scale (SUS) and Big 5 personality test questionnaires were adopted, as well as a demographics questionnaire and nine platforms were examined: e-me, eclass, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Edmodo, Padlet, Skype and Zoom.Findings>Most platforms were rated as satisfactory in terms of perceived usability as measured by SUS. SUS scores were not found to be significantly related with participants’ age, gender, private/public school, working relationship. Furthermore, openness to new experience and extraversion demonstrated the strongest positive correlation with perceived usability evaluation.Research limitations/implications>The current study used a sample of Greek teachers as participants, so the generalizability of results without considering cultural or organizational issues is of questionable validity. The Big 5 personality test is widely adopted;however, it seems that it does not capture comprehensively all possible dimensions of personality.Practical implications>Acknowledging the correlations between personality traits and perceived usability for each platform, teachers may now choose the most user-friendly one depending on the personality traits. Designers can adapt their systems to meet users’ needs accordingly. Moreover, the reported results provide a frame of reference for the respective organizations and companies to compare the quality of user experience of their products and services. Thus, development costs of an e-learning platform/tool can be reduced accordingly.Social implications>Text.Originality/value>Perceived usability of a technological system affects the way users interact with it and consequently the whole learning experience. Thus, factors which may affect perceived usability and, in turn, the learning outcomes are of paramount importance and should be exhaustively examined. Giving that personality affects or is related to, other parameters related with technology (technology adoption, perceived and actual use, acceptance, interaction, perceived ease of use), this study addresses a significant research gap and sheds light to the before-mentioned issues.

Usability Evaluation and Recommendation of User Interface Design for e-HAC Application by Using User-Centered Design Method

Regarding the rapid spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia, the Ministry of Health of Indonesia has developed an e-HAC (Electronic-Health Alert Card) application to reduce the risk. That mobile application has a purpose to detect, prevent, and control public health emergencies through point of entries. Besides, the users of the e-HAC application have trouble on using the application. The issues are specifically on navigation between the menus, and the lack of aesthetics and appealing of user interface. Those issues lead to the main purpose of this research, which is to upgrade the interface design of e-HAC application to a suitable User Interface by using User-Centered Design (UCD) method. There are also specific objectives: first is to conduct usability testing in form of questionnaires and interview two times: one is a pre-survey, to evaluate the problems of the e-HAC application based on user experience;and the another one is a post-survey, to find out whether the upgraded design that has been made can ease the users to access the e-HAC application. Then, the second specific objective is to implement the System Usability Scale (SUS) method for measuring the system usability based on questionnaires. After the implementation of the UCD method, the researcher re-surveyed and obtained a test scores of SUS, from 53.87 previously to, 85.12. That means the acceptability ranges that were originally Low changed to Acceptable. Moreover, for the Grade Scale, which was originally D into category B. © 2022 Global IT Research Institute-GiRI.

Factors Affecting the Perceived Usability of the COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Application "Thai Chana" during the Early COVID-19 Omicron Period.

Thai Chana is one of the mobile applications for COVID-19 disease-control tracking, especially among the Thais. The purpose of this study was to determine factors affecting the perceived usability of Thai Chana by integrating protection motivation theory, the extended technology acceptance model, and the system usability scale. In all, 800 Thais participated and filled an online questionnaire with 56 questions during the early COVID-19 omicron period (15 December 2021 to 14 January 2022). Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that the understanding of COVID-19 has significant effects on perceived severity and perceived vulnerability, which subsequently leads to perceived usefulness. In addition, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have significant direct effects on attitude, which subsequently leads to the intention to use, actual use, and perceived usability. This study is one of the first studies that have analyzed the mobile application for COVID-19 disease-control tracking. The significant and substantial findings can be used for a theoretical foundation, particularly in designing a new mobile application for disease-control tracking worldwide. Finally, protection motivation theory, the extended technology acceptance model, and the system usability scale can be used for evaluating other disease-control tracking mobile applications worldwide.

Design and Implementation of a Gesture-Aided E-Learning Platform.

In gesture-aided learning (GAL), learners perform specific body gestures while rehearsing the associated learning content. Although this form of embodiment has been shown to benefit learning outcomes, it has not yet been incorporated into e-learning. This work presents a generic system design for an online GAL platform. It is comprised of five modules for planning, administering, and monitoring remote GAL lessons. To validate the proposed design, a reference implementation for word learning was demonstrated in a field test. 19 participants independently took a predefined online GAL lesson and rated their experience on the System Usability Scale and a supplemental questionnaire. To monitor the correct gesture execution, the reference implementation recorded the participants' webcam feeds and uploaded them to the instructor for review. The results from the field test show that the reference implementation is capable of delivering an e-learning experience with GAL elements. Designers of e-learning platforms may use the proposed design to include GAL in their applications. Beyond its original purpose in education, the platform is also useful to collect and annotate gesture data.

Perceived usability evaluation of Microsoft Teams as an online learning platform during COVID-19 using system usability scale and technology acceptance model in India.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a physical shutdown of all types of educational institutes worldwide due to which the education delivery has now shifted to an "online only" exclusivity model. In this perspective, perceived usability of the online learning platforms that are currently being used is an important aspect, especially due to the absence of any physical classes. In this work Microsoft Teams is used as the reference platform for which the perceived usability is evaluated. For the evaluation purpose a dual strategy is followed by using the System Usability Scale (SUS), which is a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) based approach, and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is an Information Systems (IS) based approach. Although both these instruments are popular in their respective domains, yet they have not been considered simultaneously in one work for the purpose of usability evaluation. By doing so, this work attempts to streamline and unify the process of usability evaluation. Results that are obtained from a large-scale survey of university students show the similarity and equivalency between the two methodologies, with the Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) construct of TAM having greater similarity with SUS. Moreover, this work also considers the digital-divide aspect (mobile vs. web environment) that is prevalent particularly in developing countries like India, and whether it has any effect on the perceived usability. Results show that the consumption platform does not have any effect on the usability aspect.