Includes bibliographical references / Although learning management systems (LMSs) have been widely adopted by universities in developing countries, their potential to support students' learning has not been fully exploited due to several factors. Some of the factors limiting the more successful implementation of LMSs in developing country universities have been identified and reported in this study. Most importantly, LMS implementation in developing country universities is constrained by limited institutional ICT infrastructures, Internet bandwidth and electricity outages that affect the accessibility of LMS services by the students. The main research question addressed in this study is: How can we better use the available ICTs and ICT infrastructure in developing country universities to enhance the accessibility of the LMS services by students to better support the implementation of LMSs? The research question was addressed through surveys and experimentation. Two surveys were carried out, and the findings of these surveys were useful in: understanding the current state of practice in LMS implementation in developing country universities; defining the problem; understanding the students' LMS expectations and needs; and deciding the nature of the intervention to be implemented. Through the surveys, it was established that the majority of students in the surveyed universities possessed mobile phones, most of which being internet enabled phones. The study therefore explored the possibility of enabling and enhancing mobile access for LMS services so as to enhance students' LMS accessibility through their mobile phones. The design, development, implementation and evaluation of the intervention (the mobile LMS) were achieved through a user-centred development approach that included participatory design, prototyping and user experience evaluation. An impact evaluation of the mobile LMS intervention indicated that: mobile LMS interfaces can lead to students' increased access and use of the LMS through mobile phones; students prefer streamlined mobile LMS interfaces with fewer and block-based services; with streamlined mobile LMS interfaces, students are able to get the LMS services they need on their mobile phones without the need for desktop and laptop computers and without the need for the full desktop LMS interfaces. While the streamlined mobile LMS allows the students an opportunity to more satisfactorily access the LMS services through their mobile phones, it also takes away the pressure from the constrained institutional ICT infrastructure and facilities such as computer laboratories. The design and development process of the mobile LMS intervention highlighted that students' involvement leads to creation of more usable and useful mobile LMS interfaces and that most of the students' mobile LMS needs can be achieved through a cross-platform mobile Web application.

The existing advanced web browsers in today’s mobile phones open up the door for mobile web applications. By using standard webtechnologies, a web page can be crafted to mimic the behavior of a normal application. The purpose of this master’s thesis has been to look at web application development for mobile phones in general and to implement a web-based Mobile TV client to determine whether it would be a viable alternative to existing clients based on other technologies. The advantages are the same as for any other web application: 1) the user avoids the hassle of installing an application and will always run the latest version, 2) developers benefit from the browser’s ability to render generic content, and 3) it is believed that the differences between browser implementations are less than in other environments in which an application would run, for example Java or operating system specificenvironments. / De avancerade webbläsare som redan idag finns tillgängliga på nyare mobiltelefoner har gjort det möjligt att skapa mobila webbapplikationer. Genom användandet av befintlig webbteknik kan en webbsida utformas på ett sådant sätt att den uppträder som en vanlig applikation. Syftet med det här examensarbetet har varit att titta på webbutveckling för mobiltelefoner i allmänhet samt att implementera en webbaserad MobilTV-klient för att avgöra hurivida en sådan lösning skulle kunna utgöra ett alternativ till redan existerande klienter baserade på andra teknologier. Fördelarna antas vara desamma som för andra webbapplikationer: 1) användaren slipper installera ett program och kommer alltid att köra den senaste versionen, 2) utvecklingen gynnas av webbläsarens förmåga att rendera godtyckligt innehåll och 3) skillnaderna mellan olika webbläsarimplementationer anses vara mindre i jämförelse med andra miljöer i vilka en applikation körs, till exempel Java- eller operativsystemspecifika.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T14:02:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 bruno araujo.pdf: 1894932 bytes, checksum: 3283d30b868fd5576735ba6c2378d8ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-05 / The increasing interest on mobile technologies and the evolutionary context in which mobile applications are developed have made the usability evaluation of these applications an important research area. However, usability evaluations are often avoided by developers or companies due to their lack of experience in the field. This thesis presents the UBICUA (Usability-Based Inspection CUstomizable Approach) technique, an inspection technique specifically proposed to assess the usability of hybrid mobile web applications (i.e., applications that rely on the Internet, such as widgets). Also, our approach is customizable by the inspector s knowledge, which results in a greater usability problem identification even by non-expert users. To support our UBICUA technique s creation process, this research has adopted an evidence-based methodology. Then, this thesis describes how UBICUA was created based on the outcome of a secondary study, two results feasibility studies and observation studies. Our ultimate goal is to increase the quality of hybrid mobile web applications and improve the user s interaction in this technology. We also present the guidelines and resources developed to support the execution of usability inspections of mobile applications in software development organizations. / O crescente interesse em tecnologias móveis e o contexto evolutivo no qual aplicações móveis são desenvolvidas têm tornado a avaliação de usabilidade destas aplicações um importante campo de pesquisa. No entanto, as avaliações de usabilidade são normalmente evitadas pelos desenvolvedores ou empresas, devido à falta de experiência na área. Esta dissertação apresenta a técnica UBICUA (Usability-Based Inspection CUstomizable Approach), específica para avaliação de usabilidade de aplicações Web móveis híbridas (i.e., aplicações locais que dependem da Internet). Esta nova abordagem é customizada pelo conhecimento do inspetor visando maior identificação de problemas de usabilidade, mesmo por inspetores com pouco conhecimento. Para a avaliação e evolução da UBICUA, esta pesquisa adotou uma metodologia baseada em evidências. Esta dissertação mostra como a UBICUA foi definida e aprimorada a partir dos resultados de diferentes estudos experimentais: mapeamento sistemático de literatura, estudos de viabilidade e de observação. O objetivo final é aumentar a qualidade das aplicações Web em dispositivos móveis e melhorar a interação dos usuários com estas tecnologias. Adicionalmente, são apresentadas diretrizes e recursos desenvolvidos para apoiar a realização de inspeções de usabilidade de aplicações deste porte.

My thesis pursues the development of a tool to empower designers and non-designers to better understand humor’s function in design and to encourage the use of humor as a rhetorical device to undertake social problems. Humor research is a field that is largely based on linguistic studies, but because of its multidisciplinary stretch in the past decade has displayed a broad rhetorical influence; however, it has yet to form a substantial relationship with design. Through a literature review of linguistic, rhetorical, and design theories, I identified a set of heuristics that guide how humor should operate in design. I then tested the effectiveness of the heuristics, and with their final revision, applied them to designing for motivational problems associated with public displays of political mobilization. My user research inferred the creation of a mobile instructional tool that guides the collaborative and/or individual production of political communication artifacts (e.g. rally signs), which use humor to confront socially complex issues. The artifacts’ implicit intent is to motivate political mobilization and to found and/or empower communities. My project focus entails the creation and testing of the tool on the individual level. Whether the artifacts created produce the desired effect regarding mobilization and community strength is unknown; Future work should lend itself to testing humorous design’s effect on political mobilization and ability to empower communities.