Evaluation of mLearning Usability by Farmers: Case Study of Haller Farmers Application

Agricultural extension is responsible for teaching farmers about better agricultural practices. However, it is faced with challenges such as few extension officers. While mobile devices have been used to address this challenge through mobile learning (mLearning), there are reported cases of low adoption of mobile services by farmers due to usability issues. This study used Haller Farmers application as a case study to establish how usability of mLearning application aimed at supporting agricultural extension can be improved. The first and second objectives were to establish how farmers rate the user interface usability and pedagogical usability of Haller Farmers respectively, while the third objective was to recommend suggestions for improving usability of the application. Snowball sampling was used to sample 32 farmers from Kapsoya ward of Uasin – Gishu County. The farmers rated the usability of the application based on 10 criteria that were selected from literature. Quantitative data was collected using close-ended questions of the questionnaires, and qualitative data through open-ended questions and the Think Aloud protocol. Quantitative data was descriptively analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and while qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis technique and analysis of the remarks made during the Think Aloud protocol. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data was done in order to provide a more understanding of how respondents rated the application's usability. The mean response value for user interface usability was found to be +1 on a +2 to-2 scale, meaning respondents agreed that the user interface was usable, while the mean response value for pedagogical usability was found to be +0.30, implying respondents had a neutral opinion about the pedagogical usability of the application. All the criteria for assessing user interface usability had a mean response value greater than +1.0 except for the visibility of system status and multimedia criteria. In relation to pedagogical usability, only two criteria: authenticity and relevance of learning content, and structure of learning content had a mean response value greater than +1. Additionally, non-parametric Chi-square hypothesis testing was used to determine whether the responses to the close-ended statements were significantly positive, negative or neutral. Suggestions on what can be done to improve the criteria that had mean scores of less than +1 were recommended. These suggestions can be beneficial not only to developers of Haller Farmers application, but also to other mobile application developers and institutions responsible for agricultural extension.