An Empirical Investigation of Multimodal interface For E-learning Note-Taking

—This paper introduces an empirical study conducted to investigate the use and effect of multimodal metaphors in e-learning applications. This investigation involved two different interface platforms performed by forty users. The first interface platform (textual interface), based on three input modalities, namely text, graphic, and speech, was used to deliver information about note-taking. The second platform interface (multimodal interface) was based on five input modalities, including; text, graphic, speech, avatar and earcons to deliver the same information. The aim of the experiment was to measure and compare the level of usability of textual and multimodal interfaces. The usability parameters, which are efficiency, effectiveness, and users' satisfaction, were considered in the experiment. The results obtained from this investigation have shown that the multimodal e-learning interface increased the level of usability as users took significantly less time to complete the tasks, performed successfully in a higher number of tasks, and were more satisfied than when using the textual interface. Also, the results indicate that users most preferred the avatar as choice of input modality, while earcons were the second most preferred option for representing information. These input modalities could be used to improve the attractiveness of note taking which in turn will be reflected in increasing users' motivation and interest in the presented learning material.