Development and evaluation of GlossMind glossary: An interactive e-glossary for consumer behavior course

Abstract

In technical and vocational education, vocabulary learning continues to be a challenge. The increasing complexity of academic content at the tertiary level poses great difficulties for students to understand and remember important terms. According to needs analysis conducted at Politeknik Kuching, Sarawak, 73.3% of students taking the Consumer Behavior course (DPM40113) had trouble understanding discipline-specific terms. GlossMind Glossary, a mobile interactive glossary with more than 120 terms backed by contextual examples, visual aids, and self-assessment tests, was created using the ADDIE instructional design methodology to address this. It was assessed using a mixed-method quasi-experimental approach. The Technology Acceptance Model guided usability evaluation of the mobile application. A total of 102 students participated in a user satisfaction survey and pre- and post-test vocabulary assessment. After the three-week intervention, the average vocabulary score increased significantly from 13.42 to 19.35, while the standard deviation of the score decreased by 83.6%, indicating a significant reduction in performance variation. The percentage of students in the good to excellent category increased significantly from 51.0% to 92.2%, while the percentage of students in the failing category decreased from 39.2% to zero. On a five-point scale, the user satisfaction level for all parameters averaged 4.31, and 89.2% of users stated that they would recommend the tool to a friend. These findings indicate that a well-designed mobile glossary can improve vocabulary performance.