# Using Tablets to Teach Basic Literacy Skills to Kindergarten Students: A Case Study
## 3 Method
### Instruments  
For the purpose of data collection, several tools were utilized: (i) a pre-test to examine students' prior knowledge, (ii) three evaluation tests (one for each session), (iii) a post-test to measure knowledge retention, and (iv) a questionnaire. The pre-test was administered one week before the study commenced, and the evaluation tests were administered at the conclusion of each corresponding session. The post-test took place approximately one month after the project concluded, while the questionnaire was distributed during the final session with each group. Considering the young age of the participants and their limited reading and writing abilities, it was essential to adapt the data collection methods to suit their developmental stage, while maintaining data integrity and validity. To address this, the evaluation tests and questionnaires were completed individually, with kindergarten teachers verbally presenting the questions before students recorded their responses. Importantly, teachers were explicitly instructed to simply read the questions without offering any guidance, hints, or additional information that could influence or shape students' responses. Moreover, no fixed time constraints were imposed on completing the evaluation tests and the questionnaire. To ensure clarity and make necessary adjustments, the tests and questionnaire were piloted with a small group of non-participating students. This step was critical in confirming the comprehensibility of the questions and enhancing the overall design to better suit the target audience.  
Due to the lack of standardized tests tailored to the study's learning subjects and educational level, the evaluation tests (including the pre- and post- ones) were specifically developed for this purpose. The questions (between 10 to 15 questions in each test) were designed as activities, allowing participants to express their understanding while reducing the likelihood of random guessing. It is crucial to highlight that the questions were of escalating difficulty and resembled the activities conducted during the sessions, ensuring that students were acquainted with and comfortable performing the tasks required of them. Approximately half of the questions focused on selecting suitable images or letters (upper  
Figure 1: Screenshots from the applications.  
or lowercase), matching letters with pictures, and making simple drawings of objects having a specific letter in their name. It is important to note that the instructions for these tasks were delivered orally and not provided in written form. If they had been written, students could have easily identified the requested letters by referring to the instructions. Similarly, the remaining questions were also presented orally and pertained to letter name-sound correspondence. For instance, students were asked to determine whether a specific letter appeared in several words read aloud by the teacher. Examples of questions from these evaluation tests are available in Appendix A.  
The questionnaire adapted items from a validated modular scale to evaluate factors affecting the learning experience in digital educational applications such as games [58]. For the purposes of this study, three factors were selected, aligning with those explored in H3a-c: motivation (three items), enjoyment (three items), and engagement (three items). To improve the questionnaire's user-friendliness, emoticons were adopted instead of the conventional five-point Likert-type scale (as shown in Figure 2, where the left-hand emoticon represents none/not at all, and the right-hand emoticon signifies a lot/very much. As with the evaluation tests, the participating teachers were instructed to refrain from influencing students' responses. On the other hand, they provided clarification regarding the meaning of the emoticons, but only if a student demonstrated difficulty in understanding them. The questionnaire is available in Appendix B.