The Effects of a Mobile App with Tutorial Learning Strategy on Anxiety Level of Secondary Students

The Islamic funeral is one of the topics in the syllabus of Islamic Education, and it is deemed to be Fard Kifayah (collective obligation). It is the final duty and responsibility of the living towards the dead. However, not every Muslim knows the Islamic funeral, and many fear to take part in the ritual activity and are afraid of seeing the deceased. This fear comes from the perception that the face of the deceased is scary and horrifying and assumes that the dead will haunt the living. Thus a mobile app based on a tutorial learning strategy was designed and developed to reduce students' anxiety and to help in teaching and learning for the topic of the Islamic funeral. A total of 120 students from four secondary schools in Penang were employed as samples. This study uses quasi-experimental design with pretest and post-test. Overall, this study found that the use of the tutorial learning strategy can help in reducing student's anxiety level. The implications of this study are that the student anxiety in the learning process can be reduced by using a mobile app that deals with the topic of the Islamic funeral. The findings also show that mobile apps have the advantage of helping students to learn about the Islamic funeral and to assist teachers in teaching and learning in the classroom. Students can use the app repeatedly until they understand the topic completely without relying on the teacher.