Technologies, tools and techniques associated with the creation of interactive multimedia.

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Module 3

Interactive Multimedia:

Interactive multimedia is the integration of digital media including combinations of electronic text, graphics, moving images, and sound, into a structured digital computerised environment that allows people to interact with the data for appropriate purposes. The digital environment can include the Internet, telecoms and interactive digital television. (England and Finney, 2002)

Types of interactions

R Phillips(2008) from Murdoch University examined the different type of interactions in educational multimedia and categorised them into the following:

Interactions that present information

The following interactions are best used for varying the presentation of material and presenting it in 'digestible' chunks. Some reveal when the cursor is run over the material.

1. Roll-over
2. Circle
3. Formula display
4. Text list
5. Stages
6. JavaScript pop-up
7. Tab
8. Audio player
9. Image displayer

Interactions that require a decision

These three interactions require students to make a decision.

10. Yes/No responses
11. Drop and drag 1
12. Drop and drag 2

Interactions that require input.

These interactions require input from the students. In some cases the interaction is enhanced with a printed report.

13. Evaluation quiz (with results provided)
14. Drop and drag 3 (with student written input)
15. SWOT analysis (with printable report)
16. Mind map
17. Online mapping tool

Activity 3.1

Q 1: Navigating the World Wide Web requires that the user selects and activates links. Does that imply that the WWW is inherently interactive or should a stronger definition of interactivity be applied?

The WWW is inherently interactive because the user has total control. It is up to them where they go, what they view, when and how they view it. Those who add content to the WWW entice the user to interact with their content by presenting it in a variety of enticing formats to engage the user.

Creating interactive multimedia implies a step beyond simply assembling a collection of media assets. An interface must be created to enable users to exercise control as they access the materials. Interactivity needs to be more than simple page turning in an electronic book. It implies that, at the very least, the user has choices about what to access and when. (USQ FET5622: course materials 2009)

Phillips (2008) believes that interactive multimedia should have the following elements:

• facilitate student engagement with material, and thus enhance motivation and reflection
• add variety
• provide contemporary approaches to presenting material
• enable interaction with material without teacher input or student discussion;
• provide material in a form that is attractive to younger students who are increasingly coming to expect more sophisticated use of technology.

‘The Y generation are technoliterate – the first generation to grow up with computers. They are more comfortable typing on key boards then writing with pen and paper, and they are often obsessed with the latest technologies and the mobility and access they offer.’ (Neuborne, 1999, in Krause, 2005, p. 3)

Q2: Where multimedia is used for recreation or for information seeking, interactivity generally implies that the sequence and pace at which various components are accessed is under the control of the user. This is probably appropriate for such applications but is it always desirable for educational multimedia?

By providing educational learning materials in a variety of formats, learners are being offered choice of how they access and view the content. This supports the following:

• students many different learning styles
• encourages learners to follow the links to information of interest.

These choices optimise learning. It is up to the instructional designer to guide the learner through the content through a series of scaffolded tasks to achieve the educational objectives.

Educational research supports the interactivity of educational multimedia because of the following findings:

• The learner's interest and understanding increases the more they interact with content (R Brown, 2001).
• Educational multimedia can enlarge and enrich the learning experience and facilitate the cognitive process of learning.
• Can provide supportive environments of scaffolded resources to encourage learners to engage, explore and build.
• Well designed Educational multimediacan provides immediate feedback and reinforcement.
• Educational multimedia can encourage the learner to participate, question, evaluate and respond, providing independence and allow control of their learning direction. (Savery and Duffy, 1995).
• Learners should have control over media output (play/stop/pause/scroll through/volume) and be provided with multiple paths to sequence delivery. (Wild & Quinn 1998; Reushle et al. 1999).

Q3: Some multimedia materials targeted at education consist very largely of question-response sequences in which the software poses a question to which the user responds. Does this constitute genuine interactivity?

Question/response activities along with feedback do constitute interactivity and can be used to test knowledge and understanding. Providing variety of interactive resources is what good Educational interactive multimedia is about. On their own this type of interactivity would not engage learners but used as part of the learning process have their place.

Educational interactive mutimedia should provide:

1. Exposure to more interesting, attractive, exciting, challenging and engaging presentations.
2. Presentation of information without teacher input or student discussion.
3. Provides a sense of control
4. Motivate
5. Offers choice and to cater for preferred learning styles (Gardner 1983).
6. User-driven interaction (Lynch & Horton 2004).

Q4: Some authors have considered interactivity as a form of communication between human and computer, with characteristics similar to a conversation. How open ended must such communication be to constitute true interactivity?

As can be seen by careful consideration of the above questions, interactivity occurs on a variety of levels. The very basic level allows the learner to click from one page to the other, which does not necessarily encourage learning. There are a variety of levels which involve reading, viewing and listening to content which still don't necessitate communication, collaboration and higher order thinking skills. Higher levels of interactivity occur through collaborative forums, wikis and simulation games where learners are provided with feedback, cues, choices, rewards and reflection opportunities.

Martyn 1996 studied the positive effects of Educational interactive mulitmedia:

By providing interactive and perhaps multimedia environments on the computer, which are able to accomodate learner's representation or models of conceptual phenomena and allow for predictions, explanations and simulations, then we are providing the means by which learners can represent, explicitly, their own understandings, intereact with others' representations and come to understand a range of conceptual meanings in relation to their own.

Savery and Duffy (1995) developed eight evaluative criteria for effective instructional design based on constructivist principles of Educational multimedia:

1. Anchoring all learning activities to a larger task or problem.
2. Supporting the learner in developing ownership for the overall problem or task.
3. Designing an authentic task.
4. Designing the task and the learning environment to reflect the complexity of the environment the learner should be able to function in at the end of the learning.
5. Giving the learner ownership of the process used to develop a solution.
6. Designing the learner environment to support and challenge the learner's thinking.
7. Encouraging testing ideas against alternative views and alternate contexts.
8. Providing opportunity for, and supporting reflection on both the content learned and the learning process.

References:

Go to Assignment 2 Activity 3.2

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