Improving students motivation by means of multimedia

The student’s motivation is one of the most actual problems in the universities. One of many reasons for increased number of cases for low-level student motivation is that there are many more students in the higher education system with relatively low level of preparation. As a result, because of complex material delivered to students and their low ability to learn quickly, the motivation of students to learn programming and maths can be decreased significantly during educational process. In order to overcome this problem, the means of multimedia can be used in the educational process. The basic idea of proposed approach is to use the PowerPoint presentations, multimedia applications in the teaching process during both lectures and tutorials. The basic material should be accessible by students at any time. In order to do this, the material mentioned above should be published in Internet and intranet. The most complex material is implemented using a lot of animation in the lecture and tutorial material with relatively high frequency of repetition. It can be noted that in some cases the students become more motivated, once they understand the basic idea. The accessibility of material and its possibility to repeat it a lot of time have increased the level of student’s knowledge gained and have improved their motivation

A conceptual architecture for interactive educational multimedia

Learning is more than knowledge acquisition; it often involves the active participation of the learner in a variety of knowledge- and skills-based learning and training activities. Interactive multimedia technology can support the variety of interaction channels and languages required to facilitate interactive learning and teaching. A conceptual architecture for interactive educational multimedia can support the development of such multimedia systems. Such an architecture needs to embed multimedia technology into a coherent educational context. A framework based on an integrated interaction model is needed to capture learning and training activities in an online setting from an educational perspective, to describe them in the human-computer context, and to integrate them with mechanisms and principles of multimedia interaction

The future of technology enhanced active learning – a roadmap

The notion of active learning refers to the active involvement of learner in the learning process, capturing ideas of learning-by-doing and the fact that active participation and knowledge construction leads to deeper and more sustained learning. Interactivity, in particular learnercontent interaction, is a central aspect of technology-enhanced active learning. In this roadmap, the pedagogical background is discussed, the essential dimensions of technology-enhanced active learning systems are outlined and the factors that are expected to influence these systems currently and in the future are identified. A central aim is to address this promising field from a best practices perspective, clarifying central issues and formulating an agenda for future developments in the form of a roadmap

A taxonomy for interactive educational multimedia

Learning is more than knowledge acquisition; it often involves the active participation of the learner in a variety of knowledge- and skills-based learning and training activities. Interactive multimedia technology can support the variety of interaction channels and languages required to facilitate interactive learning and teaching. We will present a taxonomy for interactive educational multimedia that supports the classification, description and development of such systems. Such a taxonomy needs to embed multimedia technology into a coherent educational context. A conceptual framework based on an integrated interaction model is needed to capture learning and training activities in an online setting from an educational perspective, describe them in the human-computer context, and integrate them with mechanisms and principles of multimedia interaction

Content-driven design and architecture of E-learning applications

E-learning applications combine content with learning technology systems to support the creation of content and its delivery to the learner. In the future, we can expect the distinction between learning content and its supporting infrastructure to become blurred. Content objects will interact with infrastructure services as independent objects. Our solution to the development of e-learning applications – content-driven design and architecture – is based on content-centric ontological modelling and development of architectures. Knowledge and modelling will play an important role in the development of content and architectures. Our approach integrates content with interaction (in technical and educational terms) and services (the principle organization for a system architecture), based on techniques from different fields, including software engineering, learning design, and knowledge engineering

Use interactive multimedia to improve your programming course

This paper reports first year students’ experiences with multimedia-based learning for programming and its influence on students obtained from two case studies at Napier and Brunel universities. Engineering students at the universities have taken programming courses from their first year and many have showed difficulties in their learning. The main reason is that it is a very abstract domain, which means that both lecturers and students can have difficulties in explaining and understanding abstract concepts verbally. Considering the strengths of Interactive Multimedia(IMM), i.e. interactivity and visualisation, we decided to use it to improve students’ learning. An empirical study was planned and IMM materials were designed for this. A trial and two case studies were carried out from December 2000 to June 2001. The designed materials were integrated into the curriculum as a teaching aid and self-guided learning materials. The data gathered from the case studies indicated that many students felt the multimedia-based learning helped their understanding of the programming concepts, and some became very motivated in programming. Also, using the interactive multimedia materials for both teaching and learning enhanced students’ learning experience. At last, we found educating both lecturers and students on what is multimedia-based learning prior to a course can increase its effectiveness

Data mining technology for the evaluation of learning content interaction

Interactivity is central for the success of learning. In e-learning and other educational multimedia environments, the evaluation of interaction and behaviour is particularly crucial. Data mining – a non-intrusive, objective analysis technology – shall be proposed as the central evaluation technology for the analysis of the usage of computer-based educational environments and in particular of the interaction with educational content. Basic mining techniques are reviewed and their application in a Web-based third-level course environment is illustrated. Analytic models capturing interaction aspects from the application domain (learning) and the software infrastructure (interactive multimedia) are required for the meaningful interpretation of mining results

Managing evolution and change in web-based teaching and learning environments

The state of the art in information technology and educational technologies is evolving constantly. Courses taught are subject to constant change from organisational and subject-specific reasons. Evolution and change affect educators and developers of computer-based teaching and learning environments alike – both often being unprepared to respond effectively. A large number of educational systems are designed and developed without change and evolution in mind. We will present our approach to the design and maintenance of these systems in rapidly evolving environments and illustrate the consequences of evolution and change for these systems and for the educators and developers responsible for their implementation and deployment. We discuss various factors of change, illustrated by a Web-based virtual course, with the objective of raising an awareness of this issue of evolution and change in computer-supported teaching and learning environments. This discussion leads towards the establishment of a development and management framework for teaching and learning systems