Learning from multimedia and hypermedia

Computer-based multimedia and hypermedia resources (e.g., the world wide web) have become one of the primary sources of academic information for a majority of pupils and students. In line with this expansion in the field of education, the scientific study of learning from multimedia and hypermedia has become a very active field of research. In this chapter we provide a short overview with regard to research on learning with multimedia and hypermedia. In two review sections, we describe the educational benefits of multiple representations and of learner control, as these are the two defining characteristics of hypermedia. In a third review section we describe recent scientific trends in the field of multimedia/hypermedia learning. In all three review sections we will point to relevant European work on multimedia/hypermedia carried out within the last 5 years, and often carried out within the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence. According to the interdisciplinary nature of the field this work might come not only from psychology, but also from technology or pedagogy. Comparing the different research activities on multimedia and hypermedia that have dominated the international scientific discourse in the last decade reveals some important differences. Most important, a gap seems to exist between researchers mainly interested in a “serious” educational use of multimedia/ hypermedia and researchers mainly interested in “serious” experimental research on learning with multimedia/hypermedia. Recent discussions about the pros and cons of “design-based research” or “use-inspired basic research” can be seen as a direct consequence of an increasing awareness of the tensions within these two different cultures of research on education

Walking the walk of e-teaching and e-learning: enhancing teaching and learning using the new technologies

Today, the overarching goal of all universities is to develop excellence in flexible eLearning and eTeaching. Such excellence grows from and upon the rich offerings of traditional teaching and learning: it is not opposed to it. This paper investigates some of the opportunities offered by the multimedia experiences of cyberlearning and embeds those in traditional learning and teaching experiences. In doing so, it utilises feminist postmodernist techniques, particularly that of telling the unfocussed story that is a descriptive narrative wandering across the text. Just as print led to universal education and the distribution of information which could be utilised as knowledge and even wisdom, so electronic information systems deliveries are influencing our educational deliveries not only content-wise but also conceptually.This paper takes an overview of the resultant social, cultural and educational issues from the story of teaching over 3000 undergraduate and postgraduate students over 7 years using and developing a 'Quadripartite System of eTeaching and eLearning' involving a balance in virtual reality/cyberspace of people, print, WWW and CD ROM (Arnold and Vigo, 1996)