Interactive Multimedia Research Questions: Results from the Delphi Study

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the pedagogical possibilities afforded by interactive multimedia technology, and this interest spans such dimensions as content area and the student's developmental level and abilities. At the same time, teachers and researchers are concerned about how to best use this promising technology. The Center for Special Education Technology responded to this situation by conducting a Delphi study to identify research questions that should guide the study of interactive multimedia in special education. The Delphi study was comprised of two questionnaires. In the first questionnaire, respondents were asked to identify the five most important research needs in interactive multimedia. These responses were compiled and then returned to respondents in a second questionnaire. In the second questionnaire, respondents performed two tasks. In the first task, they were asked to judge the importance of each response obtained from the first questionnaire. In the second task, they selected and justified responses that described the five most important multimedia research needs. Descriptive analyses showed that respondents were most frequently concerned about design issues affecting the efficacy of educational interactive multimedia. These issues focused on instructional strategies and methods, the multimedia environment, navigational tools, and strategies for promoting transfer of skill. Two other themes emerged from this study. First, experts were interested in how the characteristics of persons with different disabilities affected the efficacy of educational interactive multimedia. Second, they were concerned about the technical and training resources that are needed to use multimedia in practice.