Investigation into the design of educational multimedia : video, interactivity and narrative

Abstract

This study critically examines the design of multimedia in education. The study begins by reviewing existing media in education and then uses a series of empirical studies to uncover, and then examine the key issues for the design of educational multimedia. The research involves two studies. The first, a preliminary study, that identifies specific areas of interest for the research. This study looks at the existing use of an interactive video disc program for training in Price Waterhouse. The literature search, combined with the outcomes of the preliminary study, identified the areas for further research as: the use of video, forms of interaction, and the role of narrative. The main study examines these areas using two phases. The first phase analyses three treatments of the same educational text, on linear video, multimedia, and structured multimedia, each treatment maintaining the same content and narrative structure, but differing in presentation and control. The second phases builds on the results of the first with the creation and analysis of an interactive multimedia program that takes advantage of the identified strengths of multimedia, and specifically tackles problems found in the first phase. Qualitative data collection techniques are used in both phases, and form the basis of the findings. The findings are presented as implications for multimedia design, and discuss the use and development of narrative and grammar in multimedia, as well as the importance of carefully designed user interaction and goal definition.