The design, development and evaluation of an adaptive multimedia learning environment courseware among history teachers

Abstract

This article will present a study on the use of adaptive multimedia technology. It was carried out to test the viability of an adaptive multimedia courseware for the teaching of History, a core subject in Malaysian public examinations which is generally regarded as an uninteresting subject by students. Hence, to address this problem, a multimedia courseware was designed and developed to enable History teachers to prepare multimedia-based materials for instructional purposes. This courseware was designed and developed under a Visual Studio platform that provides an alternative to the existing “Ready to use” courseware. Teachers are allowed total control over the content of the courseware in terms of data input, audio-video, graphic, images, quiz etc compared to the “Ready to use ;courseware which does not allow room for the amendment or modification of the prescript content. Analysis of data based on gender, age, computing ability, teaching experience and graduate and non-graduate teachers’ perceptions, mean values for aspects such as i) technical aspects; ii) interface design; iii) multimedia features; and iv) instructional design. Although it is still at the prototype stage, the overall mean computed for this courseware stands at a high value. The data suggests the high viability of the courseware and its robustness can be further improved from a design perspective. Teachers can exploit their creativity in preparing multimedia-based teaching material using this courseware.