PC-Based Multimedia: An Opportunity to Redesign the Learning Process Copyright 1993 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 16, Number 2, Summer 1993. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear,and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resoures in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission.For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu PC-BASED MULTIMEDIA: AN OPPORTUNITY TO REDESIGN THE LEARNING PROCESS by Donald Hardaway ABSTRACT: Multimedia programs designed for use on a microcomputer with a CD-ROM drive offer the opportunity to create course lecture material-- complete with text, graphics, pictures, audio, animation, and motion video--that can be viewed and replayed as many times as desired, at the convenience of the student. This article advocates such programs and describes a multimedia authoring tool that facilitates their creation. The more common activities that we observe in education today include lecture, reading, applications, and testing Although all four of these activities may vary from course to course, lecture can be found to consume the most class time of the four. Accordingly, accomplishing lecture in a different manner could free up additional time for other activities and also provide an opportunity for students to obtain lecture material through a more flexible arrangement. The fact that students and faculty have to travel to be in the same room at the same time makes the traditional lecture approach to disseminating knowledge inconvenient and inefficient in terms of time and location. If we could achieve the same educational benefit experienced in attending a lecture, but instead make the lecture session portable, then significant opportunities in terms of flexibility and time for other activities would be provided. An alternative approach One possible format for accomplishing lecture in a different way is to create a multimedia program that incorporates the instructor's lectures, for use on a microcomputer with a CD-ROM drive. The program would be built by first pre-recording all of the instructor's lectures into digital video. Then, using a multimedia authoring tool, the video of the lectures can be integrated with other media sources such as text, graphics, animations, audio clips, and even additional video to create a content-rich set of learning materials. Integrating these support materials with the video of the lecture allows students to view the lecture and the materials that augment it all from one computer screen. Students can replay the lecture and engage in interaction with the integrated materials as often as they like or need to, and they can do this at home, at school, or wherever they have access to a microcomputer with a CD-ROM drive. Advantages of this approach The interactivity and quality of presentation materials afforded by multimedia on the microcomputer can be much richer than what is experienced in today's classroom. Additionally, its use frees up class time to engage in other learning activities that are not possible using today's predominantly lecture format for education. The additional time made available can be used at the instructor's discretion, but would hopefully be used to allow students to gain experience in applying theory and concepts to real-world problems. This approach also allows faculty to collaborate on the production of the full set of materials, including their class lectures. This is especially effective in enabling instructors of multisection courses to pool their ideas, thereby creating a much more complete and standardized presentation of the material. This scenario can be easily accomplished with the multimedia capability available in today's microcomputers. For example, with a Macintosh computer equipped with a CD-ROM drive, digital video of a lecture combined with other display materials can be packaged on a CD-ROM disc, allowing the student to transport the full lecture experience with reference materials, much like we transport CDs containing music. Being able to use a Mac and CD-ROM drive without any special hardware makes the economics of this approach very attractive, and also allows students with this set-up at home or elsewhere to view the class lectures at their convenience. Feasibility of this approach There are two ways that the packaging of educational material on CD-ROMs can be achieved. One way is to wait until the publishing industry provides it. At this time, publishing companies realize that the textbook as we know it will change as we move from a manual/physical world to a more electronic society. The other option for getting educational materials on CD-ROMs is to produce them on campus. For the latter to be successful, a multimedia support staff would be needed. This special trained staff would work with instructors to define the content and interactivity of the educational materials to be housed on the CD-ROM. After developing the materials, the multimedia staff would encode a CD-ROM disc. Estimated costs for this approach would include the cost of a blank CD- ROM (about $25 each at present, with copies from the encoded master costing as little as $1 each), and the cost of the encoder (from $4,000 to $10,000, with prices dropping rapidly). Although microcomputers purchased for the past several years did not come with CD-ROM drives as a common option, they are quickly becoming popular today with middle and upper range micros having an option for an internal CD-ROM drive. Today's prices for such a microcomputer range between $2,000 and $3,000. Again, prices are dropping quickly, so that such microcomputers produced over the next year will be even less expensive with CD-ROM technology becoming more and more popular. It is expected that CD-ROMs will become as common as a floppy disk drive in the next several years. Teacher 2000 One example of a tool illustrating this multimedia capability is a shell designed by the author to address this specific goal. Teacher 2000 is a multimedia software program that allows a student to interactively view a lecture augmented by other reference materials. Teacher 2000 functions as a software shell, allowing custom materials to be loaded. Once loaded, it serves as a stand-alone program that can be clicked on with a mouse by the student, who thus engages in an interactive session with the tool[1] The Teacher 2000 screen is divided into three basic areas, each serving a different purpose. The areas include: (1) a lecture window where a video of the lecturer can be viewed and controlled; (2) an electronic chalkboard used to display all text, graphs, pictures, animation, and additional motion video referred to by the lecturer; and (3) a notes window for taking notes that will be reviewed or addressed at a later session. Figure 1 depicts a Teacher 2000 screen on which a second window has popped up on the chalkboard. This illustrates the ability to click on key words or symbols and instantly get supplementary information on the topic clicked. (FIGURE 1 NOT AVAILABLE IN ASCII TEXT VERSION.) Teacher 2000 gives the student the ability to view a lecture and stop it at any point to make notes on points not clearly understood. The student can take as many notes as desired by using the scrolling feature in the notes window. Other capabilities include the option of moving back and forth through the lecture as many times as desired. By pausing the lecture, a student can obtain more information on a topic by clicking the mouse on certain items on the chalkboard. Conclusion While the traditional educational format has not been significantly changed for centuries, advancements in multimedia technology promise a delivery vehicle that has the potential to revolutionize our educational process. The rate at which educators will promote the use of multimedia will depend on the leadership, philosophy, and availability of this new technology at their institutions. ======================================================================== Footnote: 1 At present, Teacher 2000 is being used to develop a digital version of a textbook, complete with full textbook content and lecture. ************************************************************************ Donald Hardaway is a professor of information systems in the School of Business at St. Louis University. His current research interests include the reengineering of education through the application of multimedia- based computer technology and the use of computer technology as a strategic vehicle. He is a graduate of University of Houston with a Ph.D. in information systems and computer science. ************************************************************************