PC-based Multimedia: An Opportunity to Redesign the Learning Process

|-------------------------------------|
|  Paper presented at CAUSE92         |
|  December 1-4, 1992, Dallas, Texas  |
|-------------------------------------|



PC-BASED MULTIMEDIA: AN OPPORTUNITY TO REDESIGN THE LEARNING PROCESS

Don Hardaway
Faculty 
St. Louis University, School of Business


ABSTRACT 

Enhancements to the educational process in terms of effectiveness, 
efficiency and presentation flexibility are of interest. Recent 
developments in PC-based multimedia provides the capability to address 
the educational process in new and innovative ways. This presentation 
will discuss the components of the traditional educational process and 
propose a new process. The new educational process demonstrates how 
today's multimedia technology can be used with personal computers to 
provide more flexibility and time for educators to expand the content of 
their courses. In addition to the new educational process, a software 
program, "Teacher 2000", developed to illustrate how lectures can be 
conducted, will be presented. Teacher 2000 includes the necessary 
functionality to use text, graphics, still video, animation, hypertext 
and motion video in achieving the new educational paradigm. 


INTRODUCTION

Most of today's classroom time is spent disseminating knowledge through 
the traditional lecture method. Although this method offers the 
advantage of being able to sequence and augment the textbook material in 
a live classroom setting, it leaves little time to engage in other 
learning activities. Multimedia programs built for the PC offer the 
opportunity to create 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. 
The interactivity and quality of presentation materials afforded by 
multimedia on the PC can be much richer than what is experienced in 
today's classroom. Additionally, it frees up class time to engage in 
other learning activities that are not possible using today's format for 
education. The following sections will discuss: (1) the trends noted in 
the evolution of the PC technology, (2) the educational considerations 
of using the new technology and (3) discuss Teacher 2000, a multimedia 
program developed to demonstrate how PC-based multimedia can be used as 
a vehicle to enhance the learning process.


TRENDS IN PC TECHNOLOGY

It is obvious that PC technology is advancing at a rate faster than the 
larger computer systems. This is particularly true with respect to 
technological features. In fact, many of the larger computer systems are 
being replaced by networks of PCs in client/server arrangements. The 
ability to house audio, photographs, animation and motion video on the 
PC came about faster than most people could expect. Even today, with 
these new abilities being demonstrated across the world, most people do 
not know that PCs possess these new abilities. In addition to the 
multimedia capability, PCs will soon be made smaller and possess 
cellular communications capability. Screen technology will improve until 
all PCs, including portables will have photographic quality. Keyboards 
will become a secondary input device, being replaced by speech 
recognition and the use of a stylus for free style handwriting 
recognition. The evolution of PCs indicates rapid changes with regard to 
faster processors, smaller size, wireless communication, speech and hand 
writing recognition, significant increases in storage capacity, high 
speed networking and full multimedia features. All of these 
technological advancements are emerging faster than expected. This 
leaves society, and in this case education, with the opportunity to 
redesign the way that we do business. By taking advantage of the 
numerous advancements in technology, education can reach more people and 
allow students more flexibility in taking courses. In addition to 
convenience, the content of the learning materials can be significantly 
enhanced. The proliferation of PC technology requires a more intense and 
informed approach to strategic planning, if the opportunities afforded 
by these technological advancements are to be exploited to the fullest. 
This planning effort not only requires re-engineering the process of 
education, but additionally, will require changes in the organizational 
structure to accommodate the paradigm shift. In order to understand new 
approaches to the educational process a review of the existing and 
traditional methods are necessary.


MODES OF LEARNING

The more common activities that we observe in education today include 
lecture, reading, application 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 in a more flexible arrangement. One approach to 
improving lecture efficiency is to examine the different methods by 
which to conduct lecture.

Formats for Attending Lecture

Four possible formats or methods can be considered when evaluating the 
alternative ways to disseminate knowledge or conduct lecture. These 
include same time same place (STSP), same time different place (STDP), 
different time same place (DTSP) and different time different place 
(DTDP); see figure 1.

[FIGURE 1 MISSING FROM TEXT FILE]


The most common method used today is STSP. Considering that students and 
faculty have to travel to be in the same room at the same time makes 
this method the most constrained in terms of logistics and time 
management. STDP offers flexibility with respect to location but 
requires a complex set of equipment in order to achieve 
teleconferencing. A prerecorded method offers the most promising 
alternative and additionally, is in alignment with the trends in 
computer technology (DTSP and DTDP). With multimedia becoming the next 
major innovation in computer technology, the notion of prerecorded 
materials is inevitable. We now have the ability to prerecord video with 
audio and play the video back on a PC. By using one of the multimedia 
authoring tools that are available, a video can be augmented by a rich 
set of illustrations (i.e. graphics, text and animation). Additionally, 
the student can have complete control over watching the video as many 
times as desired. One scenario that is possible today allows the student 
to watch lectures at a multimedia equipped lab at school any time the 
lab is open. A more futuristic scenario suggests that affordable home 
computers both desk top and portable will have the ability to play these 
multimedia productions; thereby, allowing maximum flexibility. These new 
possibilities offer an opportunity for educational institutions to re-
engineer the educational process and provide educational opportunities 
for a larger segment of society with a more content rich set of 
materials.


NEW EDUCATIONAL FORMAT

One possible format for conducting education would entail the 
prerecording of lectures and with the use of a multimedia authoring tool 
the integration of these lectures with content rich support materials. 
These support materials would include the normal displays shown on 
chalkboards and overhead projectors but additionally, offer 
interactivity and hypermedia features. Since the majority of class time 
is used conducting the lecture, and we prerecord lectures so that the 
students can view them in the multimedia lab, we now have a significant 
amount of time released that can be used for other learning activities 
that cannot presently be performed due to time constraints. This 
available time could be used at the instructor's discretion, but 
hopefully would be used to allow students to gain experience in applying 
theory and concepts to real world problems. This would serve to assist 
industry by enabling students to acquire a more practical education 
instead of relying on industry to do the real world educating once a 
student is hired. One approach to bringing real world examples into the 
class could involve the use of video cases that allow the use of 
portions of the conceptual and theory material covered in the textbook 
and lecture. This can be easily accomplished with the multimedia 
capability available in today's PCs. One example of a tool illustrating 
the multimedia capability necessary to conduct education in the fashion 
discussed is "Teacher 2000", a program designed by the author to address 
this specific goal.


TEACHER 2000

Teacher 2000 is a multimedia software program that allows a student to 
interactively view a lecture augmented by other reference materials. The 
Teacher 2000 screen is divided into three basic areas each serving a 
different purpose (see figure 2). 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/addressed at a 
later session. Teacher 2000 gives the student the ability to view a 
lecture, stop it at any point and make notes on points not clearly 
understood. The student has the opportunity to 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. 

Looking at figure 2, it can be seen that 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. This new process would allow teachers to off-load the bulk of 
the lecture material to a computer where the student can review the 
lectures with supplementary material as many times as needed and at 
their convenience. It further allows the instructor to create much 
richer and professional forms of information by using other software 
packages to prepare educational materials. Additionally, this approach 
also provides a means for instructor(s) with multisection courses to 
pool their ideas, thereby creating a much more complete and standardized 
presentation of the material.


CONCLUSIONS

The advancements with multimedia provide educators with an unusual 
opportunity to take advantage of a new set of capabilities that will 
certainly be felt throughout our society. While the traditional 
educational format has not been significantly changed for many years, 
multimedia provides a delivery vehicle that has the potential to 
revolutionize our educational process. With the capability of 
restructuring the entire delivery mode in combination with powerful 
computing capabilities, multimedia allows educators to be much more 
creative with the development of educational materials. The rate at 
which educators will promote the use of multimedia will depend on the 
leadership, philosophy and availablity of this new technology at their 
institutions. Although technology is not a cure all for what ails us, 
multimedia provides our profession with some unusual opportunities to 
make learning a more enjoyable and interesting experience.


[FIGURE MISSING]