Multimedia

Content can be presented in several ways. Multimedia once was a buzz word. But in an e-learning environment, every representation form has it's own benefits and it's own disadvantages. The chosen form of representation could have a strong influence on the expected learning output. In this section you will find several representation forms, not only different in appearance but they also serve different didactical/educational characteristics.

Different formats or representation forms

Text

The alphabet, words, sentences, paragraphs. This page, for example, consists of text. Text processing refers to the ability to manipulate words, lines, and pages.

POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
Easy to produce.	Hard to read a lot of text on a computer display.
Everybody is familiar with it.	Hard to explain a difficult visual concept like the movement of a galloping horse's leg.
A learner can read for a long time.	For the new generation text is quite boring.
Easy to print out and take it with you.
Can contain a lot of information.
Does not need a lot of bandwidth.

Pictures

A picture or image is data represented in a two-dimensional scene. A digital image is composed of pixels arranged in a rectangular array with a certain height and width. Each pixel may consist of one or more bits of information, representing the brightness of the image at that point and possibly including color information encoded as RGB triples.

Pictures can have different formats like .gif and .jp

POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
Detailed description is possible (an image is word a thousand words).	It need more bandwidth than text.
Attractive for the learner.	Offers a lot of information which can distract the learner.
New learners are visually orientated	Colors can be a different when you print it out (and also different on different screens and different systems)

Animations

An animation is a simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames. A cartoon on television is one example of animation. Animation on computers is one of the chief ingredients of multimedia presentations. Animations can be made with special techniques like Flash or with image applications like Photoshop and Fireworks and exported as animated GIF.

POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
Are strong in representing difficult concepts because it can filter the unneeded information. A good example is the idea behind a motor of a car.	It needs more bandwidth then text. Especially an animation with pictures is quite ´heavy´.
Fast way of explaining.	Relatively time consuming to create.
Attractive way to involve the learner.	Most of the time it has to be combined with other formats like audio.

Audio

Audio is sound within the acoustic range available to humans. On a computer an audio file is a record of captured sound that can be played back.

Audio files are usually compressed for storage purposes or faster transmission. In order for users to receive sound in real-time for a multimedia effect, sound must be delivered as streaming sound. The advantage of streaming (instead of downloaded sounds) is that there is no waiting (or very little) from the time you click the mouse until you hear the sound. Well known formats are: wave (.wav) , midi (.mid), MPEG, audio layer 3 (.mp3).

POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
Attractive to learners.	Only usable for short fragments (2 minutes maximum).
Can enhance learning effect of animations enormously if used synchronous.	Consumes quite a lot of bandwidth.

Video

Video refers to displaying still images, in such a high speed that our mind interpreters the sequence of images as a movement. You can compare it with animation. The difference is the use of real images (pictures) and most of the time the number of frames per second is higher with video then with animations. The higher the number of frames per second, the more our eyes are interpreting the sequential as real 'movement'. This can be realized if you use between 24-30 frames per second.

POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
Fast way of explaining.	Only usable for short fragments (10 minutes maximum) to keep attention.
Sometimes the only way of representing an idea.	Needs a lot of bandwidth (when quality is desired).
Attractive to learners.	Can be inefficient because it contains a lot of unneeded information.
Can play an important social role (during video-conferencing).	Is sometimes only used to attract learners without offering additional educational value.
Can be used for nonverbal communication (e.g. can be very effective for soft skills training).	Relatively expensive and difficult to produce.

Some examples of multimedia

Example of an animation
(in Spain this sign means it is a crowdy place)

Example of audio

Example of video
Showing how to create graffity

Formats and learning effect

The usage of these representational forms (or a combination of these forms) could improve the learning effect, but used thoughtlessly (e.g. for marketing reasons) the learning effect could be just less. It's not true that video is always more effective than text. And the effect of one representational form can influence the other (in a positive or negative way).

For example: a text can be shown on a screen. This text can also be accompanied by an explanation in audio format. When the text and the audio are well tuned, this could lead to a greater learning effect (for most learners). If the presented text on screen and the audible text aren't tuned that well (e.g. the showed text clearly reflects from the spoken text), the learner will be troubled by the combination and the learning effect could be less if only one representational form was used.

Website about educational technology

Please visit the Encyclopedia of Education Technology from the San Diego State University.

This example will make something clear about the educational value of multimedia. After you explore this page, please answer the question.

Go to the page .

Combination audio/text and animations?

What will be the best way of combining audio/text with an animation?

(E.g. an animation where you explain something about how to exchange a tire from your car).

	Show the animation and put some nice background music which shows the emotions.
	Show the animation and use audio to tell what is happening.
	Show the animation and use audio to tell what is happening and use some background music.
	Show the animation and explain what is happening by subtitles.