Multimedia in Training and Education

by

 Valerie A. Akuna, Ph.D.

Becoming “educated” is not a natural or particularly enjoyable process for many people.  In fact, according to Vannavar Bush in an article entitled “As We May Think” published in the Atlantic Monthly in July 1945 “The rigid ways in which published knowledge is classified is becoming an obstacle to human progress”. He was not alone in thinking that humans were making learning difficult for themselves, Ted Nelson, who coined the phrase “hypermedia” in 1965, was particularly concerned with “how” people best learned. He felt that hypertext offered a logical approach to solving this problem stating that “hypertext more closely models the way we think, allowing us to explore a subject area from many different perspectives until we find an approach useful to us.” Today the perceptions of these men, and others like them, have been translated into interactive, multimedia-rich training and educational materials.

Multimedia the Ideal Communication Vehicle

What makes multimedia the ideal educational and training communication tool is that it is a technology tool.  In the right hands, this tool has the ability to create visual impact, capture and retain attention, and above all, stimulate the imagination.  The set of skills necessary to enjoy mastery of this computer-based media are relatively easy to obtain: the mouse, keyboard, joystick, and the cognitive skills necessary to navigate through cyberspace or a CD-ROM.  Interactive multimedia above all, has the additional ability to place the learner in control of the learning process, not simply to place the individual in the position of a receptacle in to which information is deposited.

One of the main obstacles to using multimedia as an aid to learning has been the cost of developing multimedia products, and the cost of the equipment needed to deliver instruction or training in this way. By and large, these questions have become moot. Authoring software is much less costly than it was, and hardware on which to run these programs, is now quite affordable.  Although most educational establishments now prefer to network their computers, and there is a cost attached to this process, in addition to the ongoing maintenance and running of a network, the benefits far outweigh these expenses.

Multimedia in Training and Education

A revolution is taking place, one which, to a great extend is multimedia driven, that is the blurring of the traditional line between those being educated, and those being trained. Today, both colleges and universities offer computer-based learning, that smacks very much of computer-based training! In fact, multimedia applications are used in many different areas, including businesses, industry, and education.  In the area of education multimedia offers instructors a wider variety of materials in the form presentations, CD-ROM based instructional modules, and Internet learning.  The learning process is much more interesting and caters to a variety of different learning styles.  Quite simply multimedia is changing the way teachers teach and students learn.  It is also impacting the education and training of both physically and mentally handicapped children. However, to Tom Hall, of Pitt Community College, there are 10 perfectly simple reasons for using multimedia in education:

Multimedia and the Web 

            The World Wide Web is the epitome of a true multimedia environment.  It displays animation, uses sound and video, and incorporates text and graphics, and nowhere has multimedia made such an impact as in this area. In fact, with the convergence of the Web and multimedia, there has been an explosion of web-based training and education courses.     It was the visual impact that multimedia brought to the Web that made the Internet a truly universal happening.  The Web brought user-friendliness, and a visual presence that had not existed before. Educational institutions and private training organizations throughout the world are quickly responding to the potential that the marriage of the Web and multimedia brings.  We are, in fact, experiencing the beginning of the “digitizing” of education. However, technical concerns, not educational principles, initially drove the design of web-based training.

            This is changing.  Organizations now employ Instructional Designers who consider “what makes people learn best”?  Models of good practice in WBT are also being developed by such companies as Funderstanding, a N.Y. design company that specializes in education on the Web. And as a testament to the success of training on the Web incorporating multimedia rich content, Ernst & Young trained 24,000 of their employees in less than 18 months in 110 cities. Their next step is to take the training world-wide, they still have 55,000 employees to train! Their goal: to improve competitiveness by better harnessing scattered company expertise.  Their strategy: to create a worldwide computerized “knowledge network” with which professionals can share best practices.  Their training plan contains, audit, tax and consulting units as we might expected.  Staffing: 12 instructional designers have been brought on board, in addition to 15 programmers whose job it will be to create multimedia programs to place on the Web.  It’s clear that training in the corporate world is no longer the ugly step-child, it has become, in many companies, a  top priority -- tapping the multimedia rich resources of the web is now the clear and stable trend.

 

Computer Based Training  

In businesses and industry computer-based training provides on-the-job training for employees in a time-sensitive way at a reasonable cost.  With the many types of CBT training tutorials available, employees receive step-by-step instruction, instant and positive feedback in a non-threatening environment, and above all, learn at their own pace. Multimedia is a key factor in blurring the line between education and training.  A distinction has always been drawn between “being educated” and “being trained”, the former enjoying a decidedly more respected profile. Today, with the upsurge of vendor competency testing and acceptance of industry recognized certification such as Microsoft’s MCSE and Cisco’s CCNA career certifications, many community colleges, and even universities, are offering what would typically have been referred to as “training” courses. In fact, according to the American Council on Education (ACE)  between 1997 and 1998, the “number of companies seeking to have their computer training course recommended for college credit increased by 38 percent.  A third increase in requests comes from companies that offer distance learning on multimedia-rich, interactive, CD-ROM or the Internet.

Case Study  - Multimedia, the Web, Cisco, and the Community Colleges

            It is an undisputed fact that the American economy runs on information, however, many companies are facing a shortage of “information workers”.  Through programs such as the Cisco Networking Academies, high school and college students can prepare for the Cisco Certified Network Associate exam -  (www.ciso.com/edu/academies/). Estrella Mountain Community College in Arizona, one of the ten Maricopa Community Colleges (the largest community college system in the nation) was the first college in the state to become a Cisco Regional Academy (there are 627 throughout the country). Cisco primarily uses Web-based instruction, heavily laden with multimedia-rich content.  Students learn the conceptual and technical skills to design, install, operate and maintain state-of-the-art computer networks from multimedia-rich web pages full of simulations, great video extracts, and excellent audio segments. Students enjoy a truly multimedia-rich experience, not simply an on-line electronic book.  They log on to the course pages with an ID and user password.  Once into the course they experience a consistent user interface, colorful, well-designed pages, high quality sound and video excerpts, and strong content. Due to multimedia, students really begin to understand the mysterious world of networks especially when they see a 3-D animation of how a LAN works .  The multimedia learning modules placed on the web are created using Macromedia Director, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Sound Edit 16, and Macromedia Shockwave. A Web-based, multimedia-rich environment was selected by Cisco as the best means of delivery for their highly complex courses over the traditional instructor-lead course. Quite simply they recognized that students can learn at their own pace, repeat difficult sections, learn complex concepts via simulated segments, and above all, they recognized that multimedia could retain the students’ attention.  The cost of setting up such a learning environment was: room wiring $15,000, 25 computers at $3,800 each with 128 MB of RAM, and 4GB hard drive - $95,000, and a printer costing $4,500.  Hubs and routers were given to the college by Cisco. In addition, it was necessary to spend another $12,000 for furniture (tables, and chairs).  All this may sound expensive, however, classes offered at the college are immediately filled by local companies and the general public, and waiting lists generated.  The financial expenditure by the college will very quickly be recouped, especially as Estrella also trains teachers of local high schools, who then train their own students.  Without doubt part of the reason for Cisco’s success is its exciting web multimedia learning modules.  A wide assortment of students with quite different backgrounds are able to cope and enjoy the learning experience due to the  audio and visual presentations Cisco have used

Another example of how multimedia rich material has helped drive an industry can be seen in CBT Systems, a leader in the world of interactive, computer-based training courseware. It vigorously markets its substantial library of products to companies, colleges, and schools alike.  Again, if one takes the case of Estrella Mountain Community College, their District, the Maricopa Community College District, the largest district in the United States, has entered into an agreement with CBT Systems to offer the faculty and staff of their colleges a large selection of technical titles, such as C, C++, Visual Basic, Java, Microsoft Office, and many more. If there is consensus from the ten colleges that CBT training products enhance learning, then Maricopa will create a more abiding agreement with CBT Systems for use of their multimedia, CD-ROM based courses for the student body. Allowing students to take CD-ROMs home as an integral part of their courses will meet a dire need within the community college system, and that is flexibility of learning.

 Exam Prep, another company heavily involved with computer based learning and training employ instructional designers, educators, writers, subject-matter experts, editors and programmers to create cutting-edge products that meet industry needs and standards. Their multimedia CD-ROM products are built on sound pedagogy:  a) they first present conceptual information,  b) demonstrate a  procedure, and c) instruct the user to complete steps. In addition, they make it possible students to access related Internet resources on  the Web by clicking on the appropriate hyperlink.

 

Multimedia Software and Hardware Requirements

Companies producing computer-based training materials do not find it as difficult as they once did to recruit capable designers, programmers and instructional-design specialists. More universities and colleges are producing individuals skills in these areas. The software required is also becoming less prohibitive in price and less complex, for example, Microsoft Director 6.5 Multimedia Studio which includes: Director, Extreme 3D for 3D graphics and animation, Sound Edit (Macintosh) or Sound Forge XP (Windows) for audio production, and XRes for image editing costs less than a $1,000.  Other software used for animation and simulation might be 3D Studio Max, or Soft Image.  These are more expensive programs  costing about $3,500, and $7,900 respectively. In addition, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator are important software programs that multimedia producers need in their arsenal. These cost around $223.00 and  $119.00 respectively through companies such as Software Spectrum Academic Licensing.

            So far as hardware requirements are concerned, a great deal depends upon whether you want to create multimedia, or whether you are a consumer of multimedia products.  If an instructor wants to create a course which will be distributed using a CD-ROM, or on the Internet, the college will need to purchase a “multimedia” computer which differs from a computer with standard configurations for non-multimedia applications such as word processing, databases and similar applications. At one time the Macintosh was the clear platform of choice for multimedia development – that is no longer the case. For example, Director 6.5 will perform quite well on a 486 DX, SD or greater with Windows 95, or Windows NT 4 or later, and 16 MB of available RAM. 3D Studio Max can run on a mere Pentium with 32MB of RAM and Windows NT 3.51 or higher, and Kinetix’s new 3-D display engine, Heidi, can operate with any PCI, or VLB graphics card capable of running at 800x600 or higher. (Heidi doesn’t need hardware acceleration, although it can take advantage of 3-D accelerators).  Redraws and renders, for instance, really benefit from say an ELSA Gloria 8.  SoftImage requires, a Pentium Alpha or MIPS-based PC or better, 64 MB RAM, at least 1GB hard disk space, and Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 with Service Pack 2 or later.  For an individual, perhaps working at home on a distance learning programs via the Web, or taking a CD-ROM based course, the hardware needs are somewhat less demanding. For example, a computer with a Pentium, with at least 16 MG of RAM, a 4 speed CD-ROM drive, sound and video cards, monitor, and a 56K modem can be purchased at about  $1,500.00. Of course, the more RAM and processing power the better, but this will be dictated by how much an individual has to spend. In addition, such companies as Gateway are offering their YourWare  program  that makes it much easier for students to purchase computers at a reasonable price and then have the option after two years to trade that computer in to get an upgraded model.  Not only is this convenient, it also deals with the problem of obsolescence that computer users face.

Summary

The trend is clear, because of innovations in both hardware and software, and the use of multimedia on the Web, the future of multimedia is exciting and dynamic.  The cost of multimedia hardware is continuously decreasing, and the quality of audio and video is continually improving.  Multimedia production software is also becoming more user friendly and less expensive making it possible for educators to create products that communicate complex concepts to students in new and exciting ways. Distance learning is now becoming the norm, rather than the exception, and more higher educational establishments are preparing students to create and use multimedia products.  Finally, business and industry is fast becoming a major user of multimedia-rich training programs both on CD-R and the Web.  The potential that multimedia offered is at last being fully realized.

 References:

Bernstein, D. “WBT: Are We Really Teaching?” Multimedia Technology Training, February, 1998 v2, n2  p.14-17

Gehris, D.0.Using Multimedia Tools and Applications on the Internet. Belmont, CA. Integrated Media Group (part of ITP Publishing)

Morrison, D.J. “Multimedia will drive the 1998 Market” Electronic News, Jan5, 1998, v44, n2200,p16(3)

Leggett, W.P and Persichitte, K.A. “Blood, Sweat, and TEARS: 50 Years of Technology Implementation Obstacles”  Techtrends, April/May, 1998 

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