By Irwin Cohen
Chemistry Department

Multimedia: You Know More than You think!

If you are a teacher you are already a multimedia expert, even if you never used the term before. We all use more than one type of media to present information in class, hence multimedia presentations. Think of a normal classroom session. Your voice is an audio component, your hand movements are visual, the blackboard contains text or graphics, and the student feedback is interactive. When appropriate, you may include additional media such as some music or another type of soundtrack from an audio system, or a video from a film strip or a VCR. Now introduce the power of a computer to aid in the development and demonstration of the material and you have a modem multimedia system for lecture presentation use.

Why Multimedia Tutorials?

The use of a computer during a lecture is an important and powerful tool, but it is not the only multimedia application to consider. Multimedia applications for use as tutorials and/or quizzes are very different but equally important because, in any presentation, no single student can control the pace and direction of the presentation for the entire class. During class you have to set the flow of the lecture based on the group as a whole. One of the most important advantages of computer-based student tutorials is that each student can direct the pace and direction of his or her own session.

For tutorial use, a multimedia application should provide for the inclusion of several different types of media: text, images, sound, video, and animation, and allow for student input which can be evaluated by the program and adjust the progress of the lesson as the student becomes engaged. Fortunately, authoring tools for the development of such applications are available.

How Do I Select an Appropriate Multimedia Authoring Tool?

Authoring tools come in several different flavors and prices. Some run on the Macintosh and some with Windows, and a few run with both. They cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and some even require that you pay royalties or, the products you develop. Macromedia Authorware is a powerful (and expensive) system which is site licensed by the City University of New York for faculty use on CUNY projects. It runs on both Macintosh and Windows systems and is royalty free. Products that you develop can be given to students or placed on a college network for their use.

The first and most important step, as you might expect, is the development of a lesson plan. The authoring tool is only for the implementation of your tutorial approach and content is the most important thing (although occasionally a new presentation tool will expose fresh new vistas and provide fresh insights into your material).

How Does Multimedia Authorware Work?

Authorware is an icon-based tool. That is, you are provided with an empty screen or page and a menu of icons, each of which has a function. The function may be as simple as "show a picture to the student." To invoke a series of functions, you use a mouse pointer to drag the corresponding icons onto the work screen/page in any order you want. When the student runs the tutorial, the functions you listed are sequentially presented in the order you established. For example, you could program the following:

1) Show a title page for 3 seconds.

2) Show instructions for the program and wait for the student to type his or her name in a entry box on the screen.

3) Show a map of several nations. Wait for the student to use the mouse to select a particular nation.

4) Present a review of the pertinent history of the nation and an image of a recently scanned newspaper article about the nation. [Note that the article can be easily replaced by the instructor at any time during the semester]

5) Request that the student fill in the answers to several questions about the selected nation.

6) Show the map of several nations again. Wait for the student to use the mouse to select a nation different from the first.

7) Present a review of the pertinent history of that nation (and the newspaper article), but now include a review of the international relations between the first and second nations selected.

8) Request that the student fill in the answers to several questions about the selected nation but now include questions about the international relations as well.

9) Play the appropriate national anthems and congratulate the student. Make a record of the student's name, the countries selected, and the answers given (for your later retrieval), then exit.

10) The next time the same student uses the same tutorial, the combination of nations previously selected is marked as completed.

The Power and Style of Authorware

Because Authorware is an icon-based tool, it is a little difficult to describe many of its functions in words here in this article. But perhaps just a few can give you a sense of its style and power.

You can easily create screens for the user which include text and graphics. You can create the graphics with Authorware tools (like Paintbrush), or you can use other graphics programs. You can even scan in photos or diagrams.

Animation of text and graphics is very easy to include, so you can allow the student to move screen elements (text or graphics) with her or his own control of a mouse, or have the student watch the movement that you have programmed.

Authorware provides all the tools you need to create student interaction, such as labeled buttons, check boxes, and so forth. The tutorial can request that the student input text, and your Authorware program can interpret the student's response according to criteria you establish. Student responses can be timed and prompts, hints, or corrections can be presented to the student, based on his or her performance. Various mathematical functions are built into Author-ware and advanced programmers can even add more functionality, if they like. You can lay out many different routes in the lesson you create and offer the student any of these paths, either through student selection or as a result of student performance.

The list of functions goes on and includes most of the tools you will need; at the same times, the options are not so many that they overwhelm the new programmer. This icon-based structure is not unique to Authorware; several other programs also use it. There am also other quite different multimedia authoring tools (such as Macromedia Director), which you might wish to explore separately.

The challenge in developing these types of programs has little to do with Authorware. Rather it lies in anticipating student response and error. Careful planning based on your experience as a teacher is a bigger "success" factor than skill and practice as a programmer. Most new Authorware users remark on how intuitive and enjoyable it is to use this software. But most also admit that the completion of a product fully useable by students is a substantial and worthy task.

Authorware, many sample tutorials, and the necessary manuals are available for use in the Faculty Training and Development Laboratory located on the lower level of the Library in room 019. Here, Lab staff will also give you the help you need to get started.