Date: May 29, 2000
Author: Ronald Wolak

Subject: DISS 780 Multimedia Discussion Topic 6 - Multimedia in Distance Education

DISS 780 Discussion Topic 6 - Multimedia in Distance Education

Multimedia can be used to enhance distance education in a number of ways. Many areas of study are difficult to present by traditional distance education methods. These areas typically include those, which demand a great deal of interaction between the student and instructor. One example is the teaching of information systems analysis and design (Carswell & Benyon, 1996, June 2-6). Carswell and Benyon investigated the use of the multimedia adventure games to teach information systems. Their study found that multimedia games provided the interactivity required and proved an attractive catalyst for distance learning.

Another way in which multimedia can be used to enhance distance education is through the combination of static HTML lecture note pages with video. A recent study, Design of a Web-based Synchronized Multimedia Lecture System, tested the feasibility of a live/on-demand synchronized HTML-AV distance lecture system (Chen, Chen, & Hong, 1999, June 7-11). The system effectively synchronized the presentation of streaming video lecture, HTML-based lecture notes, and browser-based navigation events. Technologies employed in the prototype application included Java/JavaScript and RealAudio System RealPlayer plug-ins. In addition, RealServer was used as the audiovisual (AV) server and RVEncoder as the AV encoder.

Video conferencing technology can also be an effective tool in the distance learning environment. One such tool, Learn@Net, was recently evaluated (Ng, Ng, Tsang, & Hung, 1999, September 23-26). The Learn@Net application provided a virtual classroom, assignment handler, course material browser, and discussion board. Communication tools included were a shared chat room, whiteboard, and video conferencing. Video conferencing was accomplished using Intel Proshare to produce HTML pages with embedded local and remote video. Overall, the system relied on an open architecture based upon TCP/IP, HTML, Java, and SQL.

References

Carswell, L., & Benyon, D. (1996, June 2-6). An adventure game approach to multimedia distance education. Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ACM, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 122-124.

Chen, H., Chen, G., & Hong, J. (1999, June 7-11). Design of a Web-based synchronized multimedia lecture system. IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems, IEEE, Florence, Italy.

Ng, S., Ng, C., Tsang, H., & Hung, L. (1999, September 23-26). Learn@Net: An integrated multimedia system for distance learning. Third International Conference on Computation Intelligence and Multimedia Applications, IEEE, New Delhi, India.