Implications of Multimedia for University Education (Multimedia and the Internet at the University of Canberra its use and alternatives)
Penny Collings Head of Information Systems Program
Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering
Abstract
At the University of Canberra, work is being done in the use and evaluation of multimedia systems and of networked client/server systems for teaching and learning. Staff use the World Wide Web and other Internet services for teaching and students use it, on an individual basis, for learning. Students and staff also use Lotus Notes for asynchronous group work. Some use is made of (multi) media and hypertext in these systems but resource limitations are one reason why multimedia use is not widespread. A goal is to facilitate student (collaborative) learning and some project, research and teaching grant work is being done in this area.Multimedia and the Internet at UC
Multimedia is being used in education at the University of Canberra, for example, CDROM based multimedia software is used to demonstrate mathematical concepts via a portable computer in a lecture theatre; a multimedia package for teaching quantum physics to Engineering students will be used this year. These projects are examples of systems developed with the support of teaching grants. These projects may be distributed via the World Wide Web.In the Computer Services Centre (CSC) and some faculties we have hardware and software to assist in the development of such multimedia systems - through use of CDROMs on PCs and some of the facilities are suited to the development of multimedia for use on the Internet. Students (and staff) can get Unix accounts which give access to the Internet and the World Wide Web. However, for services provided by the CSC to students, access is to character based readers and this means that multimedia is not available through this path to students. Some faculties therefore provide their own services and this is done in the Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering to a smaller group of students who are usually interested in their use and evaluation. Our students have access to WWW browsers such as MOSAIC and NETSCAPE, particularly if they are using UNIX systems (relevant if sound and video are to be received). A resource constraint is the small number of dial up lines to the CSC or the faculty so this limits the amount of use that can be made of the Internet resources through dialling the university. Students like to use a dial up capability so that they can access the resources of the Internet or the Faculty from home, after hours. However, the advantage of the Internet is that it can be accessed through other servers so that many students actually can make use of it.
The relevance of the Internet to the teaching/learning process
The Internet is an information sharing resource with a world wide public access focus. It is used at UC primarily as an information supply source - staff supply information via the Internet and students may access this information or any other publically available information (eg library searches, etc). The Internet is also used as a communication system (mainly for students to communicate with staff about administrative matters). Particular examples of staff use are the WWW for presenting lecture material in lecture theatres and for distributing lecture material for students to access from any location at any time. It is unusual for this to include media other than text, still pictures and hypertext links. However, students find this valuable and relevant to their needs - the still pictures are typically diagrams. Other staff uses are via their own home page (information about themselves) or to advertise conferences in the usual way on the WWW. Staff use email in the usual way to maintain professional contacts, for discussions within the university, and for communicating with students who initiate a discussion. Students are taught how to use the Internet as an individual productivity tool in several courses.What is the requirement for multimedia in this environment?
What is the relevance of multimedia to the teaching/learning process? Many CAUT (Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching - Australian Government grants) projects have supported the development of multimedia systems to enhance learning and the physics one in our faculty is subtitled : "observing the unobservable", an indication that multimedia is being used where other methods seem to make the process too abstract for many of our students. Let's assume, then, that multimedia has a place in learning. The "wish list" held by staff in our faculty includes the possibility of providing live multimedia demonstrations of software or other systems via the Internet. However, as with all multimedia projects on a local level, there are many cost constraints and also logistical ones. The problems include not only the cost of the development of multimedia packages but the current lack of dial up lines, GUI and appropriate protocols for access via the Internet to be feasible. Another problem is the current poor performance of the WWW - the response time is so slow that many staff will not use it and do not encourage students to engage in its use especially where multimedia is involved. The main current value of the WWW is in its hypertext facility and this is used.What are the costs and benefits?
The costs and benefits of multimedia are presented in a variety of ways which usually end up justifying the effort by those producing the systems. However, there are costs in use as well. The costs to students include dial up and connect time. A few examples have proved that this is quite expensive but an extensive study has not been done to see if students feel that the benefits outweigh the costs. At the moment, most benefit is likely to be gained by students who have workplace access to the Internet and are part time students. They can probably take advantage of any lecture service on the WWW when they cannot attend the campus.What are the alternatives?
Alternatives to the Internet are also being investigated. The best example of this at UC is our use of Lotus Notes for collaborative learning purposes. Many people in Canberra have heard of or are using Lotus Notes. A common question is "what is the difference? why use Lotus Notes, is it better than the WWW or vice versa?". This is a difficult question because the two have some things in common and also some differences. Lotus Notes is a groupware product and is best used for group work. It has the advantage of having a consistent user interface for all group activities whereas it is more difficult to achieve similar results through using several facilities on the Internet, especially for users who are task oriented rather than technology oriented! It has comprehensive and complex security, it is probably more expensive to install and support, but it is cheaper to use (in that you can dial up a server, replicate information, then close the connection - you are not charged for long connect times because these are not required) and currently offers students particular advantages (through a standard interface to forms, discussions, etc) that cannot be offered by the Internet. It also supports multimedia and hypertext, if these are required.What are we doing?
We are using the Internet and Lotus Notes for teaching purposes; however, Lotus Notes is being used for student-centred collaborative learning and this complements the use of the Internet for individual activities. Both are client-server systems and are valuable in themselves as systems that students want to learn; however, they are also valuable as part of the infrastructure for the learning process and Lotus Notes is of particular interest to us because it provides support for group work and group work is seen as crucial by employers (and students). We have used it to design templates for:- discussions
- joint development and review of deliverables
- project management
- a repository for completed work
- submission of work to a tutor
Future use of groupware and multimedia
The university has a simulation suite in which activities are undertaken such as behavioural simulations (role-playing games), usability testing of software, groupware evaluations and research projects which require the use of networked PCs and the videotaping of "what's going on" for feedback, analysis and debriefing purposes. The suite will be used to use and evaluate groupware this year, for example, simple (multimedia) videoconferencing, multimedia groupware (shared drawing spaces) and for some research projects in the area of virtual reality. Other projects include the usability testing of multimedia software systems to ensure the best quality of such systems used in educational activities. One of our concerns is to develop expertise in the evaluation of multimedia systems, and we have honours and masters students working in this area. Other support is coming from the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching, Learning and Scholarship who have a project to support innovative uses of IT in the teaching/learning process. In otherwords, we view the use of multimedia in teaching and learning, whether standalone or on client-server platforms such as Lotus Notes or the internet to be of current and continuing interest - we are developing and using a variety of systems as well as expertise in design and evaluation.
Penny Collings is the Head of the Information Systems Program in the Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering at the University of Canberra where she teaches information systems design specialising in the areas of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and user interface design.
She and her colleagues have several teaching grants in these fields. She is the secretary of Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of the Ergonomics Society of Australia (CHISIG Australia) and of the ACT branch and a member of the ACS. She has a background in industry and worked for Control Data (Australia) for two years and Digital Equipment Corporation in Boston and the UK for five years developing interactive systems.