Multimedia

Defining Multimedia

Multimedia is the use of a computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. 

🌸 This definition contains four components essential to multimedia. First, there must be a computer to coordinate what you see and hear, and to interact with. Second, there must be links that connect the information. Third, there must be navigational tools that let you traverse the web of connected information. Finally, because multimedia is not a spectator sport, there must be ways for you to gather, process, and communicate your own information and ideas. 
🌸 If one of these components is missing, you do not have multimedia. For example, if you have no computer to provide interactivity, you have mixed media, not multimedia. 
🌸 If there are no links to provide a sense of structure and dimension, you have a bookshelf, not multimedia. If there are no navigational tools to let you decide the course of action, you have a movie, not multimedia. If you cannot create and contribute your own ideas, you have a television, not multimedia.

🌸 An important goal of this course is to enable you to become a creator, not just a consumer, of multimedia on the Internet. In this multimedia section of the Web Design portal, therefore, I will be putting resources requested by students who are working to design multimedia components to incorporate into their Web pages.

What is interactive elements?

Interactive elements in your Web site include such features as contact forms, appointment calendars, chat rooms, discussion forums (also called message boards), and order forms. 

🌸 At the simplest level, an interactive form can be used to collect information—for example, the visitor's name, email address, and topic of interest—and then mail that information to you automatically. 
🌸 At the most complex level, interactive elements such as online payment processing and shopping carts can handle some of the most demanding needs your customers may have.

How to evaluate multimedia materials

Evaluation involves judgement of the quality of an object against certain specified criteria. Whether evaluating art, or an educational software program, the evaluator is making observations or collecting information, and comparing or interpreting that information in order to make a decision as to the value of that object. There are two types of evaluations which are formative and summative.

 Formative evaluation is the process of evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of multimedia during the development process. Summative evaluation, in contrast, is the evaluation of the completed product.

Formative Evaluation

There are three major stages or steps that occur in the formative evaluation of multimedia hardware or software: the development of a prototype, the pilot test and the field test. A prototype can be a model, a mock-up or even a paper template representing a sample screen, lesson, or module of a software program. Prototypes can be conceptual, allowing for early feedback, or working, allowing for hands-on. Securing early agreement from stakeholders that the prototype meets the product specifications, means that delays, disappointments and costly mistakes can be minimized. Kearsley (1984) suggests that the definition of stakeholders should include anyone with a vested interest in the project, not just the instructional developers and designers.

  Once agreement has been reached on the prototype stage, the next step is to pilot test the product. The pilot test is usually conducted on a one-to-one or small group basis. Ideally, the instructional developers would test the product with typical students. A variety of techniques can be used to gather the data, ranging from direct observations, interviews, questionnaires, surveys and focus groups. The primary aim of this stage is to identify if there are any major design deficiencies.

The final stage of formative evaluation is to conduct the field trial. The conditions of the field trial should be as close as possible to the actual operational conditions. If, for example, the multimedia product is designed to stand on its own without teacher facilitation, then the field trial should simulate that environment as closely as possible. Questions, comments, concerns, value statements, and problem areas can be captured by direct observations, focus groups, help lines, or electronic mail.

Once the field test is completed the minor modifications can be completed, and the software can be released. The process just described may appear to be linear; a more accurate representation, however, is that formative evaluation is sequential. At every stage of the development process, de-bugging, re-designing and improvements are being made. Thus the formative evaluation process must be iterative, and circular, in order to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of the multimedia product.

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Summative Evaluation

In summative evaluation, the worth of a program or the overall effectiveness of the finished multimedia product is judged. In contrast to formative evaluation, summative evaluation is conducted by external evaluators after the product is delivered. Table 1 below summarizes the differences between formative and summative evaluation.

Reference

http://people.ucalgary.ca/~edtech/688/eval.htm.

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=23286&seqNum=4.

http://www1.udel.edu/edtech/multimedia/index.html.