Responsible faculty:

Prof. Dr. Betty Collis	Dr. Koos Winnips

Core Course 4 provides a theoretical basis for the use of instructional media. After completing this course, students are able to plan and conduct instruction that incorporates media. Throughout the course an integration of theory and practice is maintained. The students complete assignments for each module. These assignments are integral parts of the course’s final assignment.

Module 4.1: Introduction to Instructional Multimedia

The background for instructional multimedia technology is discussed – what are the benefits and what the costs implementing multimedia solutions in education and training. Different perspectives and issues are presented, concerning learners, instructors, managers and publishers. Basic design and development process-management principles are explained; requirements and roles of the instructional multimedia team are described. Limited technology and programming languages and authoring tools topics are included in this module, to facilitate the understanding and the communication process in joint educational and training projects.

Module 4.2: Instructional Design and Media

An overview of the instructional development cycle is made with the description of the separate phases (Analysis, Planing, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation and Revision). Goals and skills analysis of the learner, are pre-requisites of the development of the instructional strategy, which have to be implemented in to the media application. The module focuses on development of instructional materials and criterion-referenced test questions appropriate for media implementation. Principles and techniques of formative and non-formative evaluations are also described to help the developers to study the effectiveness of the implementations

Module 4.3: Media and Media Selection

The strengths and the weakness of the different media are discussed - Text, Audio, Graphics, Video and Animations. For each media, examples are given to illustrate the instructional value and limitations are described to make the applications motivating. Practical advises for the multimedia platform design and development are given, and some important technically oriented hints are represented, to support the understanding and the implementation of the actual multimedia technologies. Connected with the Learners characteristics, the instructional setting and the expected learning outcomes, the media selection process is discussed, taking in account the cost-effectiveness of the applications.

Module 4.4: Interactivity and Feedback

This module is focusing on interaction principles and problems, making the use of media and multimedia sensible and efficient from the instructional point of view. Forms and devices for active participation of the learners, their control of pace and sequence using navigation patterns and procedures, student comments and annotations in different dialog forms and techniques, those and other major topics are discussed. Special attention is paid to question writing for effective testing and the methods of question analysis. The module is including also characteristics of feedback and the basic feedback patterns for correct, partly correct or incorrect, invalid and unanticipated answers.

Module 4.5: Screen and Interface Design

The module reviews the screen components and gives the basic principles for the development of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). Icon prompts and menu types are discussed as an important part of the screen design. Characteristics of user-friendly interface applications are described, based on easy to use, shared control, and clarity and simplicity criteria. Visualisation methods and guidelines for using colours are given in a practically oriented matter to support the screen and interface design together with highlighting techniques.

Module 4.6: Storage Formats and Technology

Starting with the description of the traditional storage formats for text, audio, video, graphics and animation formats, the module is continuing with the compression and decompression techniques. Comparing videodisc technology from the near past with compact disc technology and production steps, attention is paid to some new computer network based technologies like streaming audio and video. The technology is discussed in the framework of the educational and training application areas of media and multimedia. The module includes also the elaboration of the final assignment, where students will integrate the results of the earlier modules in to a prototype for the World Wide Web (WWW).

Study materials

Fenrich, P. (1997). Practical guidelines for creating instructional multimedia applications. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace College.

Selected texts and manuals from other journals and books will be distributed during the sessions.

Other programme elements
Click on a link below to learn more about the main phases of the programme (or elements thereof).

• Introductory Module (2 weeks)
  
• Core Phase (18 weeks) - 6 Core Courses

  -	Organisation and management perspectives of education
  -	Models and strategies of curriculum development
  -	Principles of learning and instructional design
  -	Instrumentation for instruction and training
  -	Design methodology for education and training systems
  -	Evaluation and research as tools of the educational technologist

• Specialisation Phase (24 weeks) - 6 Specialisations

  -	Organisation & Management
  -	Curriculum
  -	Instruction
  -	Instrumentation
  -	Evaluation
  -	Training Systems Design for HRD

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© University of Twente, 2002