Multimedia and Hypermedia in the Delivery of Computer-Assisted Instruction
We have already used the terms multimedia and hypermedia several times. These terms appear many more times in later chapters where we explore how students learn from Internet resources and by authoring projects that summarize their learning activities. It is time to describe multimedia and hypermedia in greater depth and to consider the benefits and limitations of these information formats as instructional resources.
What Are Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Hypertext?
While the term multimedia and, to a lesser degree, hypermedia are encountered frequently, those with a need for official definitions will be disappointed. There are no industry standards, and different people use the terms differently. Educators sometimes use the terms interchangeably, even though the terms are intended to describe different combinations of media and communication methods. For our present purposes, we offer definitions based on a logical identification of product characteristics.
If a product uses more than one modality (say, visual and auditory), at least two symbol systems within a modality (words and pictures), or at least two genres within a symbol system (prose and poetry, a still image and video), the product includes multiple media—that is, multimedia. Multimedia thus translates as “many formats.” By this definition, a series of slides with musical accompaniment or a newspaper article containing an image is multimedia. To maintain our intended focus, we concentrates on forms of multimedia in which a computer is involved.
Hypermedia allows multimedia to be experienced in a nonlinear fashion. In this format, units of information— such as individual words, segments of text, or segments of audio, pictures, animations, and video clips—are connected to each other in multiple ways. Hypermedia environments are often described as interactive because the hypermedia user must direct the software and hardware environment to present the next unit of information to be experienced. Because control is vested in the user, different individuals potentially have very different experiences as they work in hypermedia environments. We assume you intuitively understand this concept because of your experience with the Internet. Just because a link is available does not mean you will use the link - you control your learning experience. When the information in hypermedia consists entirely of text, the term hypertext is used. Hypertext was actually the first form of hypermedia, but now is seldom seen in educational settings.
The idea of an organized yet nonlinear system might be a bit confusing, but the implications are important to understand. Here’s a comparison that might help reveal some of these implications. Traditional books are organized in a linear fashion. As you read, you encounter a series of ideas. An author orders the ideas in this series based on his or her opinion of the structure that will make the information most interesting, most persuasive, or easiest to understand. If you were to read a section of a chapter a second time, you would obviously encounter the same series of ideas in the same order.
Now consider how a book, perhaps a science textbook, might be presented in a hypermedia format. From a particular segment of text describing scientific discoveries, the reader might be able to access the definition of any term appearing in boldface print, view a picture of the famous scientist responsible for each discovery, read a short biographical sketch of the scientist, and review the scientific principles on which scientific breakthroughs were based. Some scientists and some scientific principles might be associated with several different discoveries. Different students might explore this environment in different ways. Some might just review the scientific discoveries. Some might read all of the biographies of the scientists. Some might take each discovery in turn and learn about the discovery, the scientist, and the principles associated with the discovery. Some might review everything available about a famous scientist’s work. In contrast to the predictable pattern of readers’ working with a textbook, the exploration of a hypermedia environment offers much more variety.
Multimedia and hypermedia are distinct terms and there are some unique issues associated with information presented using multiple formats (multimedia) and information allowing user choice in information navigation (hypermedia). Some educational researchers (Moreno & Mayer, 2007) have dispensed with these terms and substituted different descriptive terms, interactive and multimodal, encouraging an escape from the familiar perhaps to allow a fresh look at educational advantages and disadvantages. We will discuss several of these issues next, but after these issues are identified we will then drop the distinctions and use the more common term multimedia in a general way noting that the experience with multimedia often allows users an element of control or interactivity.
The information that follows will acquaint you with the characteristics and potential benefits of multimedia as applied in educational settings.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Multimedia and Hypermedia
Multimedia instructional resources present information in more formats than is typical, and hypermedia allows such resources to be explored with greater flexibility. Experts have identified both strengths and weaknesses in such resources. Here is our summary of these issues.
Advantages of Multiple Formats and Alternative Perspectives
Multimedia and hypermedia provide an efficient and cost-effective way to deliver effective learning experiences to which students otherwise would not have access. These experiences range from direct support for verbal instruction to students’ active exploration of new information.
Support for Verbal Instruction - The availability of text, sound, animation, video, and still images for presenting information and the easy transitions among these formats can increase the clarity of explanations. Different methods of representation are potentially suited to explaining or demonstrating different concepts or skills, and multimedia and hypermedia make it easy to give students these different experiences. For example, it is more effective to give a basic explanation of mitosis and then step through a time-lapse video of cell division than to struggle through a verbal analysis of how the chromosomes align themselves along the equatorial plate or how the spindle fibers pull the chromatids toward the centrioles. A teacher can easily point out these phenomena in the images displayed on a screen. The teacher might first talk the students through the stages of mitosis by advancing the video a few frames at a time, describing changes and pointing to interesting developments as they appear. Then the teacher might run the entire sequence so students will have an opportunity to appreciate how the process unfolds. The images add a lot to the written or spoken words.
Multimedia can support verbal instruction in other ways. Consider the challenge of helping students understand the form of musical composition called a fugue. It is easy to give a verbal definition, but will terms like theme, imitation, and counterpoint mean much to students? Of even greater importance, would students be able to identify a fugue if they heard one? Again, the teacher’s definition or the definition in a tutorial could be supported by listening to a musical selection, such as an appropriate passage from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The teacher might play a few seconds of music, pause to ask if the students are able to hear different voices imitating each other at different pitches, maybe hum a few bars to identify the imitation, and then play the brief selection again.
Authentic Learning and Depth of Learning Experience - There are other kinds of content that multimedia can present in particularly powerful ways. Multimedia, particularly combinations involving video, are very useful when the content has to do with social situations, interpersonal problem solving, foreign language training, or moral decision making. Multimedia can encourage students to think about complex issues.
A similar argument has been made in support of providing authentic learning tasks anchored in realistic settings (Bransford et al., 1990). A video format provides experiences that are both more complex and more like situations outside the classroom, exposing students to realistic experiences they may not have encountered directly. Video provides more information to sort through and think about, and video material can often be examined from multiple points of view. Working to process such a rich information source is one way to engage students in more active learning. Learning experiences that combine extended video segments and other resources and activities allow students to anchor what they learn in realistic goals, activities, and situations. Some have described this rich context, particularly when one can function within such an environment in the form of an avatar, as “immersive”. We have more to say about the potential educational benefits of an immersive environment in our online resources.
Dual-Coding Theory - The capability of efficiently offering related experiences in different forms may have other advantages. Paivio’s (1986) dual-coding theory is often cited as support for exposing students to both pictures and verbal information. Dual-coding theory argues that imagery and verbal information are processed and stored in different ways. Experiencing something verbally and through imagery offers advantages because the experiences may result in two memory codes instead of one. Students exposed to pictures or video and verbal input may store and retrieve information more effectively than students who do not have these multiple inputs.
It is possible to be even more explicit about the conditions under which multiple formats are advantageous (Mayer, et al, 2001; Moreno & Mayer, 2007). When you are explaining relatively complex phenomena, dual codes are most beneficial when students are able to interrelate the codes. For example, a computer animation with narration was found to lead to better understanding of how a bicycle pump works than allowing students first to hear the narration and then to watch the animation. Access to both sources of information also resulted in an advantage over access to only one source of information.
Meeting Individual Needs - Hypermedia offers students some degree of control over the information they experience. Students can get help when they need it. When they have difficulties, they can get supplementary information or experience information in a different format. Other needs are also important. Sometimes a student understands the information but wants to know more. Imagine a learning environment in which a student can quickly ask for more depth, greater detail, or additional examples when encountering something of great personal interest. The control allows students working in responsive environments to meet their own needs. These opportunities for control and self determined individualization are among the benefits Moreno and Mayer (2007) have identified as components of what they mean by “interactive” media.
You have likely been exposed to the online resources provided through the Kahn Academy. This web service offers free video tutorials on a wide range of subjects. The content is organized into short segments allowing learners to target specific needs or interests in an efficient manner. Our online resources explore the properties of the Kahn Academy site in greater detail
Multimedia and certainly hypermedia programs often leave the decision to display a video segment, diagram, or supplemental text to the student. In theory, students who need access to a different type of explanation or are likely to find a visual representation helpful have opportunities to customize their learning environment. As multimedia and hypermedia environments become more sophisticated, options for students will become even more varied.
Motivational Benefits - Finally, the variety of formats that multimedia and hypermedia offer is motivating. For many students, seeing a human take the first steps on the moon or hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech results in very different affective reactions than simply reading about the lunar landing or reading Dr. King’s speech. Emotion is part of school learning and part of what makes learning exciting.
Concerns About Multimedia in Classrooms
Experts have raised a number of concerns related to the multimedia and hypermedia programs that are currently available and to some of the assumed benefits of multimedia and hypermedia. We want you to have a realistic sense of how multimedia applications are used in classrooms and to understand that there are potential problems. Such awareness will help you recognize classroom situations in which problems might develop and help you make more informed decisions about how to use multimedia with your students.
Inadequate Student Skills - Learning from any information source requires that students have skills suitable to both the format and the particular method in which information is made available. Multimedia and hypermedia are different from text-only or passive learning environments and these formats may also require the development of different learning skills.
For example, it has been demonstrated that approaches combining text with extensive video can sometimes result in poorer learning. In one informative study, junior-high earth science students worked with multimedia containing interesting video from the Great Quake of 1989 (Levin, 1991). When presented with text only, students seemed to be in a familiar element. When presented with text and the opportunity to watch interesting video, the students appeared to become distracted by the video and retained less essential information. This problem, which is appropriately described as being distracted by seductive details, has been demonstrated in multimedia containing unnecessarily redundant or superfluous text, video, or animations (Mayer, Heiser, & Steve, 2001). It appears that more is not always better.
By the way, this is not really a new phenomenon. It has been known for some time that pictures in books can interfere with the performance of young readers (Schallert, 1980). This early work with traditional reading material offers some additional insights. Pictures in any medium must serve a purpose. Pictures interfere when they do not convey useful information. As readers gain experience, they seem to learn to ignore pointless graphics. As students become experienced users of multimedia, they may adopt similar strategies. We can only hope that multimedia designers will use graphics and video effectively, and that students will have a reason for giving these sources of information careful consideration.
The choices available in hypermedia offer another challenge to learning skills. Hypermedia allows students to move freely among ideas and information sources. There may be some ways in which the richness of resources and the freedom of exploration allowed by hypermedia are problematic. For example, it is not well established that students can make effective decisions regarding their own learning. Given what is known about general metacognitive competence and students’ control of their learning with technology (see the discussion of metacognition in the chapter two) inconsistency in taking advantage of potentially helpful learning experiences is not surprising.
Research that has studied the approach learners take as they explore hypermedia has identified several categories of learners (Lawless & Brown, 1997; Locatis, Letourneau, & Banvard, 1990):
-
Knowledge seekers: Learners who use a strategic approach concentrating on the examination of material consistent with an assigned goal
-
Feature explorers: Learners who seem captivated by special effects and gravitate toward options such as movies and sound files
-
Apathetic users: Learners who spend very limited time interacting with instructional material, moving through what is available in a rapid and linear fashion.
These categories suggest that when learners use hypermedia ineffectively, it may be for a variety of reasons. They may wander off, get lost, or simply lose interest.
It appears that experience plays an important role in determining how effectively learners use a hypermedia environment. With poor background knowledge, learners have little insight into what might be important to examine carefully. They may be unaware of holes in the understanding they are creating. Learner control is ineffective if learners are unable to make wise decisions. Learners with poor background seem to be more easily distracted by attractive but nonessential features and to face greater danger of becoming lost and frustrated (Dillon & Gabbard, 1998; Gay, 1986; Lawless & Brown, 1997). Some are beginning to experiment with on-screen “pedagogical agents” as a way to provide guidance, advice, and feedback (Moreno & Mayer, 2007). Such agents are presently most likely to be available in more complex, immersive learning environments and you will have a glimpse of how this works if you review the examples of immersive learning environments we describe online.
The concept of cognitive load provides a way to think about several issues associated with learning from hypermedia. Remember from Chapter 2 that comprehension and learning activities occur within the time and capacity limitations of short term memory. Cognitive load can be thought of as the various stresses imposed on short term memory. Simply put, learning requires cognitive work. Adding options, multiple information formats to consider and the decisions of interactivity, increases opportunities, but also adds complexity. For example, keeping track of where you are within a hypermedia learning environment requires some cognitive resources not required when following the linear format that an author builds into a book or a videographer builds into a video. These unique demands may be tolerated by experienced hypermedia users and good readers, but perhaps not by learners who are inexperienced in navigating hypermedia or who are already struggling with comprehending the text components of the learning materials (Lee & Tedder, 2004). This is where the skill of instructional designers and the metacognitive skill of the learners in balancing the costs and benefits of multimedia and avoiding distractions come into play. When the combination of stresses imposed by limitations in an individual’s capabilities, multiple media resources, and learning tasks exceeds processing capacity, performance will deteriorate.
Developers of multimedia continue to become more sophisticated in recognizing the unique demands and advantages of hypermedia (Mayer, Heiser & Steve, 2001; Moreno & Mayer, 2007). There are clearly better and poorer ways to design learning environments so that learners appreciate the structure of information and examine it systematically (Jonassen & Grabinger, 1990). Effective hypermedia provides an easy-to-use navigation system and convenient ways for learners to return to key landmarks in the instructional content. Effective hypermedia also combines media types in ways that recognize the limits of cognitive resources (Mayer, Heiser & Steve, 2001, Moreno & Mayer, 2007).
Bransford, J., Sherwood, R., Hasselbring, T., Kinzer, C., & Williams, S. (1990). Anchored instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help. In D. Nix & R. Spiro (Eds.), Cognition, education and multimedia: Exploring ideas in high technology (pp. 115–141). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dillon, A., & Gabbard, R. (1998). Hypermedia as an educational technology: A review of the quantitative research literature on learner comprehension, control, and style. Review of Educational Research, 68 (3), 322–349.
Gay, G. (1986). Interaction of learner control and prior understanding in computer-assisted video instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78 (3), 225–227.
Jonassen, D., & Grabinger, R. (1990). Problems and issues in designing hypertext/hypermedia for learning. In D. Jonassen & H. Mandl (Eds.), Designing hypermedia for learning (pp. 3–25). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Lawless, K., & Brown, S. (1997). Multimedia learning environments: Issues of learner control and navigation. Instructional Science, 25 (2), 117–131.
Lee, M.J. & Tedder, M.C. (2004). Introducing expanding hypertext based on working memory capacity and the feeling of disorientation: Tailored communication through effective hypertext design. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 30, 171-19.
Levin, S. (1991). The effects of interactive video enhanced earthquake lessons on achievement of seventh grade earth science students. Journal of Computer Based Instruction, 18 (4), 125–129.
Locatis, C., Letourneau, G., & Banvard, R. (1990). Hypermedia and instruction. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 37 (4), 65–77.
Mayer, R., Heiser, J., & Steve, L. (2001). Cognitive constraints on multimedia learning: When presenting more material results in less understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 187–198.
Moreno, R. & Mayer, R. (2007). Interactive Multimodal Learning Environments. Educational Psychology Review. 19, 309-326.
Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. New York: Oxford University Press.