Compare and contrast the features of flash and authorware?

Answer 1

Developing Instructional Multimedia

• Multimedia is interesting!

• What is Multimedia?

• How to Get Started

• Developing Instructional Multimedia

Multimedia is interesting!

Multimedia is interesting! Compelling! People like using it! Students learn

from it! It works! Anyone can develop a package; just point and click!

The truth is that many things are simpler, cheaper, quicker, and -- gasp --

more effective. Multimedia really can draw a student's interest, but like any

movie or class, it can also be boring. Once the novelty wears off, the merit of

multimedia will be based on its content, presentation, and effectiveness.

There are some excellent multimedia instructional packages on the market. If

a ready-made piece does what you need, use it. At some time, you may want

to develop your own materials. This article offers some insights into what

instructional multimedia is and into the instructional multimedia

development process. The choices and process are adaptable, as developers

customize their procedures to suit the needs of individual projects.

What is Multimedia?

The term "multimedia" has taken on many meanings. For this article, I am

using the term multimedia to mean computer-aided instruction (CAI) or

instructional presentation that combines text, graphics, video, and audio, and

may include interactivity options. (Interactivity is the ability of the user to

determine the sequence of content flow.) As an instructional tool, it is

important to see multimedia as one option in the vast array of instructional

technology.

Computer technology can assist the instructional environment in one of three

basic categories: electronic communication, presentation support, or student

materials.

Electronic communication -- email, bulletin boards, and the like. These give

teachers and students more opportunities to talk to each other by leaving

messages. This can have the effect of extending mutually-convenient office

hours. Students can leave notes for the teacher, and the teacher can post

assignments, answer questions, and engage in discussions. In some cases,

leaving notes is the perfect solution.

Presentation support -- using the computer to enhance a lecture. This is the

digital version of slides or overheads. The advantage of a multimedia

presentation is that you can set your slides to show a movie clip or pictures.

You can play them sequentially or pick slides at random as you speak.

Student materials -- programs used by students either alone or in class. For

example, you can automate your presentation so that students can see your

"lecture" on their own. However, you may need to include additional

information or instructions on how to operate your presentation. You can

design the module to address many different instructional goals such as

giving information, providing simulated experiences, or giving drill-andpractice

opportunities.

Effectiveness is all about making the solution match the problem. Your

solution may combine various elements from all three categories of

computer technology, or your solution may use just one category combined

with non-computer-based presentation formats such as a lecture, video, laser

disk, overheads, and blackboard portions. It is important to understand the

features of technology when making your choices.

How to Get Started

Multimedia projects can involve a great deal of work. It is obvious to most of

us that large projects can cover large amounts of content, many types of

media, and large amounts of interactivity, and can result in intricate

packages. What is not so obvious is that the more time your students spend

using the project on their own, the more demanding your planning and field

testing has to be to make sure that the project is working for your students.

Projects that are self-paced student materials are bigger by virtue of the

extended field-testing requirements.

I recommend that first time developers have fun and pick smaller projects

that will be easier to develop and more manageable regarding time and

resources. But even small projects require thought and planning. A welldesigned

plan will make your project more rewarding because your

development and implementation will be smoother and the project will have

a greater chance of success.

Fun and "safe" first projects are small presentations with limited media

elements that you can use during lectures. Lecture presentation allows you to

watch your students and see how your project is working out. To get ideas,

you can visit the InfoTech Arcade and try out their presentation software

packages. Including pictures and graphic elements in your presentations is

not very difficult. Video does start adding more work and complications.

Remember, each graphic element has its own aesthetic requirements. It is

helpful to consider the following instructional design process for small

projects as well as larger projects because it is always important to consider

the major instructional design issue: What do you want your students to

know and to do?

Developing Instructional Multimedia

Some projects can take one person a few hours, others can take a few years

and require a staff of many. Developing multimedia is an interdisciplinary

task. Multimedia developers study communication design, video,

Photography, graphics, layout, and design, as well as computer technology.

Developers specializing in instruction also study instructional design and

learning theory. The complexity of your project determines the time and

expertise requirements.

The process of instructional design is defining where you want to go

instructionally, and developing a "map" of information and experiences to

guide your students to the same destination or goal. If along the way you see

some interesting sights to share, by all means point them out. This can be

inspirational and fun. But it is very important not to cause confusion by

including extraneous information in your course map. If you want someone

to meet you at a given destination, you have to tell them what the destination

is. On a bright sunny day, you would not look at the car and think, "Gee,

how can I use these great windshield wipers to meet friends at the mall?"

What follows is a simplified outline that groups the tasks involved in the

instructional media development process into twelve major steps. It is not

meant to be a complete "how-to" of instructional design, but it does show the

major concerns of a professional instructional designer.

1) Determine your overall goal.

What problems are you trying to solve? Perhaps you really want to provide

more opportunities to talk with your students and answer their questions. Do

you want to prepare a presentation tool? Are you trying to provide your

students with additional review or practice opportunities? An instructional

designer can be of assistance at this point.

2) Define your instructional goal and develop your learning

objectives.

If you are designing instruction or developing a presentation, list each

component of what you want the student to know, what you want the student

to do, and what information and experience is needed to learn or

communicate each step. If you need video, list it here. If you do not need

video to teach a point, do not list it. You may need to do content research to

fully analyze the content and tasks you are teaching. Content experts can

help assemble this information.

An instructional designer can be of assistance at this point to help break the

information into individual learning objectives, determine their sequence,

and select media elements such as graphics, text, video, audio, and

interactivity for each learning experience. This is not a selection of the final

media platform. Identifying a need for video at this point is not identifying

whether the video will be shown as a stand-alone video or as part of a

computer-based multimedia module.

3) Analyze your students or audience.

This is especially relevant when developing materials to be used by others. If

your students are not experienced or comfortable using computers, you may

need to add steps to teach them how to use the package you develop.

Surprising as it may seem, not everyone loves computers or even likes using

them. Keep your design simple. Unless you are teaching computer usage, try

to reduce the number of steps people need to learn in order to use your

module. You may need to add steps to your instructional goals and learning

objectives from Step 2 to get your end-users up and running. Once again, an

instructional designer can be of assistance at this point.

4) Determine what expertise is needed for your project.

If you are developing a presentation that relies on a great deal of new video,

you will need to know how to script and produce video for instructional

purposes. It's simple to point a camera and press a button, but knowing how

to set the stage, light the scene, and script appropriate visuals for your

communication or educational goals requires a more thorough

understanding. The same holds true for graphics. You may want to consult

with, or even hire, graphic artists, instructional designers, and media

developers for guidance.

5) Determine your computer hardware and software requirements.

This is really an extension of Step 4, but because many things are involved,

we look at technology and its implications as a separate step.

A network, for example, means being able to reach a large number of people

at various locations. It also means security and uneven-timing issues. So if

you are working on a project that you want to test and load and test and load,

you may want to consider a small-systems solution that allows immediate

access instead of a wider networked solution.

Check with the Computer Center to discuss the pros and cons of various

campus-wide network and small-systems networking solutions. Keep in

mind that the technical configuration can have a strong influence on the

student's learning environment. You can discuss these implications with an

instructional designer.

What development software should you use? Examine the software available

in your department, and see what your colleagues are using. The InfoTech

Arcade in the Library is a great place to start, not only to see demos of the

software, but to hear what the staff recommend. They will be able to tell you

about other projects by other faculty with similar interests.

Journals and other discipline-related publications provide an additional

source of information. Many specialized developers produce packages to

assist discipline-specific educators. For example, chemistry software

developers have produced a package to develop chemistry-related

animations.

6) Draw your conclusions.

Decide which media platform you will use to execute each learning objective

from Step 2. You might use a stand-alone video and lecture for some

portions of your project and develop a multimedia program for other

portions. You might develop portions of the project as multimedia modules

pressed on CDs to be loaded onto individual hard drives, or even develop the

entire project as a multimedia module loaded on a small or campus-wide

network. There are legitimate reasons for choosing each of these media

technologies. If you need help, consult an instructional designer or other

educational specialists. You may find that you need to repeat some or all of

the previous steps any number of times until you are able to draw

satisfactory conclusions.

At this point you should know your goals, problems, and all the requirements

for developing your materials. You may decide that your goals are more

effectively and efficiently achieved by using a commercial video for a onetime

show than by spending hours developing something that will only be

used once.

Remember, keep your instructional requirements in focus. If the software or

technology can not do what you know needs to be done, then supplement

your technology with additional materials such as handouts or lectures. You

may have to develop your project using two or three different methods at

different stages. You may have to scrap the idea of using computers for a

particular goal and use traditional technologies. Choose whatever tool works

best for each goal.

7) Write your design specifications.

You might have specialized portions done by others, such as video

developers, graphic artists, or programmers, or you may do everything

completely on your own. A written plan is still a valuable development tool.

If you are bringing in others, written design documents are required. Talk to

them to determine what design documentation they need. You can fashion

your own multimedia storyboard as long as it lists all the components. For

example, list and number each screen in the leftmost column. Then, going

across for each screen, list the information displayed, the branching points,

the interactive response features, and the video, animation, audio, and

graphic elements. If the flow of your program is complex, you may also need

to develop a flow chart to outline the behind-the-scenes logic. You may also

need to write an expanded video script for the video portions. Remember,

talk with your development team.

8) Develop an implementation plan.

If you are installing a dozen computers on the campus-wide network and

want a month-long testing phase, people will need to coordinate with you

and develop their schedules. Make sure to meet with all the people involved

and develop a schedule of events and requirements.

9) Develop a field test plan.

How can you test to see if your project really meets your goals? A field test

or evaluation tells you how well your design is delivering your instruction.

The field test can be conducted during project development (formative) or

when you think you are done (summative). For large-scale projects that

cover an entire semester or that have a wide distribution, formative and

summative evaluations are essential. Anytime students use materials on their

own, a field test is necessary, even for small projects. In addition to using

your software, you might also include a questionnaire with your field test to

better understand the subjective reactions of your test subjects.

Remember, unlike a class presentation where you can ask questions and see

how things are working on the spot, you will not be there to see the confused

looks and frustrated grimaces of students using self-paced materials. Selfpaced

materials require thorough field testing to make sure that they achieve

your goals. In this step, design your test plan. Determine what you need to

test for, whether you need formative and/or summative tests, and how to test

and evaluate your project.

10) Develop your project.

This is the fun part. If you are using new development tools, allow yourself

plenty of time to learn the packages. If you are combining video, graphics,

and audio elements you may have problems with file compatibilities. TIFF,

PIC, PICT, and QuickTime quickly go from labels to very demanding,

detail-specific requirements that can prevent your module from working. See

support people in the Computer Center, the InfoTech Arcade, and other

programmers and developers.

11) Conduct your field test and revise as needed.

If you will not be with your students to explain the "how-to's" when they use

the module, fight the temptation to interfere and explain during the trial run.

Be an observer. Go through the questionnaires that you developed in Step 9

with your test subjects after they have used your module and related

materials. This important source of information can point out facets that you

had not considered.

Make revisions, changes, and supplements until a new group of test subjects

achieves your objectives. You may find yourself back at the drawing board

or even returning to Steps 1 or 2. If it is necessary, do not get discouraged, as

this happens to even experienced developers. It is why we conduct field

tests.

12) Implement your module, use it, and monitor its results.

You may need to revise your module. As you test your students for their

knowledge, keep in mind that you are also evaluating the success of the

materials used to teach them.

These twelve steps point out things to consider and a sequence of steps in

which to think. Your project may require a different approach, although

many of the steps described here are still likely to be useful.

Instructional design is an iterative process. Most likely you will find that you

are going through a set of steps repeatedly. There are usually loops in the

analysis and design steps and then again between the field test and design

steps until you come up with a project that works for you. All projects have

elements of analysis, developing learning objectives, design, development,

implementation, and monitoring. These phases can be very small or very

large depending on your project.

The field of computer-aided instruction and multimedia is new. Using it

effectively requires deliberate thought and attention to detail. In its new life,

we are just beginning to learn what effective use is for this technology. We

think it has the potential of addressing many educational issues. By using it

to its best potential, we hope to find solutions to some of today's instructional challenges.

Answer 2

Flash and Authorware are both multimedia authoring tools, but Flash is more commonly used and versatile, supporting animations, videos, and interactive elements. Authorware is known for its ability to create complex interactive multimedia content with a focus on e-learning applications, while Flash is more widely used for creating web-based content and animations with a robust scripting language. Flash has a larger user base and extensive support, while Authorware offers more specialized capabilities for interactive e-learning content.