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Many people have attempted to study the effectiveness of multimedia to decide how best to use multimedia to achieve goals of educating, informing, improving retention, or convincing audiences. If multimedia could be shown to be effective, computer and telecommunications companies could sell more multimedia applications, which in turn would drive hardware and telecommunications sales. Children could learn (and pass standardized tests) better with multimedia applications helping them and helping teachers teach better and more effectively. Companies could rest easy knowing that multimedia advertisements were indeed convincing their customers. News delivery services would know that they were competitive in using multimedia and would attract lots of eyeballs that would also view ads and thus encourage more ads which pay their bills and salaries.
Studies tracked and conducted by Dr. Thomas Russell under the rubric of "no significant differences" spanned several decades. Each study showed that multimedia and distance learning neither helped nor harmed the learning process. Because distance learning tends to be less expensive and more convenient (at least for students) than face-to-face lectures with non-multimedia visual aids, such studies encourage use of distance learning with multimedia. However, there have also been many studies that showed a significant difference between the effects of the two education environments. Some but not all showed that multimedia and distance learning were helpful. A summary article is at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/m... Unfortunately, the wonderful Web site with links to each position have disappeared. Two recent reports provide new information on the difficulties of such studies and on additional results. The first is an eye-tracking study of behavior while browsing news websites that use multimedia and take advantage of broadband connectivity. The main research website is at http://www.poynter.org/eyetrack/ There is also an overview article with some highlights at http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004... This article cautions that the sample size was small and that this is just a preliminary study. Despite these caveats, there is a lot to be learned, even if it is only a further appreciation for the difficulty of such studies and the impossibility of coming up with a flat statement that expresses an unambiguous conclusion. It is well worth exploring these sites. The second recent report is a book, Multimedia Learning by Dr. Richard E. Mayer, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-78749-1, which is now out in paperback. Mayer's over-a-decade of research shows that multimedia can indeed be effective in both learning and retention but, that the results depend strongly on how multimedia is used, and on the environment of use, as well as on the actual multimedia content. If multimedia is not used well, then it can end up being a detriment. Mayer's experience and research do show how difficult running experiments to measure effectiveness can be. Within the confines of his experimental environments he draws conclusions such as that graphics indeed helps text and that text plus animation is better than just text alone. His research encourages caution with regard to sensory overload. Multimedia can confuse a student's learning channels by presenting different media simultaneously, representing different messages. There are many subtleties to his results. Understand this is the best reason to read his book. Go To Page: 1
The copyright of the article Effectiveness of multimedia in Multimedia Education is owned by Anne Kellerman. Permission to republish Effectiveness of multimedia in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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