Education and Motivation: Multimedia Intensify Motivation in Learning

A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of

Dalubhasaan ng Lungsod ng Lucena
Lucena City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of Bachelor of Technical
Vocational Teacher Education

by
Mark Andrie A. Alcantara

May, 2019
 Chapter 1

Introduction

In an ever changing technological world, computers seem to be at the forefront of

education. At the same time, the exact impact of using technology for instruction is still

unknown. Some questions teaching communities grapple with are technology's role in student's

desire to learn and how technology affects the retention of the information. More specifically,

it would be useful to know whether students respond in a more positive manner to

participating in a social studies class when using web 2.0 tools versus when using paper-based

methods. For an educator in the 21 st century, it is

important to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of technology on education.

Instructional systems and educational technology have been gaining great

attention by educators in order to enhance students’ learning. Hospitality educators have

become aware of the benefits and shortcomings of various traditional methods used to provide

instruction and training to hospitality students and practitioners (Feinstein, Raab, & Stefanelli,

2005a) and the possible benefits of educational technologies; thus educators have been

adapting their curricular to take advantage of new instructional methods.

Educational technologies such as multimedia presentations, simulation methods,

online courses, and computer-assisted case-based instruction are becoming commonplace

(Feinstein, Raab, & Stefanelli, 2005b). Multimedia allows teachers to integrate text, graphics,
animation, and other media into one package to present comprehensive information for their

students to achieve specified course outcomes. Multimedia permits the demonstration of

complicated processes in a highly interactive, animated fashion and that instructional material

can be interconnected with other related topics in a more natural and intuitive way (Crosby &

Stelovsky, 1995).

Multimedia-based instruction can be efficient and effective for three reasons

(Issa, Cox, & Killingsworth, 1999): (1) it is self-paced learning : the individualized pace of the

learning allows students to break down the group instructional setting, which often inhibits

some people’s natural progression (West & Crook, 1992); (2) it includes video/audio

production : enhancing a learner’s interaction with the course material through less bridging

effort between the learner and the information being processed; and (3) it provides autonomy

in the learning process : self-regulated instruction shifts the sense of responsibility from the

instructor to the student. Bartlett and Strough (2003) stated that, besides potential advantages

to students, multimedia formats may offer benefits to instructors teaching multi-section

courses because this type of format ensures uniformity in the lecture content across the

sections.

Multimedia has been one of the most well-known and effective training tools

and was referred to as the technological wave of the future (Harris, 1993). Thus, the present

study seeks to evaluate the effects of new multimedia instructional material on students’

knowledge and on their perceptions of the instruction in a multi-section course. These effects

were assessed on students in the laboratory component of the Quantity Food Production and

Service Management Experience course at Iowa State University. In this laboratory setting,
students manage, prepare, and serve lunch meals to the public. Students who complete the

course are expected to understand technical procedures involved in the management,

production, and service of high-quality foods in a real setting.

In today’s emerging technological society, it stands to reason that the modern

day classroom should reflect what is seen in society. By showing real world technological

applications, intrinsic value can be brought to the learning process, increasing interest and

motivation (Usher & Center on Education, 2012). It is also important for these classrooms to

address the need of all students. Technology supports the need for divergent learning

approaches, helping to create a sense of community as well as a meaningful experience

(Futurelab, 2009).

Appropriate use of technology can serve the regular education classroom by

motivating students in all disciplines, such as math, social studies, and literacy (Heafner, 2004;

Liu, 2016; Housand & Housand, 2012). Students who have identified learning disabilities can be

served by the appropriate integration of technology through assistive technology devices,

allowing students to access the information and maintain pace with a regular education

classroom (Floyd and Judge, 2012).

 Background of the Study

The students of today are surrounded by technology, where access to information

is only a fingertip away. It has been said that technology integration is helpful, meaningful, and

8 necessary for a school to function successfully. However, many teachers are reluctant to

make the changes that incorporate technology into their instruction, and many students have

not experienced effective technology integration in classroom instruction. The use of

technology and technology-supported learning environments will aid in increasing student

engagement and motivation. A technology-rich curriculum was implemented for students from

grades 7-12, from students at all levels of achievement (from learning disabled, to average, to

gifted students) in the core disciplines (Math, Science, English, and Social Studies) and in some

non-core classes.

By implementing Google Technology (Google Drive, Google Docs) and other kinds

of technology (SMART Boards, clicker based response systems, database grade storage

systems) in standard and non-standard pedagogical methods at NECS, teachers can increase the

academic motivation among unenthusiastic students when implemented correctly. This study

focused on students’ perceptions of technology at school and documented some examples of

how teachers are currently integrating technology in classrooms. There are several stages that

were addressed through this research study. First was identifying the topic of study. In this

case, the topic was technology in education as it relates to providing appropriate technology

and its role in creating an inclusive learning environment.

 Statement of the Problem

While specifically targeting those students failing within their present classroom

settings, the research will have broad implications for all students. Issues with students failing

to reach their full potential concern parents, schools and school systems, resulting in the

adoption of a variety of approaches which seek to improve the educational participation and

learning outcomes for these students. Examples of these approaches include a focus on basic

skills, standardized performance testing, vocational programs, modifications in curriculum,

alternative schools, specialized programs and remediation programs The models used for

developing alternative approaches have been comprehensively researched and evaluated to

provide an extensive

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES CONFERENCE : Supporting a learning community

outline of the key components. These evaluations use a number of parameters to measure

success and failure for alternative programs including:

• Attendance rates

• Retention and/or dropout rates

• Truancy

• Number and severity of behavior problems

• Completion of high school program

• Self-esteem , self-concept, locus of control ratings

• Participation in the community and workforce after school

 Conceptual Framework

In several testing this theory, both non-interactive multimedia environment and interactive

media environment were used. The result show students who learn from interactive ( graphics

and narration ) learn more deeply and performs better problem solving transfer tests than

students who learn from non-interactive ( graphic and on-screen text ).

(Richard E. Mayer, Roxana Moreno ,1999).

Figure 1

MULTIMEDIA

Visual Arts Education

The Effectiveness of Teaching The Problem

Visual Art Education The Special Method in Teaching
During Teaching
Using Multimedia Visual Art Education
Visual Art
Education
With student Not
Interested
In the figure above, it shows what will be used in the study. The study will involve three main

factors, which are the effectiveness of using multimedia in teaching visual art education, the

special method in teaching visual art education among arts students and the problem

encountered during teaching visual art education with students who are not interested to learn

visual arts education.

 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

Educators continuously seek innovative ways to present quality instruction for a

number of reasons, including to: (a) increase their service for student’s learning, (b) fulfill

their institution’s mission by integrating institution’s core concepts into each curricular, and

(c) address students’ demographic needs (Morse, 2003). Nicastro (1989, as cited in Feinstein

et al., 2005b) noted that there was a current trend toward more active involvement by

students in their own educations. The author also pointed out that many educators thought

that instructor-led lectures were not effective methods of instruction. Other instructional

methods such as case studies, student-led discussions, and Web-based modules allow

students to learn at their own pace and have been incorporated into classrooms to enhance

students’ learning (Hsu & Wolfe, 2003).

Many researchers agree that hospitality educators currently are implementing

innovative techniques that extend their instructional methods (Feinstein et al., 2005b; Harris

& Cannon, 1995; Van Hoof & Colling, 2001). Hospitality educators are facing the challenge

of how to apply successfully instructional systems to provide future hospitality professionals

with knowledge that balances academic subjects and industry applications (Feinstein et al.,
2005a). Deale and Hovda (2006) stated that service was the focus of the hospitality industry,

but service that was practiced in the hospitality industry was not the primary focus of

educational organizations and was not reviewed succinctly in the educational literature. They

suggested that excellent service practices might allow an educational institution to

distinguish itself from others and offer ways to improve its performance and image,

especially in highly competitive markets.

Leading scholars also addressed issues and concerns about the future of hospitality

education (Feinstein et al., 2005b; Lewis, 1993; Power & Riegel, 1993). Feinstein et al.

indicated that many authors typically pontificated on whether traditional hospitality

educational systems would survive, or prophesize on how technology would change the face

of hospitality education. In the early 1990s, Lewis believed that hospitality management

programs were not changing with the times, which would make many programs in North

America shut down in the following years. He proposed a two-step process for rectifying the

situation: (1) reposition hospitality education to serve the levels in management that

hospitality graduates were expected to ultimately achieve, and (2) redefine the mission of

hospitality management to incorporate the first step, and then revise the curriculum, culture,

and faculty around this new mission.

In contrast to Lewis’ viewpoints, Powers and Riegel (1993) pointed out that

hospitality programs would be prospering in the following years based on hospitality

programs’ strong support for both the hospitality industry and students. They considered

students as customers and hospitality programs as products and the responsibility of these
programs was to prepare management majors specialized for the hospitality industry.

Use of Technology-based Instruction

Use of technology in hospitality programs is a major instructional trend because

technology maintains students’ attention, increases their motivation, facilitates presentation

of figures and graphs, and provides more active teaching environments (Barlett &

Strough,2003). Harris and West (1993) stated that multimedia programs are an efficient and

effective means of training for technical skill and conceptual development. They indicated that

by using multimedia programs, trainers could save time, increase retention, and increase

motivation of learners by involving them in the learning process. Harris and Cannon (1995)

also pointed out that an instruction format should be reviewed carefully from the perspective

of the individuals being educated, because the format affected their involvement in the

instruction session, and their motivation and commitment to learning. A significant number

of emerging educational technologies derived changes in the delivery of the entire

curriculum. Kasavana (1993), for example, urged that some portion of hospitality curricular

would be taught with several emerging technologies: distance learning, virtual reality,

simulation, and audio graphics. These technologies ultimately increased learners’ retention

by facilitating more active learning environments (Astin, 1985, as cited in Feinstein et al.,

2005b).

Effects of Technology-based Instructional Methods on Students’ Learning

Many researchers strive to measure the effects of different types of instructional

techniques on students’ learning. Various instructional methods include static and animated
text, graphics and non-linear structure (Crosby & Stelovsky, 1995); multimedia based CD-

ROM (Issa et al., 1999); videotape (Smith & Shillam, 2000); non-interactive computer

assisted instruction—PowerPoint (Susskind, 2005); Web-based multimedia tutorials

(Buzzell, Chamberlain, & Pintauro, 2002); computer generated animations (McGregor,

Fraze, Baker, Haygood, & Kieth, 2003); interactive CD-ROM (Price, Lukhard, & Postel,

2005); online training course (Feinstein, Dalbor, & McManus, 2007; Kim & Kim, 2005);

webquest (Hassanien, 2006); virtual learning environments (Dale & Lane, 2007); and

podcasting (Dale, 2007).

By incorporating various technology-based instruction methods in their courses,

many researchers attempt to identify effects of these methods on students’ learning. A typical

measurement is two folds: comparing pretest and posttest scores of treatment groups (Buzzell

et al., 2002; Crosby & Stelovsky, 1995; Issa et al., 1999; Jaffe, 1989; Price et al., 2005;

McGregor et al., 2003; Smith & Shillam, 2000) and analyzing students’ academic

performance (Barlett & Strough, 2003; Erwin & Rieppi, 2000; Richardson, 1997; Susskind,

2005). Different results on students’ knowledge acquisition were reported in studies

comparing pretest and posttest scores. Some studies concluded that students’ knowledge

increased after they were exposed to technology-mediated instructional methods (Crosby and

Stelovsky, 1995; Issa et al., 1999; Kim & Kim, 2005; Smith & Shillam, 2000), while others

found no significant differences between pretest and posttest scores of treatment groups

(Buzzell et al., 2002; Jaffe, 1989; McGregor et al., 2003).

Not only students’ knowledge acquisition but also their comprehension gain scores
provide an important indicator to understand how much students comprehend materials.

Crosby and Stelovsky (1995) measured effects of technology-mediated instruction on

students’ learning, compared to traditional lecture type instruction. In their study, an

instructor gave the same lecture to students in both sections and had them complete a pretest.

And then, students in one section received the only traditional instruction, while students in

the other section received technology-mediated instruction by using multimedia. After all

instructions, students were asked to complete a posttest. The authors found that students

performed better when they were instructed using the technology such as multimedia

courseware, and suggested that the multimedia courseware not only enhanced computer

science instruction in general, but also could “make computer science accessible to a more

heterogeneous student population” (p. 161). Similar findings were found by Issa et al. (1999).

They tested the effect of multimedia-based CD-ROM on students’ learning improvement,

compared to the traditional classroom format. Student knowledge improved more with

lessons of multimedia-based CD-ROM than with the traditional classroom format.

Like Crosby and Stelovsky (1995), other researchers (Feinstein et al., 2007; Smith &

Shillam, 2000) found improvements between pretests and posttest after participants were

exposed to technology-based instructional methods. Smith and Shillam studied the

effectiveness of a safety videotape in educating restaurant employees. Foodservice workers

in each restaurant took a pretest, viewed the educational videotape, and then took a posttest.

Researchers found that the total percent of correct responses of pretest and posttest increased

significantly. Feinstein et al. (2007) sought to determine whether there was a significant

increase in learner’s food safety and sanitation knowledge after students’ taking an online
food safety and sanitation course. They assessed differences in ServSafe ® Food Manager

Certification Examination (ServSafe ® Exam) scores, administered as pretests and posttests.

Participants first took the ServSafe ® Exam to assess the individual level of food safety

knowledge before taking the actual online course. After completing the online course,

participants took a different version of the ServSafe ® Exam. A paired-sample t-test revealed

that there was a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores and led to the

conclusion that participants learned a significant amount through ServSafe

® Online.

Other studies have compared different instructional methods by analyzing students’

course performance as measured by final examination grades (Barlett & Strough, 2003;

Erwin & Rieppi, 2000; Richardson, 1997; Susskind, 2005). Different conclusions were

reported in these studies. Erwin and Rieppi (2000) showed that students in a multimedia-

based class were significantly higher in their final examination scores (dependent variable)

than those in a traditional class. They measured students’ academic performance in

undergraduate psychology courses in which students were enrolled in a particular section

without knowing the instructional style, multimedia or traditional, they would receive.

Students were exposed to the same final examination. Similarly, Richardson (1997) found

that examination scores were significantly higher from computer-assisted lectures compared

with didactic lecture instruction. In contrast to previous findings, other studies (Barlett &

Strough, 2003; Susskind, 2005) reported no significant differences in students’ performance

grades with the implementation of different instructional techniques.

Effects of Technology-based Instructional Methods on Students’ Perceptions

Effects of instructional methods also have been measured by assessing students’

attitudes toward the instruction (Barlett & Strough, 2003; Buzzell et al., 2002; Kim & Kim,

2005; Richardson, 1997; Susskind, 2005). Most of these studies reported that students’

attitudes toward instruction were becoming more favorable after they were exposed to new

technology-based instructional material. Susskind examined the effects of non-interactive

computer-assisted instruction on students’ self-efficacy and attitudes. In an introductory

Psychology course, 51 students chose which section of an introductory Psychology course to

attend, so they were not randomly assigned to conditions. Section one was taught via a

traditional instructor-led lecture with notes on a whiteboard, and section two received the

same lecture except that the notes were presented by PowerPoint presentation software.A

survey was conducted with students to assess their classroom motivation. Then, the lecture

format was switched so that students in section one could have lectures with PowerPoint

presentation software and students in section two could experience the traditional lecture. A

second survey was administered to both sections. Also, students in the two groups were

asked to answer 15 items that reflected their attitudes toward the course and their self-

efficacy beliefs. Students displayed more positive attitudes toward PowerPoint lectures; they

claimed that when PowerPoint was used, the lectures were more organized and their main

points were emphasized more. Students also believed learning was more effective when

PowerPoint accompanied lectures; they showed improvements on self-efficacy concerning

note taking capabilities.

Other research studies also addressed students’ attitudes toward multimedia-assisted

instruction. Price et al. (2005) assessed educational outcomes among students learning with

traditional lecture versus CD-ROM. Although they found students preferred traditional

lecture instruction, they suggested that when given the option of total self-instruction,

students who knew they learned well using this type of instruction chose it but there were

always students who preferred the traditional lecture method of instruction. To satisfy the

diverse learning needs of students and enhance computer skills, the authors concluded that it

would be beneficial to offer courses that combine traditional lecture methods of instruction

with computer-assisted self-study.

Perry and Perry (1998) surveyed 109 college students enrolled in two classes:

computer information systems and teacher education. They concluded that students preferred

to attend classes using multimedia presentations and that they found class more interesting

and more enjoyable with multimedia. The authors stated that multimedia could affect learning

in a positive manner. A multimedia opinion survey showed that, when multimedia

materials were utilized: (1) students found more material was covered, (2) students

considered they learned and retained course material better, and (3) students indicated they

understood difficult concepts better. Moreover, Kim and Kim (2005) found that, when

comparing a set of five teaching resources (course Website, didactic lectures in class,

laboratory activities, assignments, and textbook) for teaching sanitation principles, students

perceived the technology-mediated instruction (course Website) as the most effective

teaching resource to improve students’ knowledge, followed by cooking lab activities,

textbook, didactic lectures in class, and assignment related to food sanitation.

FACTORS INFLUENCED ON THE SUCCESSFUL LEARNING

There are five factors, which underpin successful learning

• “wanting” to learn (intrinsic motivation);

• “needing” to learn (extrinsic motivation);

• learning-by-doing – practice, trial and error, experiential learning

• learning from feedback – finding out how the learning is progressing;

• making sense of what has been learned – digesting.

Note that there are two factors that involve motivation in the successful learning. Obviously,

the student self-motivation is one of the main factors influenced on the successful learning. So,

it is worth to have a look at the opportunity to make the student interested in the subject and,

therefore, to improve his/her self-motivation. One of the ways to improve the student self-

motivation is to build up his/her self-confidence at the first time. In this case the computer-

based technology involved in the everyday teaching and assessment can be one of the solutions

to the problem mentioned above. Thus, it is worth looking at how the computer- based

technology incorporated in the everyday teaching and assessment processes can enhance the

motivation factors. Moreover, since the other three factors are linked to motivation [1], [2], all

five factors need to be taken into account in the design of teaching, resource-based learning

and assessment.
COMPUTER-BASED TEACHING AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

One of the most important factors in the “want” to learn is the student’s interest in the

particular topic being learned. The intensity of the want to learn depends very much on this

factor. In other side, the “need” to learn is appeared when there is a topic that students don’t

like very much. Let us notice that in some cases even if the student needs to learn a subject

he/she does not spend enough time because of lack of interest in the subject. Let us consider

this issue using a simple example. At the Electronic and Computer Engineering Department,

Brunel University the engineering students have to learn the programming concepts during first

and second year of study. After first year of traditional study one can notice that the number of

students who have lost interest to the subject has been increased. At the same time the

students’ confidence in the subject has been diminished significantly.

One of the reasons for this is that the students have relatively poor mathematical background

and they are not prepared to study more complex concepts such as programming. In order to

overcome this problem the means of multimedia and Internet can be used. The module

discussed further contains both procedural and object-oriented programming concepts in

C/C++. The students had background of procedural programming in Pascal. It has been required

within one semester consider at least two basic sub-modules: C/C++ and object-oriented

programming. In order to obtain the best results in students’ learning of material the computer-

based means have been used in teaching and learning processes. For this particular case, the

lectures and assessment for the second year students have been delivered using PowerPoint
presentations, flash animations, publishing material on the World Wide Web and multimedia

software.

Power Point presentations

PowerPoint has been chosen as a presentation software package since it allows us to produce

the high-quality transparencies, to implement relatively simple animation and to publish

material on the World Wide Web with notes dedicated to each slide. PowerPoint presentation

has been used to deliver lectures. In this case the animation has been implemented in order to

explain the basic concepts of the programming and point out the most important issues of this

concept. For example, the concepts of structures and linked lists using dynamic memory

allocation have been considered as one of the most difficult concepts in the procedural

programming. The implementations of structures, dynamic memory allocation and linked lists

have been explained together with visualization of processes that are carried out in the

program. In this case for each highlighted line in the considered program segment, the

corresponding animation performed in PowerPoint has been carried out. This concept allows

student to visualize the processes, which are carried out in the program during its execution. At

the same time it helps them to understand without good mathematical background how the

basic programming operators work. Thus during lectures it has been not only delivered new

material, but also it has been revised the material that the students learnt during first year of

study. The revision has been incorporated into the teaching process in such way that the weak

student can learn material once again using visualization techniques.

Reaction of students: It is necessary to note that the reaction of students on the delivering of

the lectures using PowerPoint presentation has been very interesting. This was their first

experience with delivering lectures using laptop and PowerPoint facilities. Therefore, during

first lecture they paid a lot of attention to the facilities used during lecture rather then to the

material delivered. But as time goes, the number of students engaged in the learning process

has been increased. It has been noticed that some weak students has started to participate in

the lectures.

Flash animations

Animation using Flash software has been used in the teaching process in order to visualise the

most complex concepts. Note that this type of animation is difficult to implement using only

PowerPoint. In this case the separate movies have been created for each of topic used. The

flash animation has been used to introduce the concept of object-oriented programming. The

basic ideas of the objects, the relationships between objects, and the actions of objects have

been demonstrated using flash movies. In order to make understanding of concept easier for

students it has been used some analogies between real life and basic concepts of object-

oriented programming.

Reaction of students: The flash movies have been used during lectures as well as on the lab

sessions. During lab sessions the students had opportunity to play each movie separately in

order to understand the basic concept. During lectures, it was obviously much easier to explain

the material using flash movie and animation. It could be easily seen that the students picked

up the basic ideas quicker using animation. At the same time, almost nobody was wishing to
use the flash movies during lab sessions. It could be explained by those that it was not enough

information inside of movies in order to proceed the learning independently.

Publishing material on the World Wide Web

In order to make the material accessible by students at any time, the lecture notes with some

explanations for each slide have been published on Internet. The purpose of this is that the

students, who were unable to attend the lecture, can learn material by themselves studying or

revising the lecture notes and any additional material independently. The structure of

published pages includes the links to each topic, studied at the lectures; the bookmarks to each

slide; the slide and some explanations accompanied each slide.

Reaction of students: At the beginning of semester only published material has been available

to the students. As a result it has been received a lot of complains that the traditional paper-

base handouts have not being given to the students even if they have been supplied with the

internet page where they can find all information. Later the students have been supplied

periodically with lecture notes and the Internet has been updated all the time. The result of

questioning the students shows that some of them used more actively the material published

on the internet and another one – paper-based material. At the end of semester it has been

obtained some requests to supply a bit more information on the web and if it is possible –

publish the flash movies there as well.

Multimedia software
The special multimedia software has been developed for those students who have some

problems to understand the basic concepts of programming. The developed multimedia

software contains two main parts – the lecture notes and the tutorials. The tutorial material has

been closely linked with lecture notes. Thus if the student answered the question wrongly,

he/she was given an opportunity to revisit the lecture material by providing the links to the

corresponding lecture notes. Each lecture contains a number of slides. Each slide contains some

graphical illustration or animation and the explanation of material in words. The animation can

be controlled by student and can be played several times, if the student desires so. Each

tutorial contains a number of questions for each delivered lecture. If the answer of question has

been wrong the link is provided in order to help the student to find the material that he/she

needs to revise. Each student gets some score after each completed exercise in the tutorial. The

multimedia software has been developed to help students understand the basic concept of

object-oriented programming. The multimedia material has been accessible for students only

during lab sessions.

Reaction of students: The tracking technique has been used in order to understand the use of

multimedia application by students. It has been noticed that the number of students revisited

the lecture material has been increased once the score has been introduced in the system.

Usually a student has repeated the tutorials several times until the maximum score has not

being achieved. Thus, the students have been motivated to learn material by introducing the

score system in the multimedia application. Once the lectures and tutorials have been

delivered to the students, the questionnaire has been prepared. The result of questionnaire
shows that the students have considered the concept of object-oriented programming as much

easier to understand then the procedural one. It has been a lot of requests to make the

developed multimedia application accessible for students at any time. The result of assessment

shows that the students understand the basic ideas of object-oriented programming very well.

The students have been accessed by examination at the end of semester. They have been given

choice to choose two questions out of four. The questions have covered the following four

topics: functions and procedures in C/C++; the architecture of computer; object-oriented

programming and structures. The majority of students choose a question related to the object-

oriented programming.

MOTIVATION THROUGH LECTURES

One of the problems with modern student is that he/she doesn’t like to take any notes during

lecture, relying on the fact that the most basic and important material will be provided by

lecturer. In this case the student can be actively participate during lecture since he will receive

all necessary information later on. The student who makes notes during lecture learns more

then the passive one. In order to motivate the student to be more active during lectures the

following technique has been used. In the lecture notes and in the PowerPoint slides the

mistakes have been made deliberately. During lecture the material on the slide have been

explained several times until students will sport the mistake. At the beginning of semester it

was very rarely to find a student who will have a pen. Once the technique mentioned above has
been used, the number of students taking notes has been increased. At the same time the

number of students actively involved in the lecture has been increased significantly. The

students have started to pay more attention to the material, which is delivered during lecture.

If the slide will be explained several times, they would start carefully investigate the content of

the slide. Using active learning during lecture helps us to involve more students more actively in

the teaching/learning process. At the same time the students are motivated to attend the

lectures and participate in the teaching and learning processes more actively since the

corrections can be made only during actual lecture.

TEACHING, LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT USING MODERN COMPUTER- BASED TECHNOLOGIES

Let us summarize the technique that has been used to deliver “C/C++ programming” module

using both PowerPoint presentations and multimedia applications. The PowerPoint

presentation is used to deliver the lecture material. The flash animation is used to explain the

most complex concepts. The advantage of flash animations is that the student can replay it very

often. The lecture material with comments to almost each slide has been published in the

Internet. The material has been accessible for all students of the course. The multimedia

applications have been used to deliver the basic concepts of the subject. At the same time the

multimedia application has been used to deliver tutorials that provide learning-by-doing.

The table 1 summarizes the technique that has been explained above. This technique is based

on the idea of using the computer-based technologies in the teaching and learning processes to

increase the student’s motivation and their successful learning. As it can be seen the

multimedia software can be used in any learning process and at some point can replace the
PowerPoint presentations. However, it takes more time to produce one lecture using

multimedia rather then using PowerPoint. This is the main drawback of using only multimedia

applications can be overcame by using combination of PowerPoint presentations and

multimedia software. The students have been given the choice how to learn a material. The

proposed technique covers such type of learning techniques as resource-based learning, web-

based learning and multimedia-based learning. Therefore it can satisfy any student. The

analysis of the questionnaire given to the student at the end of semester shows that the

students prefer to use both traditional and non-traditional methods of learning. The number of

students’ responses to “I am interested in learning the subject” obtained at the end of semester

was a higher then the number of similar responses obtained at the beginning of semester.

Therefore, the motivation of students has been improved using the proposed techniques of

teaching and learning. The majority of students like the idea of teaching using both PowerPoint

presentations and multimedia applications. At the same time some of the students prefer to

use some traditional methods of study rather then the computer-based. It is noticeable that it

has been obtained much better response about using the developed multimedia application

rather then any other computer-based technique.

Table 1. The computer-based material used to deliver module “C/C++ programming”

Lecture Tutorial Independent Assessment

learning

Power Point / x x x

Presentation

Flash movie / / / x

Web Pages / / / x

Multimedia / / / /

Software

Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined for use in the study:

Instruction . In this study, instruction was considered as the integration of both method and

media. Samaras, Giouvanakis, Bonsiou, and Tarabanis (2006) stated that this definition leads

to the need for careful consideration of media along with the instructional methods adopted

when designing empirical studies on multimedia learning effectiveness. With the

introduction of new media, the challenge is to use them effectively and transfer knowledge to

the learner.
Multimedia is the combination of several media sources such as video, graphics, animation,

audio, and text, accessed by a computer and attached peripherals driven by special programs

(Harris, 1993). Another definition (Harris & West, 1993) stated that multimedia presentations

are a combination of instructional resources controlled by a single operated system, usually

computer-based. Schnotz and Lowe (2003) defined the term multimedia as the combination

of multiple technical resources for the purpose of presenting information represented in

multiple formats via multiple sensory modalities. The multimedia material used in this study

was presented on DVD and included a mix of resources such as text, audio, still pictures, and

motion video, controlled and manipulated through a computer program.

Traditional methods of instruction refer to instructor-led lectures without the inclusion of any

type of technology-based material such as PowerPoint slides, while technology-based

methods of instruction include the use of any technology media resource.

Directions

Please respond to the question by indicating how much you AGREE OR DISAGREE with the

statement in the question.

Please circle the number that represent how much you agree or disagree according to the

following scale :1 = Strongly Agree 2 = Agree 3 = Disagree 4 = Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Do you Agree or Disagree with the following statements ?

1. The teacher is proficient using technology 4 3 2 1

2. The schools technology goals are readily available to the 4 3 2 1

faculty
3. Our Schools relies heavily on technology 4 3 2 1

4. Technology has helps student communicate more 4 3 2 1

effectively
5. The schools computer labs are readily available for 4 3 2 1
students to complete assignment
6. Technology helps our school achieve AYP (Adequate Yearly 4 3 2 1
Progress)
7. I used technology to plan for instruction 4 3 2 1

8. I would like to have more technology available for our 4 3 2 1

school
9. My Classroom computers are insufficient for my needs 4 3 2 1

10. Students used technology for completing assignments 4 3 2 1