An Interactive Multimedia Learning On Demand System

Stephen Mak [HREF1], Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. bssmak@polyu.edu.hk

Abstract

This paper explores the rationale for developing an interactive multimedia learning on demand system that was funded by the Hong Kong SAR Government. The system includes a framework for organising contents of construction and real estate related subjects, and a management system that provides video-, revision-, and test-on-demand facilities. It allows continuous quality monitoring of student progress and supports on-the-fly generation of reports, analytical graphics and student transcripts.

Lessons learnt and recommendations will be given in the conclusion. An attempt to use the system for schools in Hong Kong using the recently launched public broad-band network will be discussed and illustrated too.

Introduction

The World Wide Web is changing both what we teach and how we teach it (Brooks, 1997). While many applications are being produced, they are generally contents-oriented. These contents are of crucial importance because without them, no teaching can be carried out. However, development of applications that can be used to manage these contents is less seen. We feel that both the contents and a content-management system are important and they are complementary to each other.

In an attempt to develop a systematic content management system, we further felt that more "management" elements can be built into it. In a series of brain-storming exercises, classroom implementation as well as feedback from both teaching staff and students, the Learning (Construction) on Demand (LCOD) and the Course Management Information System (CMIS) were born.

Although the system was developed in and for a construction department in an LAN (local area network) environment, attempts are being sought to implement it in schools in Hong Kong using WAN (wide area network) via the recently launched public broad-band network.

Background

The idea of incorporating video-on-demand technology in computer aided learning stemmed from several strands:

• The majority of our first year students are from grammar schools with virtually no knowledge of construction. It is extremely difficulty to explain construction processes and details with traditional methods.
• Students find it difficult to visualise the construction processes such as concreting. We used to organize site visits so that students can feel what a construction site is like.
• It has become increasing impractical to organise site visits due to large class size (240 annual intake) and tight teaching schedules. It is also infeasible to organize frequent site visits for different construction processes (from foundation to superstructure, from partitioning to finishing, etc.). Construction companies are becoming less willing to let students visit due to various reasons, including safety, insurance, bad practices and so on.
• Advancement in technology, e.g. digital video and video streaming, has brought about change. Instead of taking students to construction sites, we bring construction sites to students using information technology.

Pedagogical Objectives

Bates (1995) [HREF2] compared the characteristics of "traditional" and "modern" learning as:

Traditional Learning	Modern Learning
recalling of facts	problem solving
remember principles	analysis
application of correct procedures	evaluation
	creativity
	inter personal communication

Le Grew (1995) described a paradigm shift in education by comparing what it was in an industrial society and what it is now in an information society.

Industrial Society	Information Society
technology peripheral	multimedia central
once-only education	life-long learning
fixed curriculum	flexible/open curriculum
institutional focus	learner focus
self-contained	partnership
local-focused	global networking

To make the system pedagogically sound, we set out to achieve the following:

• self-access and self-paced learning;
• multimedia, i.e. rich-text, graphics, voice, video-on-demand;
• interactivity, i.e. question and answer sessions between the user and the computer;
• quality monitoring, i.e. record and report who has done what, when and how well for review by both the teacher and the learner;
• administration, i.e. teachers are able to add, update and delete materials in the system easily without too much technical assistance and/or intervention;
• asynchronous discussion forums for users and teachers;

Information Technology

The video-on-demand system was developed on a local area network. The following hardware and software were deployed:

• a video server capable of streaming 50 MPEG1 videos at full speed (25 fps)
• an Oracle Enterprise server and an Application Server
• switched Fast Ethernet connection to servers and switched Ethernet connection to workstations

Impact and Significance

In our situation, at least 260 students can directly benefit from this project. 300 more students undertaking similar subjects in courses such as civil engineering can also use the material for learning, due to the similarity of content in different courses. Students' awareness and understanding of a wide range of construction techniques, previously one of the most difficult areas, will be enhanced. Other impacts include the increase in the amount of current video material of the construction industry in the Hong Kong context. The resultant product and methods can be used as a prototype and adapted to other subjects that have scope for visualisation, role-play, and self-directed learning. The project intends to apply and integrate leading edge technologies such as Video-on-Demand system, database, the Web system, and a LAN-based system in teaching and learning. With the cabled TV technology and other emerging broad-band technologies such as ADSL, some of which is available in Hong Kong, the idea of integrating live video in on-line learning materials can be delivered to homes.

Observations

Benefits to Students

1. Changing of learning style
   • they learn at their own pace
   • they learn in the sequence they prefer such as: browse through online information in any sequence
   • they study in their own environment
2. Changing access/availability/provision of learning materials
   • they can discuss issues via the forum with peers
   • they can submit coursework and receive feedback online

Benefits to Teachers

1. Teachers maintain their course materials by themselves and update them at anytime. It is also less time consuming to update online materials than hardcopy materials.
2. They can present complicate concepts easily by having a variety of presentation styles and tools; e.g. animated VRML, video.
3. Lecture time can be better utilised with the help of online material; face-to-face tutorial sessions can be used to discuss questions and issues in greater depth
4. The multiple-choice test and revision exercises save teachers much administration time in printing, distributing, collecting and marking.

Difficulties faced by Students

1. Students still find it difficult to shift from the "traditional" to the "modern" mode of learning. A lot of encouragement is required. They don't have a sense of security without having printed materials.
2. The English language problem may prevent students from expressing their ideas clearly in the forum sessions. Eye-contacts and body languages do not exist in online sessions.
3. There is still a lack of computer resources. Not many students own a computer at home. Dial-up access is ofter congested.
4. Different styles of presentation by different lecturers may lead to confusion

Difficulties faced by Teachers

1. It is hard to deal with students who are not self-disciplined.
2. Teachers need to ensure that students have the fundamental skills of operating the computer.
3. It is much more difficult to design contents for high level subjects due to the complexity of the subject matter.
4. It takes enormous amount of time to prepare user-friendly and learning-friendly materials. For example, VRML requires very special skills, video requires editing and narrating to be useful.
5. The issue of copyright may deter teachers from putting materials online.

Opportunities and Challenges

While many research reports state that there is "no significance difference" in learning outcomes between traditional learning and learning with IT, IT has indeed changed the way students learn. There is a need to demystify the perception that IT means high-tech. It is true that IT uses high-tech, using IT does not necessarily involve high-tech.

We are faced with a quantum leap of quantity of information due to the proliferation of the Internet and the WWW. They provide new channels and modes of delivery of information, the quality of which, however, varies. We are also witnessing an unprecedented speed of information processing.

We are faced with the following opportunities:

• IT itself is a motivator
• IT releases students to information so that learning takes place within students
• IT changes the mode human interacts
• IT increases the intensity of interactions
• IT reduces human barriers
• IT allows connectivity anywhere and anytime; the boundary of time and space becomes blur
• information accumulation and spoon-feeding is over and so is the "storage" function of students
• teachers are to guide students in information processing
• teachers can help students develop knowledge and wisdom

We are also faced with the following challenges:

• The frustration that IT brings to teachers: IT replaces teachers?
• How can teachers make good use of IT in teaching? Retraining, Reengineering, Re...
• How to make good use of the face-to-face interactions, or are they required anymore?
• Access is of prime importance but when and how this can be achieved?
• Another level of equality when being able to access is so important
• How can we ensure individualized learning?

IT Culture

It is important to distinguish between using IT as a tool and IT itself (while IT uses high-tech, using IT does not constitute using high-tech). We are talking about learning using, not about computers. IT culture necessities people's ability and willingness to:

• extend beyond their physical capacities to acquire information and
• cope with the vast community beyond space and membership

What we aim to achieve are:

• IT literacy
• Access to IT
• Access to the network
• Basics of IT applications
• The inculcation of a virtual society

Conclusion

The idea of including true multimedia into learning materials has been realised. Now rich-text, graphics as well as live video can be integrated into a learning environment. With the aid of computing technology, self-access self-paced learning, both as an aid to learning and studying and as a distance-learning mode of studying, can be done. Database-Web link allows authenticating users, providing interactive and iterative dialogue-type interface between users and the computer, recording and analysing students' performance as a means of continuous quality control and monitoring.

In conclusion, it is considered that video-on-demand fulfils many of the criteria needed of an on-line teaching and learning system, in particular in the construction and real estate areas. Although this system provides us with a leap forward in the use of multimedia for teaching and learning, other supplementary and complementary tools are required. Virtual reality modelling (VRML) is considered to be highly desirable in the fields of construction and real estate.

Postscript

Having successfully implemented the system in the Department of Building and Real Estate for 2 semesters, it was considered that the system was also suitable for schools in Hong Kong. The major difference between universities and schools lie in the fact that IT culture is less mature and networking is less well-equipped in the latter. We have identified 5 schools with a spectrum of background: one being a pilot school selected by the government with substantial funding in IT, one with 40 network computers in a dedicated room, two with 20 network computers, and one providing special education without networking facility.

The well-equipped school has a giga-bit backbone, switched Fast Ethernet connections to servers and workstations. We therefore replicate our system there making it self-contained, albeit it has a T1 connection to the Internet. With the 3 other schools, they subscribe to the newly setup public broad-band network (ADSL 3Mbps) offered by Hong Kong Telecom. In this setting, we became the "service provider" in the sense that all the records, teaching materials, etc are stored in our server and access is via the Internet. The special education school employs simple dial-up modem connection directly to our own remote access server (RAS). The following figure shows the implemention.

A "beta" test is underway and observations and reports will be disclosed in a seminar in July in Hong Kong. We hope that the WAN model will form the nucleus of the school-based Intranet in Hong Kong with a few exception, i.e., the more advanced schools might want to have a self-contained system. The WAN model has further advantages in that sharing of information, teaching and learning materials is much easier and maintenance cost is much lower.

References

Le Grew, D. (1995) Global Knowledge: Superhighway or Super Gridlock. Applications of Media and Technology in Higher Education. Chiba, Japan: National Institute of Multimedia Education.

Hypertext References

HREF1

http://www.bre.polyu.edu.hk/~bssmak/

HREF2

http://bates.cstudies.ubc.ca/learning.html

Copyright

Stephen Mak © 1999. The author assigns to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The author also grants a non-exclusive lience to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web.