Robbins, Christopher (2004). Educational multimedia for the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji : ICT Capacity Building at USP Project, The University of the South Pacific. ISBN 982-01-0586-2

Educational Multimedia for the South Pacific

This 69-page document is the final research report for the NmInTheSouthPacific project. It covers the methods, findings and recommendations of the project in its entirety. You can download the full report here (1.6 mb PDf file), or read the executive summary below.

Executive Summary

The project explores aspects of learning approaches in the South Pacific with a view to their application to the development of educational multimedia in the region. The major themes covered include language, group learning, contextual learning, authority figures, the importance of relationships in learning, the role of imitation, computer and internet access, usability, and interface preference in the South Pacific. Based on the data collected, we developed a set of recommendations for educational multimedia in the region. We applied these recommendations to the development of an educational multimedia program by creating an interactive CD-rom on Pacific History, and publicised these findings through a website and series of seminars.

This document summarises the project, the findings and recommendations based on these findings. It is designed for educators and educational technology developers, particularly those with a focus on teachers and learners in the South Pacific. The project approaches culturally inclusive educational multimedia from the design and development side, and so does not cover political, infrastructural or financial aspects of educational multimedia in the South Pacific.

In the course of the project, the research team conducted 153 interviews and 28 usability tests, administered 546 questionnaires, reviewed over 100 academic publications on learning and on technology in the South Pacific, and visited Distance and Flexible Learning (DFL) Centres of the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Fiji Islands.

The findings follow the general categories: language preference, group learning, contextual learning, computer and internet access, content-display preference, and usability. Language preference findings indicate that although most students (72%) prefer English as the main language of instruction, almost all staff and students turn to vernacular when confused. There was no clear preference for group versus individual learning, but there were clear trends on the beneficial and difficult aspects of learning in groups. Staff and students appreciated that learning in groups allows students to reframe course content to their local contexts and languages, and enables students to get answers to questions they are reluctant to ask their lecturers. However, they complained that authorities can develop within peer groups, inhibiting some students from asking questions, and that group projects can lead to unfair distribution of work. Additionally, many students who said they were unwilling to ask questions of lecturers in groups - both in person and via videoconference - preferred to ask their peers or to use one-on-one methods such as email or individual conversation.

Staff and students stated that local context is essential and lacking in their course work, and that they require educational media that utilise local metaphors or provide methods to ease their own localisation efforts. Findings show that visual displays of information such as graphics and charts are the most popular, while long text is the least popular method of receiving information. Regardless of the format employed, students indicated that they wanted to see the big picture, while being able to jump readily to specifics.

Computers and the internet are not easily available to many students: the average at USP DFL centres is one computer for every 68 students. Many of the more isolated students have effectively no access because they do not have electricity and cannot often visit the DFL centres. However, the access situation is continually improving, with a further donation of computers for the centres by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and current planning for a further upgrade of USPNet, the satellite network that provides internet access to DFL centres.

Usability findings indicate that it is important to allow immediate action on instructions, that beginners cannot be expected to differentiate between the operating system and application functions, and have trouble distinguishing between right and left mouse clicks.

Several conclusions can be drawn. First, there is a need for educational multimedia to utilise vernacular languages, examples and metaphors, and to provide avenues for further customisation by staff and students. Secondly, we must not assume group-oriented learning activities are the best solution for all students. Nevertheless, individual multimedia activities can be designed to take advantage of the beneficial aspects of group learning by providing multiple perspectives, as well as a degree of "e-anonymity" (such as email or virtual peers) to encourage questions from reticent students more comfortable with indirect modes of questioning. Educational multimedia developers must also create complements to the long texts that dominate most students' learning materials, providing information in a variety of more concise, visual formats, as well as audio voice-overs.

The technology access situation is daunting, but continuously improving, and while computer-based teaching currently reaches only a small portion of students in the region, it is important to develop our approaches to using the technology for teaching now, so that we are properly prepared once access is more widespread. Additionally, we can take several steps in the meantime to make the educational technology we develop more accessible in the region. Websites with large image, video and audio files are virtually unusable by most students in the region, so CD-rom counterparts are advisable. As computers are readily accessible to only a small portion of students in the South Pacific, CD-roms should be developed so that print and audio components can be easily isolated.

Recommendations based on these findings include:

• Provide Vernacular translations or glossaries within the educational multimedia. For ease of translation, save language files as separate text documents so that translators can make edits to the multimedia using simple word-processors, and need not know how to use multimedia development software.
• Offer opportunities for contextualisation of the educational media. Utilise decentralised methods that enable "on-the-fly" staff and student input, as well as dialogic methods that provide context in a more centralised, conversational manner, such as virtual peers from several countries who present examples and explain concepts using terms from their own backgrounds
• Divide materials by learning approach as well as thematically. For instance, the same material can be presented graphically, in outline form, through dialogic/conversation-like tests, and through exploratory hands-on interfaces. Also be sure to include audio voice-overs.
• Utilise modeling rather than separate instructions, enabling students to act on any instructions or practise any skills within the learning interface. For instance, overlay instructions on the active interface rather than providing separate instruction screens for help sections or lab simulations.
• Preserve the whole while offering specific anchors, creating successive approximations rather than a process of segmenting difficult concepts. For instance, long text should be accompanied by quick summaries that link to different parts of the main text. More graphical interfaces should present concepts through "layers of simplicity," in which details are available to the students without muddying the overall purpose of the graphics or confusing the interface.
• Encourage active interrogation of the materials by designing a layer of "e-anonymity" into educational multimedia. For instance, technologies that focus attention on the student publicly, such as video conferencing, can prevent reticent students from asking questions, so be sure to offer less exposing alternatives such as virtual peers and email.
• Develop educational multimedia so that it can be utilised in a variety of media devices.

In a nutshell, educational multimedia designed according to these recommendations would present materials in a variety of languages, using examples from a variety of countries in the South Pacific, and would provide opportunities for staff and students to customise the materials with their own examples and input. Ideally, the educational multimedia would be distributed as an interactive CD-rom rather than solely as a website, would have printable components, and would double as an audio CD when inserted into a CD-player. The interface would be designed so that drilling into specific aspects of the media preserves the "bigger picture," keeping the overall framework of the lesson in view when examining details.

The educational multimedia we designed to audit and illustrate our recommendations is a CD-rom on Pacific History developed using Macromedia Flash and XML. The information is presented in 12 languages used in the South Pacific, and is divided into three sections: a simple, text-based outline, an animated map, and a "test-yourself" section with a virtual-peer from each USP country who gives hints and feedback to help students learn through the test. Audio files, text files, and animations are saved in separate folders so that they can be customised by teaching staff, and are integrated into the multimedia at runtime so that staff can continually update the educational multimedia. A help section demonstrates how to use the program within the active interface, showing students exactly where on the screen to click, so students can act on the instructions immediately. The help section is also presented in 12 languages used in the South Pacific, in visual, textual and audio formats. The program is distributed open source, with source files for layouts, illustrations, animations, code and text included on the CD-rom, so as to enable deeper customisation, and to serve as a building block for other educational multimedia.