EASI - Educating Authors for Simulated Interaction
EASI is a CD-ROM aimed at academics who are thinking about including multimedia
courseware, but are new to multimedia. Produced under the JISC New Technologies
Initiative (NTI), it is designed to give new and potential authors a feel
for the strengths and weakness of multimedia authoring. It is divided into
a number of sections, from why and where multimedia courseware is used,
to looking at a real example of multimedia courseware.
Initially the user is taken through a series of questions to determine their
degree of multimedia experience. This information is then used to tailor
the next section, in which they are presented with a series of questions.
The object is not to answer the questions, but to categorise them within
the framework provided, so encouraging the user to think about the issues
involved more clearly. At the end of the session the framework, with the
questions you answered and the original allocations can be saved to a file
or printed for future reference.
The next sections provide an overview of some of the fundamentals of multimedia,
including why multimedia may be a valuable teaching tool and legal issues.
The basic components of a multimedia package, text, graphics, sound and
video are then introduced in an interactive section demonstrating some basic
design principles.
Finally, the multimedia exemplar looks at a real example of part of a multimedia
course on Sociology. The text that the lecturer gave to the multimedia courseware
developer is included, and you are encouraged to read the text, work through
the course and then view the course for a second time. In the second run
through, some of the discussion between the academic author and the developer
which arose during conversion of the course, is also displayed, showing
some of the problems encountered.
For information please contact:
Dr David Gerrett
School of Health & Community Studies
University of Derby
d.gerrett@derby.ac.uk
Dr David Gerrett
School of Health & Community Studies
University of Derby
d.gerrett@derby.ac.uk
