DE Oracle @ UMUC

GSMT - Computer Concepts (MSIT 620)

CSI Staff

Staff Writer

Center for Support of Instruction

Published: 0 2003

Category: » University-showcase » Classes-programs

Stella Porto, Program Director, Applied Computer Systems, has long envisioned building a repository of multimedia objects for use in the Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program. She made great strides toward realizing that goal while teaching MSIT 620, Computer Concepts. As Stella explained, "MSIT 620 is an ideal choice as it comes at the beginning of the program and serves as a foundation to bridge knowledge gaps among students before they move on to more advanced topics. The multimedia components facilitate student understanding by adding an extra dimension to a highly technical class."

Stella collaborated with Heloisa Siffert, Distance Education Coordinator, to design and develop a series of learning objects intended to further illuminate challenging concepts in the class. The team experimented with various approaches from simple pen and paper drawings to more high-end technology available in UMUC's Faculty Media Lab. Their efforts resulted in 22 audio and visual enhancements that Stella added throughout her classroom.

While achieving many of their initial goals, the team also encountered some unexpected challenges. First, it sometimes proved difficult to translate a concept such as a mathematical equation into a visual reality. Second, Stella and Heloisa faced a longer learning curve than anticipated to master some of the equipment and software such as Flash. Third, rather than allow the available technology to drive the solution, they strove to define the purpose of each multimedia component, and then to build it with the appropriate tools.

The following samples represent the different types of multimedia employed in MSIT 620:

• Using Video to Enhance Student Learning
• Using Flash Animation to Enhance Student Learning
• Interprocess Communication Bottleneck
• Audio and Slides on Cache Organization
• Adding Audio and Video to Enhance Student Learning

Stella and Heloisa are in the process of collecting student feedback on the multimedia objects, and report that initial findings are quite positive. Overall, students indicate that the additional components enhanced the learning experience, and that they would like to see these and other types of multimedia included in other Graduate School classes. Additionally, students seem to respond positively to all the various types of multimedia employed. They also liked the option of having the same material presented in more than one way. For example, in one component students could select to either listen to an audio or view a video segment narration of PowerPoint slides.

From the students' feedback, Stella is encouraged in her belief that easy and inexpensive to produce components are often just as effective as higher-end, more time-consuming objects. Both Stella and Heloisa are excited about experimenting further with additional multimedia tools such as Webcams. Heloisa is firmly committed to keeping the multimedia segments short in duration, and accessible across as many platforms as possible.