HOW TO MAKE COURSEWARE FOR SCHOOLS INTERESTING:
NEW METAPHORS IN EDUCATIONAL MULTIMEDIA.
M. Morozov
PhD, head of Multimedia Systems Laboratory
Mari State Technical University
morozov@marstu.mari.ru
Abstract
Educational CD-ROMs should be not less interesting
and attractive for children than numerous computer
games. The approach offered by the authors allows to
reduce the existing gap between educational and game
CD-ROMs. It is achieved due to the new spatial metaphor
for user interface and by using an effective design method
of multimedia courseware. The main idea of metaphors for
educational multimedia environment is a screen of the
computer being not a representation of a book page, but
"a window to the new world". Because of complexity and
richness of information model, development of educational
CD-ROM is based on application of script for the
description of educational material and navigating
information. The design method described in the paper
allows to make the development of multimedia cost- and
time effective. The approach presented can be used for
creating new generation of "three-dimensional"
educational multimedia CD-ROMs.
1. Introduction
Multimedia technologies have proved to be useful in
school education. Giving different effective means for
presentation of the educational material in a combination
with interactivity, multimedia provides a qualitatively new
level of the learning process. As the hardware and
software tools have become more powerful, visual
organization of multimedia environment essentially
changed. The increased performance of the 3D graphics
allows to pass from the traditional electronic textbook with
hypertext or hypermedia pages to an interactive
educational environment based on a spatial metaphor [1].
In the process of development of this educational
environment the project team comes across a number of
difficult tasks:
 design of a simple and intuitively appealing 3Dinterface in which educational material is visually
combined with navigation tools;
A. Markov
researcher, Multimedia Systems Laboratory
Mari State Technical University
mai@marstu.mari.ru
 implementation of software for 3D graphics,
animation and virtual reality integrated with other
multimedia components;
 determination of information organisation of
interactive educational multimedia and forms of
learning material presentation.
The solution of these tasks is shown on the example of
award-winning educational multimedia CD-ROMs
developed for the school course of Chemistry.
2. Metaphors in educational multimedia
In the educational multimedia the metaphors map a
familiar object or process to a target system so that
students can learn, use, remember, and enjoy the system
more quickly, effectively and completely [2]. The use of
metaphors considerably reduces the perceived complexity
of user interface. It was only natural choice for the book to
be one of the main metaphors in interactive learning
environments for a long time [3]. Due to limited hardware
possibilities of computers only the visual representation of
the text and graphics was possible. Besides the
instructional designer and subject specialist used a book as
a convenient and usual way for presentation of knowledge.
The growth of computer power allows authordevelopers to involve more expressive media than text,
such as a three-dimensional graphics and virtual reality.
This obviously can lead to the use "of more spatialized
user interface metaphors and a more spatial conception of
the overall user interface. As mankind is a species used to
live in a spatial environment it indeed makes sense to use a
spatial concept for the overall user interface" [4].
In the recent years, many spatial metaphors have been
chosen in educational multimedia applications, such as
classrooms, buildings, cities, museums and others.
However, often in this multimedia system 3D metaphors
are presented to the user simultaneously with desktop
metaphors based on a two-dimensional model. Sometimes,
such mixed metaphors can lead to confusions and
information overload of learners.
The main idea realised in the metaphor for interactive
educational multimedia for the school course of Chemistry
is a screen of the computer being not a representation of a
book page, but "a window to the new world". So learners
look not at a flat surface of the screen of the monitor but
look through the glass of the screen like through a window
to a new spatial world of knowledge in which the images
of real objects act equally with virtual models.
"The new world" is a three-dimensional world where
all information objects have a shape and behaviour. Every
object has own behaviour determined by its appearance
and functionality. Certainly, the real world is
inconceivably various and the number of objects with their
possible behaviour is unlimited. Therefore alongside with
a general metaphor of "the new world" there is required as
the choice of a particular metaphor for visual space of the
screen (backside to the “window”) so the choice of
elementary metaphors for every object of this space. Thus,
a hierarchy of spatial metaphors should be created [5].
 information objects - educational material in the
form of texts, graphics, animations, videos, audios
and elements of virtual reality;
 identifiers of current location in hyperspace: titles
of chapters, screens, modes of learning;
 navigational tools- transition buttons, maps, menu;
 service objects - buttons of sound control, help etc.
According to the accepted general metaphor all the
spatial objects must have a shape and dynamic behaviour
not only functionally correlating with the appearance of
the objects, but also depicting their role in the interface. As
the cursor moves over all navigational and service objects,
these objects begin "to stir" to produce a small visible
movement. "Crystals" (buttons to go educational
fragments forward and backward) and pointers of
educational modes (“Tests”, “Experiments”, “Learning”)
rotate and the service objects "speaker" and "mouse" oscillate.
Then all the information objects and the identifiers of
current location display the dynamic behaviour only when
educational environment is being changed. The
blackboard, the laboratory desktop and the periodic table
of the chemical elements move from the background to the
foreground of the stage if required. The table of the
elements is used for the introduction of properties of the
chemical elements, and the laboratory desktop - while
making of experiments. The components of the
educational information presentation (formulas, graphics,
animation, text) as a rule have 3D representation and they
are perfectly positioned in visual space of the “stage”.
Figure 1. Metaphor of a Theatre
As a particular metaphor for design of the CD-ROM
"General and inorganic Chemistry" and the CD-ROM
"Organic Chemistry" there was selected a metaphor of
theatre.
In the book "Computer as Theatre" [6] Brenda Laurel
describes the interaction between the user and the
computer by using “theatre” as the metaphor and
explanatory model. On the contrary we use the theatre in
our own way: as metaphor for a place of the spatial world
to be presented.
As shown in the introduction of the multimedia
courseware the learner finds himself in an unusual theatre
of Chemistry where the performance is going to take
place. The curtain opens and the information objects
necessary for the representation of the educational material
appear on the “stage”.
The information objects, which form visual space of
every scene, can be grouped into four main categories:
Figure 2. Interface of multimedia courseware.
The integration of information objects within the only
spatial metaphor facilitates interaction of the students with
the electronic form of representation of the educational
material.
Unlike
the
traditional
text-graphical
representation the spatial form of educational environment
stimulates imagination and processes of visual thinking,
ensures multimodal perception of an educational material.
3. Information structure of the CD-ROM
While creating educational multimedia CD-ROMs the
authors have to solve an extremely complex task: to
provide a maximum simplicity and transparency for
educational material organisation and to keep utmost
information richness of the courseware
One of the ways to solve this problem is to limit modes
of educational material representation and the number of
navigational tools. In this case the learners having learned
the features of the CD-ROM’s interface will not be
distracted by it any more and will concentrate all their
attention on the content of the educational information.
Taking it into account, in the CD-ROMs "Chemistry"
three educational modes with the limited structure of
navigation tools and information representation are used:
 Learning - a basic mode in which the educational
information is organised as a three-level hierarchy;
 Tests - a complex of questions for testing the
learners’ knowledge;
 Experiments - models of chemical experiments.
integrated forms. For example, for description and
analyses of chemical reactions "the sounded formulas" are
used in which the reading aloud the formulas is
accompanied with colour marking of appropriate reagents.
For demonstrating 3D organic molecular structures "the
virtual structures" are presented by means of virtual reality
tools. The convenience of navigation along a linear
sequence of educational fragments is also ensured by a
"preview" system when one before passing on to the next
fragment can view its “thumbnails”.
Despite the wide variety of questions in the "Tests"
mode it is possible to use only two format for the choice
answer: "radio buttons" - for multiple-choice questions
and "Drag and Drop" for others. The similar navigational
interface is used in the "Experiments" mode of the
multimedia courseware.
The information organisation of multimedia system
with such a complicated structure is based on using the
graph of transitions (Fig. 3). The nodes of the graph set all
possible states of presentation and the arcs determine
possible transitions from the state to other. Each state is
determined by the information, which is represented in
visual and audio forms. Every moment the system is in
some state from which there are one or several transitions
to other states.
Our approach in application of the graph of transitions
permits easily modification of the behaviour of
navigational tools and so to simplify essentially the design
process.
4. Script approach for development of
educational CD-ROM
Figure 3. Graph of transitions
Every mode arranges a standard set of graphic forms
for representation of information. Besides the forms of
representation of usual multimedia components (the text,
graphics, animation and video) there are series of
Development of interactive multimedia with complex
information structure based on spatial metaphors is a
complicated and expensive process. How can such project
be implemented in conditions of a limited budget typical
for the educational systems?
There are two principal approaches to development of
multimedia CD-ROMs.
The first and the most spread one is the use of authoring
systems for organisation of multimedia presentations, such
as Macromedia Director or Asymetrix's Multimedia
Toolbook. This approach allows to create high-quality
multimedia courseware fast and at low expenses, but the
choice of presentation tools is limited by features of the
authoring system. Besides it is very important to take into
consideration that the creation of 3D graphics pictures and
animation for spatial interface is very expensive. And as a
rule, such tools are not included in authoring systems.
The second approach is based on direct programming
of multimedia software by using a high-level language, for
example C ++ or Visual Basic. Ensuring full freedom in
programming and visual organization of multimedia
presentation to the developers, on the contrary, this
approach is expensive and requires much effort.
For development of informationally and visually rich
multimedia software for a school course of Chemistry the
third approach was proposed. It is based on the use of
special script languages for description of navigational
information and presentation structure of educational
content . This method of development is somewhat similar
to the one used in authoring systems based on script
paradigm. However, the fundamental difference is that
now at a script level only the structure and specifications
of presentation (attributes of graphics, hotspots,
synchronisation, etc.) are described for objects stored as
files of multimedia database. All presentation abilities and
the information organisation of multimedia software are
still programmed in the high-level language C++ that
ensures complete creative freedom for developers. The
project implementation is changed accordingly. The
programmer develops an engine of the multimedia system,
a set of presentation modules and software for script
handling. At the same time other staff members can be
engaged in filling of scripts for content. From those
developers only the knowledge of simple syntactical rules
of script writing is required.
For every educational mode of the CD-ROM
("Learning", "Tests", "Experiments") there used their own
scripts with functionally oriented syntax. The scripts are
compiled to binary files, which are analysed during the
presentation of multimedia courseware.
The design method described above allows to make the
development of multimedia cost- and time effective.
5. Conclusion
Educational CD-ROMs should be not less interesting
and attractive for children than numerous computer games
with perfect 3D graphics and a thrilling story. But it is
extremely difficult to achieve it, because the development
of such games requires huge financial resources. The
approach offered by the authors allows to reduce the
existing gap between educational and game CD-ROMs. It
is achieved due to the new spatial metaphors for user
interface and by using an effective design method of
educational multimedia.
The main idea of the spatial metaphor for interactive
educational multimedia for the school course of Chemistry
is a screen of the computer being not a representation of a
book page, but "a window to the new world".
As a particular metaphor for organisation of multimedia
environment was chosen the metaphor of theatre with all
appropriate attributes: the stage with visual educational
content, side-scenes, a curtain, etc. For presentation of
educational materials in addition to traditional multimedia
components, the new integrated forms ("the sounded
formulas", "virtual structures", "flowers" etc.) are used.
Because of complexity and richness of information model
CD-ROM its implementation is based on application script
for the description of educational and navigating
information.
The approach presented can be used for creating new
generation of "three-dimensional" educational multimedia
CD-ROMs.
References
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Educational Communications and Technology Sponsored
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February 16-20, 1994, pp. 95-108.
[2] T. Erickson, “Working With Interface Metaphors”,
The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, edited by
B. Laurel, Addison Wesley Publishing Company Inc,
Reading, Massachusetts, USA, 1990, pp. 65-73.
[3] P. Barker, “Electronic Books and Their Potential for
Interactive Learning”, Proceedings of NATO Advanced
Study Institute on Basics of Man Machine Communication
for the Design of Education Systems, Volume 2,
Eindhoven, Netherlands, August 16-26, 1993, pp.151-158.
[4] Dieberger, A., On Navigation in Textual Virtual
Environments and Hypertext, PhD thesis, Vienna
Universtiy of Technology, 1994.
[5] Kuhn, W., "Handling Data Spatiality: Spatializing
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