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5. Multi-media EducationalMaterials Development

Dr. Merza AbbasDeputy-DirectorCentre for Education TechnologyUniversity of ScienceMALAYSIA

Objectives

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Apply Gagne’s design theory in developing educa-tional materials;

2. Produce exciting and effective multi-media pro-grammes.

Introduction

The effectiveness and desirability of multi-media edu-cational materials such as films, television, andslide-tape programmes have long been demonstrated.

In this framework there are at least 2 links betweenteaching and student achievement. The first link is be-tween teaching and student cognition or thinking, andthe second link is between student cognition and learn-ing or achievement.

The variables within the student’s thought processes canbe further grouped under:

1. preconceptions2. processes of learning information, i.e. learning

strategies and methods of knowledge acquisi-tion;

3. metacognition; and4. affective thought processes.

sign level involves careful integration of variousmaterials and learning activities to serve specific in-structional objectives.

The development of multi-media materials, thus in-volves various levels of production, and to be effective,it must be guided by sound instructional or design theo-ries.

The Teaching-Learning Framework

The complexity of the teaching-learning process can beseen from Wittrock’s (1986) teaching-learning frame-work (Fig. 1):

-------------------------------------------------------------*Presented at LRC Training Workshop (Cotabato City,Philippines, 20 - 29 September 1995)

A few observations regarding teaching and learning canbe drawn from this framework:

1. Teaching is an activity that affects achievementthrough or by influencing student thought pro-cesses.

2. Teaching influences achievement throughchanging the ways students think about, orga-nize, and process information, including howthey relate it to their experience and knowledge,and how they apply it to their daily lives.

3. Teaching influences achievement by inducingstudents to construct meaning from instruction.

4. Teaching does not usually affect studentachievement directly or automatically. Whatstudents learn from teachers depend upon thestudents’ background knowledge, learning strat-egies, metacognitive processes, and affectivethought processes.

Gagne’s theory of Instruction

The products or outcomes of education and training canbe categorized in terms of what is learned or acquired.These outcomes are usually new knowledge, skills, andattitudes. The challenge facing teachers and trainers, ascan be seen from Wittrock’s (1986) analysis, is to effec-tively and efficiently produce these outcomes. Thereare many theories and models to choose from to guideus in producing effective and efficient instruction andprograms. Gagne’s theory of instruction is chosen be-cause it tackles both links of the framework.

Gagne (1985) proposes a taxonomy that consists of thethree domains of learning, i.e., cognitive, affective andpsychomotor, but with a deeper treatment and emphasisto the cognitive domain. A taxonomy of learning out-comes arranges all the behaviours involved in learninginto a hierarchy, that is, a progressive sequence fromsimple to complex. The main purposes are to indicatewhat to teach, and to assist in generating and classifyingtest items for evaluation purposes.

B. ON MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

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Gagne classifies human learning into five categories ordomains and calls them `learned capabilities`. Thesecategories are important because each is hypothesizedto require different types or strategies of instruction.The five capabilities are:

1. Verbal informationThe ability to state or recall information relatingto facts, etc.

2. Intellectual skillsThe ability to use symbols, concepts andrules correctly to solve problems.Intellectual skills are ordered in the form ofa learning hierarchy:

Higher-order Rules(Problem solving)

Rules

Concepts

Discriminations

Basic Forms of Learning(Association & Chains)

3. Cognitive strategiesThese are skills by which learners regulate their owninternal processes of attending, learning, remember-ing and thinking, and the ability to originate novelsolutions to problems. These skills are largely inde-pendent of content and generally apply to all kindsof content.

4. Motor skillsThe ability to execute bodily movements smoothlyand in proper sequence. Tasks involving motorskills are postulated to consist of procedures whichare also hierarchically organized:

Procedures

Rules

Concepts

Motor Skills

5. AttitudesChoosing to behave in a particular way.

According to Gagne (1985), intervention to improvelearning comes in two parts i.e., sequencing or design-ing the contents of a lesson based on the learninghierarchy, and secondly, supporting the acquisition ofeach component of the learning hierarchy by employingthe events of instruction (Fig. 2).

Gagne (1985) Defines instruction as a set of events ex-ternal to the learner that is designed to support theinternal processes of learning. So the events of instruc-tion are activities teachers, designers, or producersperform to make it possible for learners or viewers toproceed from “where they are “ to the achievement ofthe lesson or program objectives.

Developing Multi-Media Materials

Gagne’s (1985) theory of instruction offers a genericprescription that is assumed to apply to any subject mat-ter or domain. It focuses on how to teach, sequence, orinstruct to affect the maximum development of compe-tence according to the cognitive perspective. Thecontent of instruction, i.e., what to teach, and the choiceof media is left to the participants to decide. As Winn(1984) argues, the choice of media is not as critical asthe design of instruction or programs.

Much of our concern involves intellectual skills, i.e.,knowing how to use symbols, concepts and rules cor-rectly to solve problems. Intellectual skills form thebulk of the capabilities required in reading, writing,arithmetic, thinking, or in manipulating knowledge.

Briefly, the design process involving intellectual skillsbegins with stating the terminal or final objective of thelesson or program. Then, all levels or types of knowl-edge and skills that identified according to the hierarchyof learning. The identification of the sub-skills andprior knowledge is made by asking “What does the stu-dent need to know to be able to perform this?” At everylevel of the hierarchy. The hierarchy is complete whenall the relevant knowledge and sub-skills have beenidentified.

The completed hierarchy gives a detailed outline andflow of the content to be taught or presented. The out-line can then be elaborated upon and used in ateacher-based delivery system, in which case the eventsof instruction to support the learning processes will beprovided by the teacher as the lesson unfolds, or it canbe delivered as a media program. For the media pro-gram, care must be taken that an equal amount ofsupport for the learning processes, also in the form ofthe events of instruction, has been incorporated.

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Incorporating the events of instruction into a media pro-gram is accomplished to a great extent through thetreatment or angle of the subject. Kemp & Smellie(1989) suggest that there are at least four treatments tohandle the subject: informational, personal involve-ment, dramatic, and a combination of these. The eventsof instruction, in the form of treatments, effects, ques-tions, and cues, are intentional and necessary efforts bythe teacher or producer to ensure that active mental par-ticipation is obtained throughout the program. Therecan be no learning without active mental participation.

Story boarding, production planning and other routineprocedures can then proceed from here. Having gonethrough the elaborate prescriptions of a sound designtheory the programs that we develop will have a higherprobability of being effective.

References

Gangne, R. M. (1985). The conditions of learning andtheory of instruction. New York: CBS College Pub-lishing.

Kemp, J. E., & Smellie, D. C. (1989). Planning, pro-ducing, and using instructional media. New York:Harper & Row Publishers.

Winn, W. (1984). Why media?. Instructional Innova-tor, 29(2), 31-32.

Wittrock, M. C. (1986). Students’ thought processes.In M.C. Wittrock, (Ed.). Handbook of research onteaching, 297-314. New York: MacMillan.