Essays on Literature, Literary / Textual Criticism, and Pedagogy
Editor: Ollie O. Oviedo, Eastern New Mexico University
Assistant Editors: Royal Prentice, Harvey Stanbrough,
Eastern New Mexico University
Hypermedia in the Academy:
Frameworks for Evaluating Courseware
Eli B. Cohen
University of Wollongong, Australia
Decades ago, a few professors working mostly in isolation and through large grants developed projects that pioneered the use
of multimedia technology to improve adult learning. Unfortunately, the projects they created had little impact outside their own
universities because their projects relied on technology not found elsewhere.1
Since then, standardization in the development, presentation, and storage of hypermedia has had a positive impact on its use in
education (Reisman, 1994).2 Hypermedia has become an all-encompassing topic that includes uses in entertainment, sales,
education and training. The focus of this paper is an understanding of hypermedia in adult education offered through colleges
and universities, specifically on providing frameworks that outline what potential instructors need to evaluate hypermedia.
Focus on Adult Learning
Malcolm Knowles (1990) presents a complete yet accessible coverage of the research in adult learning. Knowles calls the
field andragogy to differentiate it from pedagogy. Knowles points out that adult learners learn best when they have control
over their learning environment and that successful learning situations provide the learner with a variety of modalities for
learning.
Further research into adult learning was conducted by Nadler and Nadler (1994). Their work provides a specific model for
training the adult based on critical events. Providing the learner with immediate feedback is the most important element in their
model.
A comprehensive summarization of research on educating college students led to a numeration of seven good practices
(Chickering and Gamson, 1987). Five of these seven practices deal directly with opportunities inherent in hypermedia
courseware: 1) encourage cooperation among students; 2) encourage active learning; 3) give prompt feedback; 4) emphasize
time-on-task; and 5) respect diverse talents and ways of learning.
The literature shows that well-designed hypermedia courseware can meet the needs of the adult learner quite well, especially
when it is not used in isolation. It can provide the learner with control and feedback from which they benefit. It actively
involves the learner with the learning and demands the learner to be on-task. By definition, hypermedia instruction uses a
variety of modalities. Research shows that using this variety of modalities meets the learning needs of a large portion of the
adult population.
The remainder of the paper asks and answers the following three questions:
1. What are the roles of the instructor in hypermedia instruction?
2. What makes some courseware more powerful than others?
3. What tradeoffs does hypermedia instruction require?
3. The Roles of the Instructor in Hypermedia Instruction
Properly designed hypermedia instructional components can promote what the literature points out as good practices. The
question then is, how does hypermedia courseware find its way into the classroom? Stated another way, what role does the
college teacher play in providing students with hypermedia instruction? The first framework, shown as Table 1, offers three
distinct roles for educators in adult education: professional developer, amateur developer, and adopter. 3
Table 1. The Roles of the Professor in Hypermedia Courseware
Table 1 makes clear what we might assume to be obvious, instructors can play three different roles in implementing
hypermedia courseware. Unfortunately the literature in this area often confuses these roles and confuses the issues. 4
Platform. To proceed, we must understand the concept of the computer platform. The term platform refers to the type of
computer system. The most common personal computer platforms available today are the IBM-compatible and the
Macintosh. Likewise the Sega Genesis "game computer" is a completely separate platform. The importance of this concept is
that a given version of software used to develop courseware runs only on one platform. However, the courseware developed
may work on one or more platforms.
Here are examples of software for each of these three roles:
Professional Developer. One example of professional hypermedia application development software is Macromedia’s
Authorware Professional. There are different versions of this development software for the IBM and Macintosh computers.
However, the courseware developed on one can be used on both. That is, after developing an application on one platform, it
can be used on the other platform. Authorware Professional costs about $2,500 and requires an additional investment in
technology (hardware, programs, data). It also requires a large investment in developers’ time. An hour of production-quality
instruction typically requires between 100 and 1,000 hours of development.
Amateur. For the amateur hypermedia application developer, Macromedia’s Authorware is available in an academic version.
This academic version is available through Prentice Hall for $250. The academic version has limitations built into its design so
that it will not compete with the professional version. While the software limitations will not limit the amateur, the associated
requirement for technology and time may. An hour of amateur-quality instruction requires about 50 hours of preparation.
Adopter. The third type of role, the adopter, is becoming more and more common as hypermedia becomes more prevalent.
One example of the effective use of technology in teaching adult learners is seen in Course Technologies CD-ROM product
"Cases in International Business." This product combines Harvard case studies, video, sound, and data into a single
experience for the learner. Course Technologies produce this for the academic market.
The adopter would be wise to check the non-academic marketplace as well. For example, Lambert and Bow’s The
Holocaust CD-ROM (published by Quanta Press) combines graphic images, sound, and text into an intimate format. Many
libraries have adopted this database so individuals can experience one of humanity’s darkest moments at a pace and depth
controlled by the individual learner.
What Makes Some Courseware More Powerful than Others ? 5
As Figure 1 shows, the power of hypermedia courseware can be viewed through two orthogonal dimensions: the degree of
the learner’s control and the degree of multimedia deployment. The increase in courseware power also requires a concomitant
increase in resources. These resources include hardware (computer speed, primary memory, storage, and specialized
devices), training for the developer, and time to develop.
Figure 1. Hypermedia Power is a function of learner control and media deployment.
Learner control over the learner’s own sequence of presentation is limited jointly by software used to develop the courseware
and the designers’ allocation of resources to providing learner control. Powerful courseware requires a lot of time and money
and expensive software to develop.
The levels of learner control are shown here as sequential, indexed, network, and network with a history-base. In a
sequentially-controlled environment, the learner has no recourse but to use the courseware in a linear, pre-defined fashion. By
definition, hypermedia is beyond this level.
Hypermedia control begins with allowing the learner to jump from point to point in an indexed fashion. The most basic of the
indexed approach is a tree structure.
Figure 2. Control Structures in Hypermedia.
A network organization provides links between and among related information throughout the courseware. For example, while
exploring a section on Abraham Lincoln, the learner can easily move to sections on U.S. Presidents, the Civil War, Springfield
Illinois, Mary Todd, and so on. While exploring the U.S. Civil War section, the learner can move to Lincoln, slavery, other
civil wars, other U.S. wars, and so on. These structures can be seen in Figure 2.
When the designer adds a history-base to the network structure, the courseware keeps track of where the learner has already
visited. A history-base can also allow the learner to take notes while using the courseware.
Media Deployment. Media deployment tends to follow a given sequence. Text is the easiest medium to place in courseware
and is always present. Still images, such as artwork or graphs, are second. Next sound typically comes since it requires little
additional hardware. The current challenge is providing video into courseware. Good video is difficult and expensive to
capture, store, and reproduce.
What Are the Tradeoffs?
Another way to view the lesson of Figure 1 is shown in Figure 3: the more powerful the courseware, as defined above, the
more resources are needed to create it and to use it. It is relatively easy to create courseware that presents lessons in a linear
fashion using only text. This is the basis for books. Creating courseware that uses video costs a great deal of time, hardware,
and developmental software requirements. Second, providing such courseware for student use requires more powerful
hardware. Third, creating software that provides extensive learner-control requires extra time and effort.
Figure 3. Ease of Development and Power are inversely related.
Conclusion
This paper has presented frameworks useful in evaluating the suitability of hypermedia courseware for the adult learner. These
frameworks serve to caution the college instructor in the selection of courseware and in the requirements to develop one’s
own quality courseware. The concept of courseware power is developed. Power is a combination of the extent of media
deployment and the degree of learner control over the learning environment. The paper presents several alternative structures
for organizing hypermedia. Power is also related to resource requirements. More powerful applications are more resource
consuming, in both development and use.
Notes
1 Examples included Plato, which required a CDC mainframe, specialized termi-nals, and TICTAC, which used DEC
equipment.
2Two examples of such standards include the ISO 9660 standards for storage of multimedia information on CD-ROM and
the proprietary standards for sound cards.
3The advance of low-cost technology has made possible this distinction for a variety of fields. Consider, for example, how
many of us have become amateur desktop publishers due to the ease of use and low cost of such software.
4The point too often forgotten is that amateur publishing has its place and use. It provides to the professor a better product
than is possible without it. However, few professors possess the skills of the professional publisher and so professional
publishers can do a better job. The issue is one of economics in which the development effort must consider costs and
benefits.
5This section consolidates findings from psychology, education, and computer science.
Works Cited
Chickering, A. W., and Gamson, Z. F. "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." AAHE Bulletin
39(7) (1987): 3-7.
Culp, G. H. "An Approach to Collaborative Software Development." HyperNEXUS Journal of Hypermedia and Multimedia
Studies 4(2) (1993):15-16.
Knowles, M. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston: Gulf, 1990.
Nadler, L. and Nadler, Z. Designing Training Programs: The Critical Events Model, Houston: Gulf, 1994.
Reisman, S., ed. Multimedia Computing: Preparing for the 21st Century. Harrisburg, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 1994.
Last Modified 12 Feb 2000
Comments or Problems to: ENMURWT@ENMU.EDU
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}