In recent years, the infusion of multimedia into teaching and learning has altered considerably the instructional strategy in our educational institutions and changed the way teachers teach and students learn. The traditional teacher-centric method of teaching used for decades in our educational system has been modified and enhanced. Currently, modern education theory is moving from the traditional recall of facts, principles, or correct procedures into the areas of creative thinking, problem solving, analysis and evaluation. These are skills which are very much needed in today's knowledge based economy. This shift in focus on learning has presented Malaysian educators with serious challenges as well as opportunities in restructuring their curriculum to meet the rising demands of the knowledge based society, which is currently being initiated by the Malaysian Government. In this paper, we focus on designing a course which is oriented towards a constructivist based paradigm by using multimedia as an instructional tool, and where students are active learners, involved in constructing their own knowledge in the learning process and determining how to reach their own learning outcomes. A survey was carried out to ascertain the reactions of students enrolled in an interactive multimedia course in the Multimedia University, Malaysia towards this constructivist based learning mode. The results indicated that these students reacted positively towards this study mode and improved their interpersonal and collaborative learning skills.

With the infusion of the multimedia technology into the education arena, traditional educational materials can be translated into interactive electronic form through the use of multimedia authoring tools. This has allowed teachers to design and incorporate multimedia elements into the content to convey the message in a multi‐sensory learning environment. The focus in education is thus moving towards using multimedia as the instructional media and a platform in teaching and learning. This paper focuses on using the multimedia design process to enable educators to re‐design their educational curricula into an interactive and media‐rich learning environment. This multimedia educational design process will reinforce and strengthen the traditional instructional communication process and foster a number of innovative methods to communicate knowledge to the learners. In this context, there is a need to adjust the educator's approach to teaching, preparing content and delivering learning materials.

<span>With the strong emphasis of social constructivism, many educators are finding new ways to stimulate and enhance social activities within the classroom. One such method is the use of cooperative learning. A cohort of students worked in small teams cooperatively to complete an assignment while using blogs to document and reflect their work. Moreover, the students were required to use multimedia learning objects to enhance their knowledge in media production. The purpose of the study is to account for the students' perspective and experience learning in such an environment, known as </span><em>Multimedia Integrated Cooperative-learning Environment (MICE) 2.0</em><span>. A mixed method design approach was employed that included tests, survey and open-ended questions to gauge their learning ability, and attitudes about working in groups and using blogs in their learning process. The results showed that while the existence of the five cooperative components were crucial for a successful cooperative learning structure, the findings indicated that respect, tolerance and communication are important aspects in working successfully in teams. They also found using blogs as a good learning experience to use for reflecting upon their work. Overall, the learning environment showed that cooperative learning using technology allowed the students to gain lifelong learning skills that are important for their future endeavours.</span>

We present an alternative method in the constructive perspective to enhance student learning through a multimedia project, in which computing and multimedia technologies are used to enable students to participate more actively in their own learning. Students in a second year course in the Multimedia University, Malaysia, used the multimedia development process (MDP) to build a project in a collaborative, problem solving learning environment. They worked in groups and sought to solve their design problems as a team, with the teacher acting as a facilitator supporting them in their learning. Results showed that this method enhanced learning and improved understanding of the subject. Introduction: The constructivist approachBusiness, industry, the military and educational institutions have recognised the potential for using computers as instructional tools. The Malaysian Government's initiative, Vision 2020, has called for schools and institutions of higher education in Malaysia to integrate technology into the classroom and in the curricula. Mat (2000) proposed that Malaysian educationists be proactive towards incorporating technology into the teaching and learning environment. In such an environment, students will experience new challenges in technology and need to be versatile in adoption:Information and communication technology (ICT) provides powerful tools for accessing, storing, and disseminating information… Our approaches to teaching, preparing contents and delivering learning materials need to be adjusted according to the existence of this technology. The classroom is no more a static physical set-up, but a rather dynamic existence… Teachers should be able to integrate technology in their process of teaching and learning..." (Mat, 2000) Neo, Neo and Tan 471 In the traditional education realm, the role of the teacher is to provide the content and information to the students, through instructional media such as notes, diagrams, overhead transparencies, models and more. The information or content that is presented is based on the teacher's curriculum and other relevant information for the class. With the introduction of multimedia into various industries, many educators began to see computers as part of a combination of technology resources, which included media elements such as text, graphics, sound, video and animations, instructional systems, and computer based support systems. Multimedia is the combination of various digital media types such as text, images, sound and video, into an integrated, multi-sensory, interactive application or presentation, to convey a message or information to an audience. In other words, multimedia means "an individual or a small group using a computer to interact with information that is represented in several media, by repeatedly selecting what to see and hear next" (Agnew, Kellerman & Meyer, 1996).At the heart of any digital multimedia development is interactivity. Interactivity in a multimedia application can be either linear or non-linear. With linear multimedia, ther...

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