An Approach Based on Simulation and Hypermedia Technology to a New Courseware in Mechanics of Machines

Effect of student engagement on multimedia-assisted instruction

“…This study intended to explore the effectiveness of applying multimedia in a general engineering and technology education course in support of students' learning. Results showed that students thought the multimedia could help them to improve their learning in general and in specific learning issues, which also confirmed the previous literature (Cairncross & Mannion, 1999;Giannotti & Galletti, 1996;Höhne & Henkel, 2004;Kartam & Al-Reshaid, 2002;Mutharasan et al, 1997), which indicated that applying multimedia to assist learning could help students to learn the materials. The introductory course introduced the technology and science developments in Taiwan, such as the integrated circuit industry, display industry, computer and information technology industry, nano and biomedical technology, agriculture and ecological research, and traditional industry transformation development.…”

“…Multimedia approaches have been proved to have the potential to create a high-quality learning environment. Along with the rapid advances in technology, it becomes easier for instructors to access and apply multimedia to assist their teaching of engineering topics, and cases are well documented such as nanotechnology (Wishart & Blease, 1999), biotechnology engineering (Mutharasan, Magee, Wheatley, & Lee, 1997), circuit and electronic engineering (Maby, Carlson, Connor, Jennings, & Schoch, 1997;Schodorf, Yoder, & McClellan, 1996;Giannotti & Galletti, 1996;Höhne & Henkel, 2004;Nortcliffe & Middleton, 2008;Hunt, Howard, Kirk, Ash, & Tyrrell, , 2001), computer and information science, mechanical engineering, civil engineering (Kartam & Al-Reshaid, 2002), manufacturing education (Raju, Sankarz, & Xue, 2004), mechatronics (Kikuchi & Kenjo, 1996), mathematical education (Bringslid, 1999), and environmental engineering (Badran, 1995;Boman & Olsson, 1996). The advent of multimedia with hypertext, interactive simulations, and animation systems has forged an effective information delivery environment with the power of creating interactive laboratories and classrooms (Bengu & Swart, 1996).…”

“…Researchers have applied multimedia in educational contexts and found that it enabled them to choose from a range of media elements to convey a particular message (Cairncross & Mannion, 1999). The various forms of multimedia, such as videotapes (Mutharasan et al, 1997), multimedia materials on CD-ROM (Boman & Olsson, 1996), digital audio streams (Nortcliffe & Middleton, 2008), multimedia instructional software (Kikuchi & Kenjo, 1996;Schodorf, Yoder, & McClellan, 1996), web-based multimedia materials (Kartam & Al-Reshaid, 2002;Raju, Sankarz, & Xue, 2004;Bringslid, 1999;Badran, 1995), multimedia courseware (Giannotti & Galletti, 1996), and even the programmable multimedia systems (Höhne & Henkel, 2004), can meet different needs in practice. Previous studies have suggested that multimedia-assisted instruction can help teachers construct a coherent mental representation from presented materials (Mayer, 2001;Mutharasan et al, 1997), illustrate spatial relationships (Sutcliffe & Faraday, 1994), and present information appropriately for different kinds of learners (Cairncross & Mannion, 1999).…”

“…But it also needs to improve their development in problem-solving (Höhne & Henkel, 2004) and decision-making (Raju, Sankarz, & Xue, 2004) with consideration of different learning styles and capabilities (Maby et al, 1997). Researchers have found that higher motivation (Giannotti & Galletti, 1996;Höhne & Henkel, 2004;Kikuchi & Kenjo, 1996) toward learning could lead to greater ongoing engagement when multimedia materials are used to assist learning (Nortcliffe & Middleton, 2008). Moreover, the better accessibility of multimedia-assisted instruction could also maintain and provide learning resources (Badran, 1995) for students to study at any time, place, and pace suited to the learner (Schodorf, Yoder, & McClellan, 1996;Kartam & Al-Reshaid, 2002).…”