An Empirical Study Of Student Interaction With Cd Based Multimedia Courseware

Abstract

The CD-MANIC project is developing a multimedia courseware system that combines the use of CDs for bandwidth-intensive content with periodic Internet connections for updates, logging, assessment and access to Internet resources. Class materials distributed by CD include a semester's worth of lectures (recorded during an earlier offering of the class) in the form of high quality audio/video synchronized with the display of class notes, overheads, and other in-class material. The CD-MANIC interface provides interactive controls for navigating course material, a multiple-view index over this material, a search facility, and (in some cases) access to an electronic copy of the complete course textbook. CD-MANIC also includes a logging facility that tracks students' interactions locally and then uploads logged student activity to a central site for analysis. In this paper we present logged student activity for approximately 50 students who used CD-MANIC for a full semester in a variety of settings, including off-campus students who used CD-MANIC as their sole means of obtaining classroom lecture material, and on-campus students who used CD-MANIC as an adjunct to another instructor's teaching of the course. We provide a brief overview of CD-MANIC and the logging facility and then report on gathered data. We discuss our findings on the extent to which students viewed material in long-term, continuous play modes versus shortterm, highly-interactive modes; the manner in which students navigate through course materials; and student use of the various components (audio/video, slides, index, and electronic book) available. We describe how results are being used to evaluate the existing version of CD-MANIC and develop future versions which more closely meet different student's needs.