Multimedia interactive exercises for online training

authored by: Anna Perini, Kurt Schneider, Linda Marilena Bertolli, Angelo Susi, Artem Gabbasov, Paolo Busetta, Matteo Pedrotti
Abstract: Multimedia tutorials are more and more considered for online professional training as a valuable complement to traditional in presence training. Indeed, video and pictures can offer rich detail, show relevant context, and provide concrete visualisations of key concepts. An important aspect of achieving effective learning is to create an engaging experience for the learner. This can be obtained by increasing the level of interactivity required to the students, keeping them active and interested. However, there are different categories of interactive video, and what type of interactivity works best for online training needs to be systematically investigated. Moreover, the effort in developing such multimedia tutorials by instructional designers should be sustainable to enable large scale adoption. This calls for the development of appropriate methods and tools to support authors and teachers from the conception of an exercise to its deployment and evolution. These challenges have been addressed in the context of an industrial innovation project called ELEVATE (E-LEarning with Virtual interAcTive Experience). In order to collect empirical evidence on what type of interactive multimedia exercise could be effective in training, we performed an experiment to compare online training exercises based on linear videos with ones based on interactive videos having a graph-structure. Meanwhile, prototypes of the ELEVATE tool suite were being developed and validated in an iterative approach, by adding advanced features, such as those enabling the production of customisable exercises. In this paper, we present the design of the experiment and an execution with sixteen subjects, which provided useful results. The ELEVATE tool suite and the companion methodology are also described, together with the mechanisms it provides to develop customisable multimedia exercises.
Organisation(s): Institute of Practical Computer Science
External Organisation(s): Fondazione Bruno Kessler
University of Trento
Delta Informatica SpA
Type: Article
Journal: Multimedia tools and applications
Volume: 82
Pages: 38319-38343
No. of pages: 25
ISSN: 1380-7501
Publication date: 10.2023
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Software, Media Technology, Hardware and Architecture, Computer Networks and Communications
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-15157-8 (Access: Closed)