Choices are good! You go to a a certain ice cream shop, and you have a choice of 31 flavors of ice cream to select from. Instructors also have choices on how to present the concepts and principles so that students learn. Providing choices helps students convert information to knowledge, enabling them to use and apply the concepts and principles. 

In Roadmap to Effective Distance Education Instructional Design, you have had the opportunity to learn by:

• Reading text.
• Linking to additional resources.
• Viewing narrated PowerPoint slides.
• Hearing and seeing resource people.
• Viewing tables, graphs, and figures.

Multimedia involves using more than one form of presenting information, such as text, audio, graphics, animation, and video. The primary advantage of using multimedia is to address and appeal to the different learning styles of students. Multimedia can be presented in any setting from face-to-face to Web-based delivery; however, requirements of using some forms might limit the practicality and, therefore, the usefulness of the form. For example, the effectiveness of a video might be reduced if it takes 20 minutes to download using a modem.

Key questions to answer in selecting forms of media to use are:

• Will learning be enhanced?
• Do I have the time, expertise and/or support to develop the media?
• Will the students be able to use the media?

Back to Other Technologies Used in Distance Education.

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