Multi-media tutorial

This screen shot shows a video clip and descriptive text which the user can view as discrete segments or as a complete presentation. An audio track is also included so that a student can learn with hands on use of the equipment while listening and referring to the text and/or video for clarification.

Multi-Media Tutorials

As a recent graduate student, I was awarded a teaching assistantship and appointed computer labs coordinator - a position I shared with two other graduate students. Our tasks and responsibilities included:

• selecting/hiring student lab assistants
• master scheduling of all lab hours
• provide supervision and technical assistance for student users
• training for student assistants and lab users on the

The primary function of the labs is to provide students with the resources to produce assigned projects, but for most of each day the labs serve as classrooms, which means scheduling open hours whenever available. This also means several hundred students have to plan their schedules to secure lab time and use of the equipment. Project requiring the use of lab equipment vary for every course and semester and since many students are intermittent or novice users, and occasional visits don't make it easy for them to become familiar with the equipment.....a standard set of questions quickly recurred that ranged from "How does this work? to "Can you help me?".

When I was handed a well worn notebook overflowing with equipment guides, operator's manuals, calendars, notes.....standing in a multi-media lab with several different types of equipment from computers to copystands I thought it was ironic that the information needed for guidance and training was a collection of printed materials. After a few weeks of observing and answering the same questions asked by many of the same people, I decided to find a better way to help the lab users and assistants get the information they needed to understand and use the lab's equipment.

Taking advantage of the rich media technology that was available and enlisting the talents of fellow students, I designed a simple set of tutorials for novice users. Each module was set up to guide them through the assembly and operation of the most frequently used equipment. A work in progress, the program is far to large to display, even online, but the graphic above represents the main elements of the design:

• The tutorial would have multiple options for the learner.
• Each equipment module could be played as a continuous performance and as discrete segments of the whole.
• This provides the student with choices in viewing the material and offered a step by step learning capability that permitted them to set their own pace.
• Additionally, a narrative with the video enhances and reinforces the presentation.
• The multimedia design allowed the student to practice with the equipment as they review the tutorial, providing a more flexible learning process.

As with any collaborative project, there are many contributors who make the process and the result a pleasant and rewarding experience. This project would not have been accomplished without the capable talent of the following people: Ryan Manning, George Rizkallah, Beth Ruddock, Evan Waetzman and Ed Sleeper.

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