TY - JOUR

T1 - Multimedia interactive exercises for online training

AU - Perini, Anna

AU - Schneider, Kurt

AU - Bertolli, Linda Marilena

AU - Susi, Angelo

AU - Gabbasov, Artem

AU - Busetta, Paolo

AU - Pedrotti, Matteo

N1 - Funding Information: Partial financial support was received from Provincia Autonoma di Trento, L.P. 6/1999, the ELEVATE industrial innovation project.

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Educational platform

KW - Empirical study

KW - Multimedia interactive video

KW - Online professional training

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150743621&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11042-023-15157-8

DO - 10.1007/s11042-023-15157-8

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85150743621

VL - 82

SP - 38319

EP - 38343

JO - Multimedia tools and applications

JF - Multimedia tools and applications

SN - 1380-7501

IS - 25

ER -