Use interactive multimedia to improve your programming course

Abstract

This paper reports first year students’ experiences with multimedia-based learning for programming and its influence on students obtained from two case studies at Napier and Brunel universities. Engineering students at the universities have taken programming courses from their first year and many have showed difficulties in their learning. The main reason is that it is a very abstract domain, which means that both lecturers and students can have difficulties in explaining and understanding abstract concepts verbally. Considering the strengths of Interactive Multimedia(IMM), i.e. interactivity and visualisation, we decided to use it to improve students’ learning. An empirical study was planned and IMM materials were designed for this. A trial and two case studies were carried out from December 2000 to June 2001. The designed materials were integrated into the curriculum as a teaching aid and self-guided learning materials. The data gathered from the case studies indicated that many students felt the multimedia-based learning helped their understanding of the programming concepts, and some became very motivated in programming. Also, using the interactive multimedia materials for both teaching and learning enhanced students’ learning experience. At last, we found educating both lecturers and students on what is multimedia-based learning prior to a course can increase its effectiveness.