Developing interactive multimedia using a problem based learning framework

A second area of significant development in tertiary education over the past decade has been interactive multimedia (IMM) delivered on CD-ROM or across the networks. Again the benefits have included the capacity to provide richer representations of reality, increased motivation and flexible access for both initial and continuing education.

The application of IMM to support and enhance PBL has been proposed. The anticipated benefits include increased richness in the representation of problems, ease of access to the knowledge bases used to support problem solving in various domains and the provision of support to learners in the problem solving process.

There are published examples of the use of IMM in PBL. For the most part these have concentrated on problem representation and learner support. Despite the recognition of PBL as an archetypal form of constructivist learning there appear to have been few attempts to distil the principles of PBL and incorporate them as the basis for instructional design of constructivist learning environments.

This paper will describe the process of developing guidelines for the design of IMM using PBL principles derived from the literature. The relationship of the guidelines to the published research will be discussed and their application to the development of an IMM project for use in teacher education will be described. The IMM materials, which have been completed and are currently being evaluated, will be demonstrated.