ILMD Definitions

The discussion during the first class was a great opportunity to communicate our ideas and assumptions about the different terms comprising "Interactive Learning Media Development". Besides the definitions given by my class mates about those four terms, what was more important for me is to realize that everyone understands and interprets the integration of these words in a sentence it their own way. Someone thought that media is the significant term in the equation, while someone else claimed that it's all about development; this fact formed everyone's priorities, assumptions, and consequently definitions, to some extent.

Similarly, my own focus was on the word learning which I consider pivotal in the context of the course's title, and largely dictates the definition of the other words. More specifically, ILMD is about disseminating knowledge (by inducing learning) using a collection of resources (media), which react to the learner's input (interaction), and are accessible through a planned, predefined, and well-designed system (as an outcome of the development process). In my perspective, learning is the epicenter of ILMD and interactivity-media are used as a vehicle to achieve learning, while development is the necessary process to produce the learning system.

A schematic way to represent how this idea works is presented in the diagram below. The system is inclusive of the knowledge being taught, which is communicated to the user with the use of various media (i.e., text, images, audio, video, etc.) The user/learner has to perceive the information, interpret it, and make sense of the knowledge that is transmitted. Then she forms a goal in her mind, plans a sequence of actions, and executes them by interacting with the system. These two discreet parts are known as the "Stages of Action" in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), as defined by Donald Norman. I think they aptly apply to learning settings where users are not only called to make sense of the information as a means for interacting with the system, but also participate in this cycle of actions as active learners.

With such an interpretation of ILMD in mind, it becomes obvious that there are a few assumptions that are being made. These are:

• the system contains all the necessary knowledge that needs to be imparted (it may or may not be dynamically updated after distribution)
• it uses a combination of media (multimedia) to communication the knowledge, presented either synchronously (all the the same time) or asynchronously (at different points in the learning process)
• the system allows some form of input, enabling the user/learner to define the sequence of actions and the presentation of information at the desired pace (to some extent)
• the system is programmed to anticipate specific input from the user and respond in an appropriate way, providing meaningful feedback (it might offer some form of artificial intelligence properties, but not within the scope of this class)
• the interaction can be facilitated by a tutor or other users (collaborative), and may include a combination of media, either digital or physical

I believe that these assumptions are not very restrictive and offer plenty of room for different types of systems to be developed for a diverse range of audiences. In every case, I believe design should follow a user-centric approach, since the intention of the system is to be effectively used and achieve its purpose as effortlessly as possible. In the case of ILMD specifically, the scope is to achieve learning and the system is the medium, so it should not impose a larger cognitive load for the user in order to learn how to use it. Thus, user studies are of vital importance in order to understand the needs of the prospective users, the ways they have been using to achieve the same task until now (how they learn that knowledge?), in order to identify effective ways to improve their intended goals.

 

Form and function in ILMD

The doctrine about form and function is that "form follows function." This is largely the case for most designs with just a few exceptions where aesthetics is more important (e.g. works of art with minimal utility). A typical example of a really bad application of this doctrine comes from one of the pioneer companies in user interface design, Microsoft, and their elegant but totally ineffective design of the Windows Vista DVD case. Hence, going back to the previous point, having the user in the center of the design process and in some cases involving him in an iterative process, will ensure that such usability problems are avoided.

As far as designing a learning system, it is even more imperative to clearly identify the audience and design for their preferences. A user interface for K12 education will have a totally different functionality but also "look and feel" than a platform for teaching business people a new marketing plan. This puts the emphasis again on the significance of user studies and how the gathered data can be interpreted in requirements and applied during the design phase. Traditional usability engineering methods of interactive systems are using a three stage process exactly for ensuring that equal emphasis is given both to function and form:

• activity design is used to translate user needs/requirements in the types of activities the system should support (how it should function)
• information design is used to ensure that the layout and presentation of the system can appropriately convey and support those activities (the form factor)
• interaction design is the stage where the necessary tools and widgets are embedded in the system, in order to facilitate the designed activities

Even the sequence of these stages dictates the importance of utility over aesthetics in the interactive system development process. This is even more the case for ILMD where learning is mainly achieved due to the functioning components of the system; a largely unusable educational tool is of little use even if it contains an abundance of information. Nonetheless, an aesthetically-ugly system might be off-putting for users and have the exact same effect as a nicely-looking but dysfunctional one. As with everything in life, the right balance is always the what works best, and it's the successful designer's task to communicate the information (knowledge) clearly, by presenting it in a pleasing, yet easily retrievable, way.