UMUC

Center for Teaching and Learning

Online Faculty Innovators: Stella Porto

Multimedia Objects for MSIT 620

photo of Stella Porto.

"Multimedia lends itself very well to the use of analogies. Thus, the faculty member must strive to think out of the box in building creative things."

— Stella Porto
Stella Porto has been teaching MSIT 620 Computer Concepts since Fall 2001. She has taught the course face-to-face three times, and online more than 10 times. The objects created here are used in all sections of the course (including those taught by other instructors) and have been available beginning in Fall 2002.


Why were multimedia objects a good solution for you? audio | transcript
Which of the technological solutions that you created is a keeper? audio | transcript
Which technology would you not use again? audio | transcript
What would you do differently next time? audio | transcript
What kind of feedback did you get from students? audio | transcript

Object Snapshots

Click on a thumbnail below to view an object.

 

snapshot of memory cycle audio/video.   snapshot of opcode whiteboard.

snapshot of pipeline animation.   snapshot of binary slides.

To see and hear additional objects, visit Dr. Porto's MSIT 620 multimedia files.


Background

MSIT 620 Computer Concepts is a required course in the Master of Science in Information Technology program that explores the hardware, system software, and underlying technologies of today's computers (see the catalog course description for more details). The main challenge Dr. Porto faced with this class was how to visually clarify complex technical concepts to students at a distance.

Nature of the Project/Intended Outcome

Dr. Porto's project started out with the aim of building multimedia objects, as a way to:

  • Enrich the course itself, since it is extremely technical and needs visualization elements to make many concepts clearer to the students, and several sections run every semester;

  • Experiment with different methodologies and equipment for multimedia in online environment;

  • Evaluate the difficulty of such methodologies and the use of the equipment;

  • Evaluate the pedagogical efficiency versus the difficulty and complexity of the procedures involved in the making of the objects, in order to provide guidelines to other faculty;

  • Integrate the new material to an already well-structured course;

  • Make objects that could be easily re-used in other courses, since they would focus on important concepts.

Programs/Applications Used

Development Time

The different technologies had different development times:

  • Video, including the actual filming, took about three days.

  • Whiteboarding required a few hours of preparation, a few hours of actually using the whiteboard in the Lab, and then a few more hours in post-production.

  • Flash objects were finalized after about one month, with about 4-6 hours a week of work on them.

  • Voice-and-image objects were completed after a few hours of work every day for three days.

Support and Assistance

Dr. Porto and her Teaching Assistant, Heloisa Siffert, who was also a DE Coordinator, received assistance in getting started with the Faculty Media Lab, and they also had some materials from IT but no personal help. She notes that this project could not have happened without this kind of personnel arrangement. Dr. Porto provided all the content and many of the ideas that she wanted to convey, and Heloisa was the main actor in terms of production and implementation of the learning objects. Some of the objects evolved over time, starting with one kind of approach that were then changed post-production. 

Lessons Learned

  • There is a balancing act between efficiency and complexity. In many cases, the pedagogical goal can be achieved without a super-production. Faculty should have their expectation focused on the pedagogical goals instead of having them on the TV production that they might be dreaming about.

  • Planning is essential. Faculty should have a close collaborator that works on the production, and the ties with the collaborator must be built long before the production work starts. Planning after some brainstorming is very important—it reduces the need to re-do objects and the energy spent during production.

  • It is important to have student feedback be an incremental long-term activity so that the feedback can be used to re-direct attention and focus on important materials. The students' positive feedback encouraged Dr. Porto and Heloisa to continue creating objects and make it important to the program itself; they will start working on producing objects for another course.

  • During the initial planning phase, there is some back-and-forth on decisions that takes place, and it is important that the group has a good feeling for what is efficient and what is not.

  • There must be a concern about student's bandwidth. In many cases, the decision for certain procedures and methodologies is a result of such concern. It is not worthwhile to have great objects that are very hard to access from afar.

  • Create different objects with different technologies. This variety is very healthy for the students, and they truly appreciate it.

  • Focus on objects that can be re-used. Important concepts that don't change should be the focus. Because a lot of time and cost is put into developing them, they should be re-used in the same and possibly other courses as well.