Interactive multimedia learning in physics

Abstract

The potential importance of interactive multimedia in the tertiary environment and in physics education is well recognised world wide, with development projects being funded by universities and government bodies. To date, however, there have been few opportunities to critically assess the importance, acceptability and suitability of these new techniques to physics education. Our study evaluated an interactive tutorial, developed at the Australian National University, covering the photoelectric effect and related material targeted at first and second year students. Pre- and post-test questionnaires using scaled and open answers, observations by teaching staff and informal discussions, were conducted with 35 students in the Department of Physics and Theoretical Physics. Results from an independent survey of the course were also obtained. Our principal conclusion is that while interactive multimedia shows a high degree of acceptability with our study group, any practical application must have a meaningful assessable component and be fully integrated into the lecture series, as opposed to being offered as a study resource alone.