Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-280).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universidad de Sevilla, 2001. / Title from PDF title page (viewed Jan. 31, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 28, 2006) Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

This study was undertaken to assist with the development and introduction into the occupational therapy curriculum of an interactive, multimedia learning resource. The radical changes from traditional teaching/learning methodologies, focusing on instructor presentation, to a more learner active role could disadvantage some students. For instance, having to access information independently and problem-solve utilising material presented electronically may add considerable cognitive demands to the learning task. Many factors influence an individual learning in computerised interactive learning situations and these include motivation, previous experience, and a range of learner characteristics. The last factor includes styles of functioning which impact on both the interpretation of processes and the appraisal of performance levels. In many previous studies researching the use of media and learning, these factors have been isolated and their impact on user performance and attitude measured. However, with interactive multimedia, several elements combine to make research concentration on individual variables questionable. These elements include the range and mix of media used, the interactivity possible, and the degree of user control. Therefore, this exploratory study sought to establish some of the learning characteristics which combined to form statistical models in a range of participant navigational tasks. Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the ways that individuals with differing personal characteristics make navigational decisions while browsing and problem-solving when utilising interactive learning materials. Case studies were employed to illustrate extreme cases. Personal characteristics measured included technological experience, cognitive style, learning style, computer awareness and computer anxiety. This research indicated that significant ++ / numbers of occupational therapy students displayed a tendency towards field-independent cognitive style, activist and reflector learning styles, and an aversion to the use of computer technology. Awareness of these strengths and weaknesses and their impact on multimedia navigation can assist both students and educators to plan strategies to maximise the effectiveness of learning materials. Statistically significant models were identified for five of the six dependent navigation variables measured although their predictor strength was low. Of the independent variables, age, cognitive style, computer thoughts, and prior computer experience all occurred in two or more of the statistically significant models for the navigation performance dependent variables. The dependent variable forming the strongest statistical model was attitudes towards the learning package, representing 38% of the variance.

For thesis abstract select View Thesis Title, Contents and Abstract

The increasing popularity and rapid development of the Internet and specifically the World-Wide Web in recent years has led to an exponential growth of users around the world in many different application areas. Following this growing trend, many eager educators have also embraced this new technology and have begun to use it as a tool in delivering education. A plethora of applications has already been developed in an attempt to implement educational content in this way. A general concern for many researchers is that most of these applications are not efficient in delivering educational outcomes and fail to achieve their educational goal. In the present project we propose that the present failure to deliver educational outcomes in an efficient way has its origins in the lack of concern and focus of developers on modern learning theory. Therefore, in this work we establish the foundations in terms of an interdisciplinary contribution from areas such as, educational learning theory, human-computer interaction and web design guidelines for the design and implementation of web pages aimed at facilitating the teaching and tutoring of basic statistics concepts. As a result of this work, a specific set of learning theories were researched and analyzed, the basic ideas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) were explored and a set of appropriate principles from HCI were chosen. Furthermore, a selected group of Web design guidelines were researched, studied and selected to ensure that the final product contributes to the efficient delivery of subject content and effective achievement of learning outcomes. In addition, a number of parallels were formulated and discussed between the different areas of research. The establishment of a series of combined principles will not only contribute to the aims of the present project but also to further projects initiated by the Department of Econometrics at The University Sydney.

While emerging technologies such as interactive multimedia are increasingly being employed in computerised music instruction, understanding of participant music listening behaviours in interactive multimedia music instruction is currently very limited. With the aim of elucidating music listening behaviour, the central concern of this work is to identify and explain participant interactions with the audio components of interactive multimedia music instruction. The investigation employs a novel documentation procedure, which extends the application of digital audio recording technology, to provide a finely calibrated analysis of the audio activity of a sample of 20 undergraduate music education majors during individual sessions with two commercially-available interactive multimedia music instruction programs. Graphically-based Sound Activity Profiles, which the researcher developed specifically for the current investigation, characterise and summarise participant interactions with audio components, while an analysis of questionnaire responses and follow-up interview transcripts provides supplementary information that further explains participants' music listening behaviours. The results of the investigation show that music listening behaviours during the study sessions were highly variable. While extensive participant interaction with music examples occasionally reflected attentive music listening behaviours, many study sessions were characterised by brief, fragmentary music excerpts and lengthy periods of silence. Participants spent as little as five percent of their session time listening to music and as much as 88 percent of the session time in silence. A substantial number of the study cohort frequently interrupted the music examples they had activated. Participants' perceptions of the extent of their interaction with music examples were frequently inaccurate, as subjects often substantially overestimated the amount of session time they had spent listening to music. The study findings suggest that many interactive multimedia music instruction participants would benefit from interventions that elicit more extensive and prolonged interaction with music examples. Accordingly, recommendations include a call for research to develop and test software designs that incorporate automated monitoring of session audio activity so that dynamic on-screen information about music listening behaviour can be provided to interactive multimedia music instruction participants. Such information may encourage participants to modify inappropriate music listening behaviours.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-195). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.L.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains pages. Includes bibliographical references.