Conceptual Stage in Designing Multimedia for Tele Learning

Conceptual Stage in Designing Multimedia for Tele Learning Report for the Maten Project 1 By

Piet Kommers

Biographical Notes Dr. Piet Kommers is Ass. Professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. He specialized in media studies for educational and communicative settings: WWW-based hypermedia, multimedia, concept mapping and video conferencing for tele-learning. He is currently exploring the prospects of virtual reality for constructivistic learning; VR as conceptual space for navigation through epitomes of known and unknown topics. He was visiting professor at East China Normal University at Shanghai, Glushkov Institute for Cybernetics at Kiev, Colorado University at Denver, Amman University in Jordan, and NOVA University in Florida. He coordinated and edited several books on Educational Technology: WWWbased hypermedia in Instruction, Eastern European Media Studies, Telematics, Document Management for WWW-based hypermedia Design, and Virtual Reality. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract The design of educational WWW-based hypermedia is often seen as a process of gradually progressing from content into interaction design. In the final shaping of the hyperlinks, menus and orientation pages, too many decisions are normally made at the same time. This article presents a four-stage design process that gives more attention to the conceptual and metaphoric aspects to be covered. Schematic representations are proposed as the main devices to validate design steps. A repertoire of concept mapping tools is discussed. The full sequence of conceptual, metaphoric, structural and navigational design is finally integrated as a scaffolding method for project teams in WWW-based hypermedia developing projects. The conceptual exploration method was applied and evaluated in the 1977 Summer School of Nova University at Lauderdale, Florida.

Introduction Education, Training and Life-long Learning are increasingly adopting multimedia technology in order to scaffold courses. One position is that schooling institutes will finally need professionally designed resources on CD-ROM or via the WWW, just like the book-culture had never come to this sophisticated stage compared to teachers' handwriting. The other position is that learners need more fresh and vivid interaction with co-students, experts and teachers; The readymade information products become soon obsolete, and thus need to be 'living documents' every time updated as reality progresses. An easy answer to this is "Yes, we need it both". And indeed this has been the case in many fields. Take for instance the audio recorder; the video recorder has not supplanted it. So is the bike; whole crowds cycle while they have a car too; etc. Information systems and of course the WWW take an ever more important role in the communication among partners in the learning process. In parallel to the mere communication media we also see here that masse media give way to the more individual media: Instead of Broadcasting, Web- and Narrow casting are the dominant ways to share information and opinions. Even it goes beyond that: Students are no longer merely the consumers of information, they become members of a learning community, both receiving, producing and negotiating about topics and complex problems. It is this change in didactic paradigms that have played a crucial role during the Lauderdale workshop. 1. The initial idea that educational WWW-based hypermedia are deliverables, to be accessed and studied by students has proven to be a naïve one; WWW-based hypermedia showed to become a format to express and articulate ideas by experts and students themselves. The role of the teacher rather becomes one of arranger, group manager and facilitator. 2. Another paradigm shift is the one from objectivism into constructivism: Learning means not only 'grasping reality' but also to 'create new realities'. "Instruction" becomes "exploring hypotheses" and building upon subjective perceptions of the more complex phenomena like ethical and societal issues. The quality of the students' orientation and the discipline of argumentation is the more crucial factor instead of having finally a well-defined set of factual retention knowledge. 3. Students need each other, not only in order to learn to communicate, but also to benefit from communication as a learning method. Not famous enough is the work of Lev Vygotsky (1934), who already in the thirties made explicit that Language and social interaction precedes cognitive (and thus intellectual) capacities. Crucial in a hyper- /multimedia design project is the reorientation into the pedagogic and didactic premises. Also the more natural ideas what and how to teach may become questioned; the new media elicit its own ways of coping with mental tasks like learning, communication and collaborative group work. This was the main reason the students were invited to go through an extensive conceptual stage. In the period of idea selection and implementation it proved to have been a lucky approach; Ideas that seemed perfectly valid and opportune, sometimes became pale and just symptoms of underlying dilemma’s or social compromises. In summary: the problem perception and problem restructuring is not just 1

Multimedia Applications for Telematic Educational Networks (http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/MATEN/Maten-2.html

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an epiphenomenum; it is the fundamental analytic stage to be fully undertaken before consolidating it into so-called “specifications”. A even more fundamental challenge is to accept the ever more important position of the World-Wide Web. CD-Roms are great in its predecessors; but are a severe limitation as it comes to logistic fluency, update frequency etc. Also the mass media (fitting in the broadcasting metaphor) are steadily making place for the more tuned (interactive) media. The multitude of interpersonal communication is also expressed in the diversity of media and media architectures. Single media can hardly survive without being part of a media mix. The ‘user’ is no longer only a recipient of ‘consumer’. Users become more and more ‘players’ on the media stage. They select, interpret, reconfigure and exploit the potential of news and play a role in disseminating it through the many peer groups, special interest groups etc. So propagation is no longer a question of one single shot; it is the resonance of the message through the many circles the persons belongs to. The new media also allow changing quickly between broad-, narrow- and web casting. This article will explain to you the various methods that play a role in WWW-based hypermedia design. However the media are not a goal in itself. It aims at supporting the ambitious teachers and curriculum designers in their plans to raise highly interactive learning environments. One of the more complex dilemmas for educational media design is the question of rhetoric: The clearer the message and the more persuasion, the more also students become submissive and indolent instead of active and creative. This very mechanism has been signaled many times in the field of social psychology. In order to avoid this effect, it is necessary that designers make the best possible analysis of hidden facets in the psychology of the learner. Provocation of the students’ imagination seems to be one of the key factors in escaping from this dilemma.

Figure 1 The 16th century “book mill” in order to address specific text fragments precisely and quickly, was used to compare bible translations One of the key questions we tend to struggle with is how the interaction between the medium and the user can contribute to learning effects. Typically for WWW-based hypermedia is that the user him/herself guides the presentation of information. The more traditional instruction paradigms regard optimal learning as a process of “guided display”. Here we see a confrontation between the instructional and the learning perspective. The instructional one would say that better

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instruction is needed to compensate a weak learning attitude. The learning perspective would say that learners should be trained to become less dependent from the environment. Typical for WWW-based hypermedia is the second persp ective: It elicits the learner to make progress decisions all the time. The control is not only to chose between “forwards” and “backwards”; also sideways (excursions so to say) are opened. It allows a modal reader to follow the default sequence. However it is also encouraged to request for specific phenomena, reasoning chains or temporal order. After an excursion it is desirable to arrive back home. So is the user of WWW-based hypermedia. After clicking one of the hot spots you land on one of the sidetracks, hoping to find what the hotspot suggested. Also the new information provides new hotspots which again draw your attention and seduce you to browse further away from your initial interest. It is similar to floundering through an unfamiliar town; The unknown attracts, but at the same time you always want to be sure you can return quickly to your point of departure. The designer of such a “hyperspace” is responsible for the balance between the momentary impulse to escape from the more systematic lines and the need for a disciplined tour in order to create a valid overview. What is the benefit of freedom in a WWW-based hypermedia network? In contrary to linear media, WWW-based hypermedia offers optimal freedom to the user. In itself it looks attractive; Freedom of choice goes together with individuality, personality and autonomy. It is the question however if students, who are under the regime of finally being tested for reproduction, really appreciate this kind of freedom in navigation.

Communication in the Learning Community Media seem to play an ever more important role among citizens and hence also in the situation of learning. At the same time, media are most effective, as they in are submissive to the communication partners. Media prophets have claimed that the versatility of the WWW would lead to a more democratic life: less central control and less barriers for publishing and gaining attention for new ideas. Does the same prediction hold for educational media? Is seems so; the access to new and highly specific information has become easier. However the web is not the sole medium yet. Also, the medium choice is not the only factor in its success. It became clear in the Lauderdale workshop that good solutions are often hybrids of various technologies. So are educational media. The www, the CD-ROM, the brochure and book, and the radio; they are only elements in a media project. Media are not only carriers of content information. They always go together with certain dramatic effects, emotion and the question if certain more traditional carriers are supplanted. So were the presentations of the team projects at the end of this week. It clearly showed that information in itself is only a tiny element in learning experiences. Drama, humor and intrigues seem to be indispensable ingredients for the needed mental chemistry, normally named: “Being involved in the game, drama or adventure”. So, communication in its more complete meaning is needed before learning happens. Media are just the packaging like the manufacturer chooses the type of box dependant from the place where the customer lives. At the same time however we see the need to wrap learning resources in attractive boxes, as they should please the customers’ eyes once it waits on the shelves. No doubt that the new media 50 years ago have severely influenced society and hence human communication. Think about the impact of the TV and telephone to everyday life. It is good to be aware however that the soap series have had maybe an even bigger influence compared to the television as an apparatus itself. Just like the car has changed the way we shop, eat and socialize in the evenings and the weekends. So also WWW-based hypermedia in itself may not be the essential thing; It is the revolution in thinking about learning, entertainment and involvement which makes finally the difference. The more fascinating process nowadays is the integration of media that were separate before; the TV, the computer and the telephone will soon appear together in one new integrated medium. It will act as the window in the living room. Media after this enormous convergence process will change the user from consumer into a player. Expository characters who speak to us for longer periods will be felt as offensive, authoritarian and doctrinaire. Games that challenge you, and bring you in contact with opponents with a similar achievement level, will be the next decade’s metaphor for effective learning. The question remains how educationalists can accommodate and comply with these new interaction modes. Should (s)he forget about traditional ways of explaining, or should we try to make a continuous attempt to assimilate the new methods in every-day classroom practice? This was one of the pervasive questions during the Lauderdale Summer school. A new branch on the communication media tree is “Virtual Reality”. It not only allows the user to visit three-dimensional spaces and objects. VR also allows you to meet other visitors (called Avatars) who manifest in a different outlook compared to meeting them on the street. In VR it is essentially possible to represent yourself via a video-grabbed body. More promising is the technology to generate body language and mimics based on meaningful vectors. The new Disney movies have been generated facial expressions based on emotional attributes to be reflected. It is rather unclear at the moment how avatars will finally penetrate learning environments and which roles they can effectively play for the learner. Also the learner may learn significant from playing a prominent role in for instance a VR site for ‘peace negotiations’ once (s)he takes the role of for instance Kofi Anan or Yasser Arafat. The arguments from pedagogy to allow students to ‘be themselves’ is congruent with the more ideological premises like for instance those of the “temporarily autonomous zone” A new branch of educational media is the family of Virtual Reality; It not only allows to visit three-dimensional spaces; it also allows to meet other persons in the shape of cartoon-like figures: Avatars. An avatar has a characteristic motorics, intonation and a character. MUDs and MOOs are environments in which several users can survive, leave messages behind, arrange contacts between others and play a role in the establishment of behavioral rules; a new community is founded, in which ideological values emerge. Some of them even refer in this context to ‘temporal autonomous zone’ like at the time of the large pop festivals. The future will teach us if the web is allowing individuals to bring ideas to the larger public, despite of publishers, governments and public organizations. To be honest: The pioneers of web-democracy have become pessimistic on this in the meanwhile. It is important to see that media do not simply ‘mirror’ the communication culture at that moment; they also cause them. The members of the ‘Toronto School’ with names like ‘McLuhan, Havelock, Ong and De Kerckhove’ are convinced that media are not neutral means to transfer and deliver information; No, they decide upon our perception and consciousness and even decide upon our ways of reacting. The weekly column, the TV debate, the soap series and reality TV, they all contribute the collective awareness.

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The New Media and Postmodern Identity Both through the increase in travelling and the explosion in communicative media, there is an ongoing trend to get indiciduals involved in many diverse situations. In former times it were the physical areas that restricted your social horizon. At the arrival of ‘Cyberspace” and the explosion in communicative media, there is an ongoing tendency to bring many people into (virtual) contact. Seeing the entire world on your TV, but also making virtual tours via Internet to your next holiday destination, participating work sessions with your colleagues in the Middle East and supervising students during their internship in the US. Fragmentation is the process of snapshot without pre-ambule and gradual detachment of your actual social context. A complete immersion in (remote) guest address would quickly lead to a multiple identity. Fragmentation can be seen as a method to prevent from a threatening identity split. By only concentrating on some specific aspects of your communication partner, you have only quite a limited view on them, but it also make it easier to maintain personal opinions and life style. The many windows that are in front of our eyes already tell us the challenge of an average work place. If on top of that colleagues from abroad appear in these windows, then you may expect a change in life style and social perception. Typically for the postindustrial era is the tendency to behave on the large Internet originally and authentically and get rid of one’s stigma. The citizen in cyberspace tends to reach a synthesis between personality and ideology. The threat of a multiple personality forces the inhabitant of virtual realities into an almost exaggerated articulation of his/her personality. The search for stability is a natural reflex for the ‘homo zappens’ who is teased by digression.

From Linear via Hypertext and WWW-based Hypermedia into Multimedia The inventors of hypertext have made the first step from text into multimedia. They brought the idea to cut text into small but still meaningful fragments. Moreover to make links between the fragments. As each text fragment again refers to further texts, a huge network of relations and nodes evolve. The overkill of text is finally called ‘hyper’ text: too much text. Multimedia

WWW-based hypermedia

Hypertext

Figure 2 Hypertext and WWW-based hypermedia as members and sub members of the multimedia family As soon as besides text also pictures, animations, video, audio and complete interactive programs were embedded; hypertext changed into WWW-based hypermedia. WWW-based hypermedia equals multimedia hypertext. Multimedia encompasses everything that is currently possible with computers. Crucial is that it should contain several modalities of information. It is also characteristic that the user can perform ever more diverse interactions; You may query both typed and spoken phrases. Also recently eye tracking can be used to indicate what you need further. Also the system’s reactions are multi modal. The modern mouse expresses in its friction or via vibrations when an action needs resistance in physical space. Three-dimensional images on the screen, the wall or in your goggle suggest that you are really in another environment. Three-dimensional sound is essential; while walking through a virtual reality, the direction, the amplitude and the pitch of the sound change. Also the contours of the sound (extreme high and low frequencies) become more clear if you approach the its source. What is the importance of realistic information like in multimedia or virtual reality? The proponents claim that reality is essential in order to penetrate into our perception and memory. Some even claim that computers have changed from a story board into a window through which we can see the real world. Once being outside in the real world we even miss these look-throughs and the real world becomes even bored. Van Doorn & Room (1997) quote as follows: ……..Perception psychologist Gibson [MacNab, 1987; Marmolin, 1991] assert that our senses have been construed in order to cope with complex streams of information in natural environments and that our perception organs have not been specialized for simple stimuli. Our visual system would have been developed in order to cope with continuous streams of changing information instead of static images. This would plead for recording dynamic data like moving pictures and sound. Faber e.a. [1991] found that moving images are most effective in learning conditions in which spatial or dynamic properties of complex movements have to be learned. They also found that learning with learning with moving images is perceived to be easier and more attractive compared to learning without them. These results confirm the idea that multimedia with well-proportioned audio-visual ingredients can lead to improved information and knowledge transfer and to an increased attraction, which finally leads to a better learning attitude and motivation.

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Story telling, gesture language, music and later also drama, ballet and movie are the basis of our manners to convey meaning and emotion, understanding and intriguing. It looks as if it is the most appropriate way to articulate emotion and experiences. The display of what you can see does not need to be the same as your visual impression. It may empower, delete or stylize. Always we need again episodic lines to take away ambiguity. The story prompts interpretation and attempts to make the strange things understandable. A crucial difference between the story and the image is that the latter leaves the recipient free in the spread of attention; where you look first, how long, and in which sequence. WWW-based hypermedia is an attempt to give control to the receiver of linear information. It is true; also a book leaves the control to the reader. Successful readers select carefully what to read and what to skip. Only, the author did his best to make the story understandable for those who read from the beginning to the end. Jumping in a linear text endangers the coherence, increases the risk for fragmentation and does not necessarily convince the reader. WWW-based hypermedia are inherently tuned to provide the reader with optimal freedom. The links between keywords have been selected with care. The author asks himself: Where would the reader prefer to leave my rhetoric and why? At which places should I refer back to the core of arguments? Is it wise to make a kind of roundabout so that readers do not need to recur to previously visited fragments? Etc.

Public Information Systems A simple definition of ‘public’ is: The collection of all those persons who are potentially interested in your message plus those who you would like to address yourself. In many cases the potential audience is so large that we better speak about ‘public segments’. A public segment has in common that they have a common location, newspaper or listen to the radio during the same moments of the day. Also it is often the case that such a group has a similar sensitivity to a kind of messages or modality of messages. For instance the employees who arrive by bike in the morning have in common that they have a strong preference to reduce the use of cars unnecessarily. They will hence be sensitive to arguments not to enlarge the parking lots around the campus, etc. The same is true for the large public as it comes to education or campaigns. Authorities know it in the first place to reach their voters most efficiently. Also they know it in order to reach the public with a restricted budget. It is well known to propagation officers that diverse public segments need to be addressed with different media. The use of various media simultaneously is also called: the media-mix. Media amalgams do not necessarily imply weakness; in contrary, the broadcasting metaphor has generally given space to narrow casting and more in particular to web casting. The request for interactive systems is the loudest where users feel only little committed to the sender. Authorities may formally represent the society, but is often not recognized sufficiently. The anonymity of the offices and formal transactions desperately need compensation. The term ‘education’ and ‘civil information services’ ask for communication concepts. Information kiosks for instance only deliver factual information. The concept of ‘information delivery’ is poor and no longer adequate to convey ethic and ideological campaigns. They need more dramatic carriers with emotion and a personal touch. The same is true for the design of educational systems we eagerly adopt in the CD-ROM and WWW era.

Designing WWW-based Hypermedia In order to design WWW-based hypermedia with a specific communicative effect we need a stepwise design cascade. It does not mean that we do not need the anarchy of creative moments; only creative ideas need to be consolidated in formal decisions, statements and documents. WWW-based hypermedia projects involve teams. Documents then support the communication between team members or even generations of the team. I will here highlight four stages in the WWWbased hypermedia design process. Ideally they should be performed sequentially after each other, without backtracking or iterations. In some cases however it may appear that the view on the global approach from the conceptual stage is less adequate. Of course in that case no hesitation should be felt, and go back in order to repair an early misconception without delay. Conceptual Design is about the imagination of the ideal product. The clarification and identification of the target group is Conceptual Design

Metaphoric Design

Structural Design

Navigational Design

Figure 2 Four stages in WWW-based hypermedia design one of its components. It is possible however that at a later stage one perceives that the chosen concept is not adequate at all. It is even possible that one sees only at the end that the conceptual choices have to be revised. “Concept’ has to do with the generation of good ideas, and the subsequent selection of the best ideas and implement them. In the world of advertising it is the ‘art-director’ who develops the concept. The graphic designers shape and visualize the concept by sketching, macquettes, test runs and mock-ups when it is about interactive programs. In short: There is a need for rapid prototyping and an immediate empirical testing if the concept is as good as it looked during its arrival. Often a concept proves to be disappointing and a new conceptual round will be started. Only if the principal agrees with the concept, the phase of ‘structural design’ can be started. You could say that from now the architectural phase has begun. The bigger components of the program become manifest through logical analysis. If it concerns software programs, flow charts and structure diagrams give an answer which mechanisms (algorithms) and data structures are needed. Programs need to respond to its users. The structure of a program does not entirely predict how it will present itself to the user. ‘Structure’ in this design stage means ‘internal’ structure.

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Navigation concerns the control of the user upon the program’s behavior. Characteristically for WWW-based hypermedia is its optimal freedom for the user, as said before. However by displaying a set of selection choices, the programs has an implicit control and even a coaching role. In advertising campaigns it is important to guide the user’s attention in quite a subtle way. The same is true for learning programs, as students do not like to be regulated. However there are laws that predict how and when our senses are triggered. Shapes, color and language define the emotional fundament for certain reactions at the user. Also we will further see how the links decide upon the probability that certain information will be visited. During the entire design process it is of continuous priority to focus upon the product to be made. This means that it is of importance to know already if a certain WWW-based hypermedia program should be installed in a hospital’s waiting room, a school, the living room or as a anonymous place on the WWW. The information itself might be identical; the social setting decides if and how the user will ‘surrender’ for the message to be transmitted. During the entire design process, the awareness of the target context is of prime importance; both situational and psychological variables play a crucial role. The designer should exactly know and feel the intended setting; If (s)he has this experience not by nature, it is the best to go and live there for some time.

Conceptual Design The research into conceptual design tools addresses the procedures, methods and software tools for the explicit representation of conceptual schemes. Those are diagrammatic and more expressive drawings that mimic one’s rational but mainly one’s more intuitive and emotional ideas. In fact the goal goes beyond the exact display of one’s ideas; it should preferably articulate one’s ideas in order to negotiate about it with team members. One could call them ‘communicative resources’. Concept mapping facilitates the more content elements while Mind Mapping elicits the more subtle emotional thoughts/feelings. Mind Mapping as a method stimulates the designer to take a personal attitude towards the design topic. You could even assert that Mind Mapping derives its power from identifying yourself with the program to be designed: You immerse yourself in the theme and its appearance. Currently there is an entire spectrum of ‘conceptual support tools’ which claim to profoundly address the mental process at the designer. However it is good to distinguish between schematizing and ‘structured content analysis’ versus mapping the more personal associations. In order to clearly contrast the difference between both, let’s look to the concept map first. Here it concerns the production of cheese. The analysis is halfway; the stages and half products have been identified, but the process mechanism is still left open. This more procedural assignments can be added later by labeling the links and define the direction of it.

milk

whey curdling

rennet pressing curds cheese Figure 3 Elementary analysis of the becoming of cheese Here, an analytical approach has been chosen. The criterion is to find objective elements that are always occurring in the reality domain; not that much the personal perception. One could also say that it attempts to find the undisputed core of expert knowledge. In order to transfer opinions, feelings and moral values, such a diagram is just the first step. It is not wrong to start media design with an overview of factual information; however it is not sufficient at all. A famous saying here is: “Paralysis by Analysis”, which says: “Mind you, don’t go too early into details; Try first to get an overview of the global structure of a subject. An untimely return from navigational into conceptual design is one of the escapes from the paralysis effect.; Backtracking into the concept stage elevates you above the details, providing you a better overall picture.” Famous creativity gurus in the tradition of Edward de Bono, like Van Gundy (1981) and Buzan (1995) essentially build upon the conviction that creativity is helped with flexibility and the making of connections between notions that normally do not go together. From this point of view it is recommendable to apply techniques like brain storming during the conceptual design stage. Also the remaining in unfamiliar environments stimulates the generation of new ideas. Don’t forget that besides the generations, also the selection and implementation of ideas is needed. Let’s first look at an example of Brain Mapping, in this case concerning the elements that play a role during the elections for the Parliament.

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Figure 3 Factors that play a role in the elections of the members for the Dutch Parliament; By J. Lanzing, 1996. The power of visualizing a mental framework is that it creates a mental space. Graphical expression plays a crucial role: What should be placed in the center? How big should it be displayed? How strong are the associations? Which icons should I use? Etc. Also the color and character of the lines in order to express sensations and beliefs. It is not only important to express evidences; Especially expressing the elements with doubt or pertinent ignorance may be indicated. You could say that the Mind Map (See Lanzing, 1998b) becomes a first exploration of the topic “elections”. Its goal is to activate prior knowledge and latent ideas. It has not the pretension to be ‘complete’ or ‘correct’. This will arrive at a later stage. "Inspiration" is one of the more robust and generally available programs which allows Concept Mapping. It enables you to consolidate ideas during and right after a brain storming process and share with team mates. In order to avoid misconceptions; A concept map is not the same as a flow chart.

start

put chipcard in machine

wait until machine shows credit

put money in machine

rejected ?

no

wait until new credit appears

push button to eject chipcard

yes try other coins or bank notes

stop

Figure 4 Flow chart with the actions and decisions during the operation of a chip card machine. (Lanzing, 1996) In contrast to the flow chart, the concept map displays the momentary thoughts of a person. Of course our thoughts may go back to the step-wise procedure like in the flow chart above; however they do not often emerge if we think about nonalgorithmic procedures like persuasive communication or the more ideational domains like in many teaching programs. The mechanism of “divide and concur” is dominant during flowcharting. Concept mapping demands a less-rigid discipline. Preferably concept mapping evolves during brain storming sessions. The screen dump below designates that it is relatively easy to adapt concept icons in terms of shape, locations and links with surrounded spheres. Choosing graphical attributes underlines the process of articulation at the designer. The central and more peripheral aspects become ever clearer. In teams, the members can work simultaneously at a concept map, particularly if it is drawn on an A2 or A1 size sheet. In case the members significantly agree upon the conceptual basis, it is more productive to first let each complete his/her own individual concept map, followed by an attempt to reconcile the differences at a later stage. The concept map then acts as a tool to make partners aware of underlying differences in opinion. Do not only defend your own choices; Try to make a superordinate concept map in which two or three perspectives are unified.

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Figure 5 Example of a Concept Map with the program "Inspiration" Inspiration is one of those programs. Though initially meant solely as Concept Mapping program, it has gradually been accepted as Mind-Mapping program; due to its extensive graphical possibilities like described by T. Buzan,

Figure 6: Sefiroth: The Knowledge Tree as Ritual Thought Scheme

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Concept maps as a format and method for generating ideas, stem from old rituals to build up thought schemes. One of the better known is the Sifiroth knowledge tree, stemming from the 13th century. The leaves (better say: nodes) contain concepts like Power, King, Passion etc. The branches (better say “links”) represent thought transitions. You may even assert that this representation paradigm presupposes that human thoughts arrises during the transitions between concepts. Controllability

Small text fragment

Concept Mapping

Visualization

Network representation

Way of working

Correctness?

Adequate to specify complex relations?

Scanning

Alternative representation

Offers new view on information

Useful repetition or reformulation

Stimulates the human memory

Resemblance with

Adequate for knowledge diagnosis

associative structures

Can it serve as ‘paper memory?’

Search quickly for information

Non-linear

Stimulates brainstorming

Can be used for knowledge assessment

Figure 7 Goals of Concept Mapping; © J. Lanzing Mind mapping is the most free and expressive method in the family of conceptual tools; it places one’s central concerns in the center. The I: One’s goal of life, one’s main concern at that moment etc. This allows making ever-wider circles around this center with the more subtle and subordinate concerns: New or unknown thoughts, facts from history etc. One could say that the center of the mind map is the launching base from which new ideas are projected. The mind mapping method stimulates to interrelate the new to the more familiar ideas, in order to get a more solid and robuste structure. In contrast to mind mapping is concept mapping (like depicted in Figure 7 above), which inherently stimulates the user to distinguish several types of relations, concept classes and cluster them into clusters and order them from central to peripheral. File Edit Network Textvision: See the structure in the text

Figure 8 Concept map in TextVision, displaying Centrality based on the number of outgoing links

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As the level of detail and the granularity of a concept map increases, it becomes possible to let the computer give back on the created structure: Centrality, causal/temporal chains, hierarchic subsets with inheritance, reasoning chains etc. they can be evaluated; (Lanzing, 1996.) In the research of Drs. Jan Lanzing was found that the cognitive style of the user had an impact on the types of network structures that were created: Serialists tend to make tree structures while holists make cyclic webs, in which there are no clear hierarchies; (Lanzing, 1998a).

Figure 9 Three-Dimensional Concept Map on the Relations Between Kinds of Popular Music The 3D-concept map above is a snap shot of one’s mental exploration how the developments in popular music, jazz and rock 'n roll are related. The depth-dimension (Z-axis) is used to express the level of attention. Indeed concepts located in the background get less attention. The shadows of the concept nodes on the tile floor can be dragged (both on the X- and the Z-axis). This allows creating spatial structures quite smoothly, without the need to rotate the evolving structures every time. In contrast to the 2D version of TextVision, here the size of the nodes is no longer expression the centrality of the node; It simply reflects the distance to the spectator. Centrality here is expressed in the colour of the nodes and its outgoing relations. Red is used to signify a high degree of centrality, while at the other end ot the continuum, blue corresponds with a peripheral position. Also here the centrality is assessed by graph computation. Another important application of concept maps is the navigation through WWW-based hypermedia networks. The nodes represent the information elements to be accessed, like for instance the Web pages during browsing on the Internet. The links represent the transitions to the topics to be visited. The effect of this additional browsing map is that the user can now anticipate to the consequence of taking a certain direction. The effect of conceptual support for learning and designing will initially be ‘reflection’ and ‘meta-cognitive’. In the longer run, users will build up their personal trails on the web and build their own ‘brainweb’ functioning as an external long-term memory. Natrificial Software Technologies can already see a magnificent example of this. The program can be found at http://www.thebrain.com/ "The Brain" allows you to gradually build up your own perspective and express it in a subject matter diagram. References to your own documents, web pages and files on your own Intranet are transparent; you will not be bothered by technical details. The new generation of web-based concept mapping tools can help you in mapping 'agents' who search for you the Internet. ‘Agents’ or ‘search engines’ can trace the www based upon one’s brainweb, and try to find missing and higlyinteresting descriptions. Finally it is up to the designer to decide if the retrieved information and its embedding in the concept map really reflects his/her image of the prior knowledge and its way of thinking.

Metaphoric Design The envisioning of all possible aspects of a communicative WWW-based hypermedia program is the first step to be share that you don’t overlook important factors. After the conceptual stage we concern the question the question which ‘personality’ or ‘model’ the WWW-based hypermedia program should have in order to present itself to the user. The ‘normal’ conversation between persons seems a natural modality for the interaction between the system and its user. It implies however that the program should manifest a certain dialogue quality that is similar to a human partner. Alternatively, the program could arrange a real-time contact between another person like we know as video conferencing. The first alternative still is virtually impossible. The second one is technically possible, except the complexity of finding the right moments for synchronous communication. The time resource is becoming more and more the critical factor of persons in communication space. However as we see in the fast propagation of call centers, kiosks and electronic databases, there is an ever growing need for just-in-time learning, which forces users to accept the book shelf metaphor in which the document and the database is the dominant model. Communication here is reduced to “searching information”.

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Figure 10 The document-metaphor: At the left, the more expressive, at the right side the more concise variation. As media can only emulate a rough approximation of reality, the designer is due to choose a persuasive metaphor, in order to convince the user. You may compare it to the effect of the puppet theatre: You know that they are only wooden dolls. However the persons behind them make us sensitive to their character. The convention of ‘playing through dolls’ makes the visitor ready to watch the story and accept the moral. Similar to that is the brochure, the TV program and also WWWbased hypermedia programs. The shape and visual appearance do not disturb the message. Even we become more sensitive to the symbolic value when the external shape does not match reality. The artistic design like the reduction in cartoons increases the emotional appeal. Why is the metaphoric choice that important for WWW-based hypermedia design? Simply because it brings the user in one stroke in the right suggestion or not. In learning programs we speak about the selection of the right ‘advance organizer’; it is a compact image of the task or topic to be understood. Similar to this is the metaphoric shape in media campaigns like persuasive messages as “don’t smoke” or “have safe sex”. It decides the user’s openness, the psychological ambiance. In fact it defines the contract between the program and the user: Is it a situation of information seeking, a matter of conviction, sensation seeking, etc? In other words: the metaphor selection decides if the program becomes ‘intuitive’, and if the user spontaneously catches the meaning of the program. It saves complex instructions and pervasive misconceptions.

Structural Design: A Logical Analysis After the conceptual and metaphoric design, the next step involves the needed architecture: Which are the needed components in terms of databases, dialog and algorithmic elements. Though still many components stay unclear yet, it is the designer’s main interest to identify the global structure of the program: should the user be verified? Do we need to identify the type of user? Should the session be captured for later reconstruction? Are there several users simultaneously at stake? Which problems are addressed? Etc. The example below concerns the discussion on the introduction of the Major/Minor study stages in our university. The phase of structural design brings up three main components: • General Information • Why Major/Minor? • When Major/Minor? The main menu, the links and the start- stop buttons are more or less self-evident. The structural design can progressively be analyzed in further details

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Intro

Main menu

General Information

Why Major/Minor?

Advantages

When Major/Minor?

Links

Stop

Disadvantages

Figure 11 Structural Analysis of the WWW-based hypermedia Program on the Major/Minor Discussion The transition between the conceptual and the metaphoric phase is a matter of courage. Staying too long in the association stage causes the “fear of cold water.” It can be quite relieving once you make more concrete imaginations on the physical architecture of the concrete program. During the course “Media Design for the Communication Studies Program” Ilja Froklage and Ratna Toering designed the program architecture in Figure 11. It became the global skeleton for their WWW-based hypermedia program “The comfortable Campus” (June 1998).

Screen Lay-out As a direct consequence of the structural design stage, the initial screen layout can be made. Often it proves the structural design to be wrong or shallow, in the sense that important parts of the dialogue have not been taken into account. Another important factor to be thought of is the overload of too many decisions to be made by the user.

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M

M

M

Major/Minor

M

algemene info waarom major/minor voor- en nadelen

Tekst

hoe en wanneer? links naar intro stoppen

Figure 12 Screen layout of the program on the Major/Minor study stages The screen layout is a marvelous intermediate stage between the structural and the navigation design. The Selection Menu at the left side reflects the main components of the program. At the same time it anticipates to the navigational alternatives. The user will recurrently go back to this screen as he changes of perspective.

Navigation Design: Anticipation to the Routes by the User Orientation and navigation play a major role in the usability of WWW-based hypermedia programs. The advantage of continuously jumping to any part of the information resource has its price; Instead of the author, it is the user who is responsible for the presentation sequence. The WWW-based hypermedia structure, especially the linking pattern (through the ‘hot spots’), decide the navigational ‘space’. Entrance

Introduction

Main Menu

In the studio

In the dirty appart.

In the clean appart.

At the SSHD

General

Movie

Movie

Photos

Movie

Photos

Research

Regulations

Movie

Figure 13 Program architecture for the WWW-based hypermedia-program “The comfortable Campus” (June, 1998). A WWW-based hypermedia program is like a web of links. The designer has made it and subsequently prescribes the browsing contours for the user. As far as the user gets freedom we speak about ‘navigation space’.

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Figure 14 Navigation through the WWW-based hypermedia network

Two Parameters for the Anticipation to the Navigation In order to provide the user with an optimal balance between freedom and complexity, it is of importance to ask every time: Where should I place a certain piece of information? Or in other words: Which links should be made in order to provoke a certain effect at the user? Two parameters play a dominant role here: • Importance The most important messages ought to be located at the entrance of the program: “What can you expect in the program? What do you get from it? How can you arrive at certain information?” etc. You could say that the main entrance should be the “launching platform”; it should be the shortest route to the most important information. From a rhetorical point of view, it may not be wise not to give away already the crux at the beginning, but just confront the user with a number of pictured situations or sounds, in order to establish a certain ambiguity. It is crucial however that we as designer cannot predict which hotspot the user is going to select. We can just estimate with a certain probability the chance that a user migrates from one node to another. The assessment of the importance of the information elements is being helped by the Mind Mapping technique. • Centrality Not only the user’s interests determine the browsing through the WWW-based hypermedia-network, but also by the structure of the network. Certain nodes will hence be visited, as they are located on several routes at the same time. Other nodes can only be reached after tracing a long and quite specific tour. It is of importance that the information we consider to be essential for all users, is located in central position in the network. This preference is similar to the location of an important building in a constellation of one-way reads in a city. It should be easy to arrive over there; the more incidental visitors the better. A simple indicator is to count the number of ingoing relations. The assessment of centrality of information components can be supported by the concept mapping technique.

h e

d

g

i

a b

c

f Figure 15 WWW-based hypermedia network with "d" as ideal departure and "f" as central point in terms of reachability The node with the most incoming links is the most attractive one to place on a poster. The first-order approach is only a rough estimation. It is better to count the number of steps from the point of departure (entry of the WWW-based 05/23/01

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hypermedia program). The less number of needed steps, the more attractive its position. If several nodes have the same distance from the entrance, a second-order approximation can be made; the weights of the nodes that support incoming links are taking into account. This is a recursive measure as also the more remote neighbors have to be taken into account; Quite a nice job for the graph analysis to do the computation. “TextVision” is a computer program that reflects “Departure” and “reachability” in the size of the nodes. A first glance offers the creator and user of the network to see the better candidates.

WWW-based hypermedia Presentation and its Underlying Reference Structure WWW-based hypermedia is essentially based upon hypertext and contains three basic entities. 1. Presentation windows (A, A1, A2 and A3 in the Figure below) correspond to the content of a window or eventually the entire screen at a certain moment. In order to access the widely spread information network, it is vital to divide it into shorter fragments. Each fragment should fit on a screen. In terms of readability it should be known how many lines and which size of the visuals fit on the particular screen. Also it is of importance to know if the user sits before the screen, or if it is a kiosk screen with more incidental and quick-glance users. For the sake of clarity, it is desirable to develop a WWW-based hypermedia application on exactly the same screen as the target systems for the end users. The question how to layout textual fragments, and which hotspots should occur is crucial for the user’s navigation. A large research domain is the request for the ideal number of reference links and the depth of entailments. For instructional and communicative programs it is essential to be aware if and how easy a certain node can be reached. 2. Each presentation screen or “fragment” has a main concept which labels its content. From a more practical point of view it can be recommended to keep it unique and articulate it in the screen design. Usually a screen is retrieved by activating a help concept in a preceding screen. Alternative ways to activate a main concept with its subsequent explanation is via an alphabetic index list or via clicking the contents in the main menu. The rule of thumb here is to provide the user with optimal flexibility while still keeping a minimum of complexity. 3. Help concepts (for instance a1, a2 and a3 in screen A and a3.2) are the clickable key words in a fragment (called ‘hot spots’). By its physical appearance they prompt the user to digress via related help concepts. The consequence of clicking ‘interesting’ hot spots should preferably bring information that is expected by the user. Current WWWbased hypermedia systems however cause too much new elements and perspectives so that the user gets confused and loses focus. Ideally, a mouse click brings on the screen the elaboration of the clicked term. The subsequent chaining to highlighted concepts and underlying web pages is called ‘surfing’.

Main Concept

(Name of the underlying Screen)

Main Concepts A .......... ... a3

(used as one of the words in an explanation)

.......... a1 ... a2 .......... .......... ... ...

A1

.......... ...

A2 A3 .......... ...

a3.2

.......... ...

.......... ...

.......... ... .......... ...

Figure 16 Screens, main- and help concepts and its interrelations Before starting the production of text screens and the choice of help concepts, the underlying relation structure should be drawn. The initial concept map can be used for this purpose. A relational diagram is often a simplified version of the preceding concept map. In many occasions it is a good idea to present the end user this relational diagram and let it help the navigation. In other words: The user should be able to call upon this overview from the main menu. It is no trivial task to optimize the layout of a concept map for navigational purposes. The video program on the “London Underground” provides a clear and fine description of the genesis of the current map of the complex transportation network. It has lasted for more than 30 years before the current shape developed. The big step was to neglect its coordinate correspondence and focussed just on the aspect of travel sequences and line intersections to change trains. Similar to this goal is the concept map for navigation purposes in WWW-based hypermedia systems; its main goal is to access relevant browsing sequences rather than reflect semantic relations between concepts. Optimizing the layout of a concept map implies 1. 2.

Reducing the number of crossings between the connection lines Having the central concepts in the center

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3. 4. 5.

Bringing the semantically-related nodes together Bringing types of links in one cluster (e.g. causal, taxonomic and temporal links) Keeping connection lines as short as possible

Drawing and layouting networks of more than 8 nodes or more then 12 links already cause a high load on the user. It soon pays of to perform a graph analysis; See the centrality index as discussed before. After completing the navigation design, the team is ready to produce textual, pictorial and video resources. Afterwards the program implementation in a dedicated authoring system like Authorware, HyperStudio or ToolBook can be started.

Conclusion The design of a WWW-based hypermedia program for learning needs distinguished stages. And they all should occur before any system-implementation starts. It is true that rapid prototyping can help a lot the designing, as it allows creators to anticipate to what will happen once the target systems is ready. However it should be clear to its developers that after the confrontation the prototype should be thrown away. It is recommended to be explicit about the time needed for every of the four design stages; Realistic estimates of the design episodes should be made. Provide good documents and sketches and screen designs. You will see that after few days you have forgotten what design choices were made and why. Make clear appointments about roles and responsibilities: Co-ordinator (chairman), domain expert, process reporter etc. Don’t forget to look back to the group process: Was it pleasant, adequate, not too controlled? Please feel free to make variations on the prescribed design method. Consolidate them and bring them forward during the plenary presentation. The team members may learn from each other.

Literature References • • • • • • • • • •

Buzan, T. (1995). The MindMap book (2nd ed.). London: BBC Books. Doorn, A.B.D. van & P. Room; De interactieve audiovisuele leeromgeving in het jaar 2000. http://www.econ.vu.nl/vakgroep/bik/wcis97/ Faber, J., et. al. (1991). "The Motion Picture in Interactive Information Systems: A Necessary or Facilitating Component?" In Bullinger, H.J. (Ed.). Human Aspects in Computing: Design and Use of Interactive Systems and Work with Terminals. (pp. 485-490). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. Gundy Van, (1981). Techniques of structured problem solving. New York: Litton Educational Publishing. Lanzing, J.W.A. (1998a); Cognitive Styles and Concept Mapping for WWW-based hypermedia Design. In: International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning. ISSN 0957-4344. Volume 8, No 1. 1998. Lanzing, J.W.A. (1998b); Concept Mapping: Tools for Echoing the Minds Eye. In: Journal of Visual Literacy, Spring 1998; Volume 18, Number 1, 1-14. Lanzing, J.W.A., Everything you always wanted to know about …….Concept Mapping. Intern rapport , Enschede, 1996. Is te bereiken via WWW: http://utto1031.to.utwente.nl/artikel1/ Macnab, B. I .E. (1987). Perceptions of Phobia & Phobics. The Quest for Control. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Marmolin, H. (1991). "Multimedia from Perspectives of Psychology". In Kjelldahl, L. (Ed.). Multimedia. Systems, Interactions and Applications. 1st Eurographics Workshop, Stockholm, Sweden April 18-19, 1991. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag. Vygotsky, Lev S. Thought and Language (1934). Cambridge University Press, 1962, translated by Eugenia Haufmann and Gertrude Vakar

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