COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, EVOLUTION. TENDENCY AND PERSPECTIVES Interactive resources in Education and Training emerge out of the need to share information and knowledge on the research and practices of using multimedia in various educational settings. This thesis discusses issues related to planning, designing and development of interactive resources in a persuasive tone and style, offering rich research data. Roles and application of multimedia as resource in different education and training contexts are highlighted, as are case studies of multimedia development and use, including areas such as language learning, cartography, engineering education, health sciences, and others. Authors of various chapters report on their experiences of designing multimedia resources that are pedagogically appropriate and suitable to the cognitive abilities of the target groups. There have been many experiments and innovations in the field of education and training regarding knowledge delivery. From face-to-face to virtual education, different technologies have played great roles at different times. In the last two decades, due to the advent of computer technologies, information delivery has got new meaning. Development, access, and transfer of text, sound, and video data have given a unique face to classrooms, libraries, and training and resource centers, in the form of interactive multimedia programs. Interactive resources, as a subject or a topic still in its stage of infancy, which excites and it attracts educational technologists. However, design and development of an interactive multimedia program is a complex task involving a team of experts, including content provider(s), multimedia developer(s), graphic designer(s), and, of course, the instructional designer(s), who most of the time plays the role of a project manager as well. This thesis is not about multimedia development, but the subject matter delves into the complex issue of planning, guiding, and designing multimedia from the instructional perspective. As such, we address pedagogical issues, applications, and effectiveness.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, EVOLUTION. TENDENCY AND PERSPECTIVES At this point, some teachers might argue that they had used cooperative learning in their class, but the effects were not as positive as the literature demonstrated. The secret lied in the distinguishing features between cooperative learning and group learning. What were the differences between these two? Taken from the outcome, cooperative learning succeeded while group learning usually perished.
