Interactive Learning: Design and Evaluation

In education, ‘interactivity’ is the catalyst that can transform the traditional classroom setting into an active media environment. Yet the standards for interactivity within education are by no means clear. Educators and multimedia designers are confronted with many questions concerning the effectiveness of interactive courseware as a learning tool. In this paper, the authors draw on their experience of producing the interactive courseware package Virtual Language University, an interactive multimedia package for language learning that has over 1,500 interactive tasks. Specific topics in the paper include screen design, navigation, effective task writing, choices in the type of user feedback, scoring and testing. Attention is given to decision-making procedures that deepen understanding, promote interactivity and encourage self-direction. Finally, preliminary evaluation of the package is discussed.