Working engineers' multimedia type preferences. Issue 2 (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baukal, Charles E.; Ausburn, Lynna J.
• Is Part Of: Australasian journal of engineering education. Volume 22:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 63
• Page End: 72
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: Working engineers -- multimedia preferences; Engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Australia -- Periodicals; Engineers -- Training of -- Australia -- Periodicals; Engineering -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; Engineers -- Training of -- Periodicals; 620.0071094
• DOI: 10.1080/22054952.2017.1392225
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2205-4952

Abstract

Abstract: While the continuing education of working engineers is important, relatively few recommendations are given in the literature for how to design effective instructional materials for those engineers. The study reported here addressed this gap by investigating working engineers' multimedia type preferences. Four media types in four different categories (in parentheses) were compared: text (verbal), drawing (static graphic), animation (dynamic non-interactive graphic) and simulated virtual reality (dynamic interactive graphic). The results showed working engineers strongly preferred graphics (drawing, animation and simulated virtual reality) over verbal (text) multimedia. There was relatively little difference in preferences among the graphic types. These results suggest a variety of graphic multimedia types should be used in the instructional design of continuing engineering education content and text should not be solely relied on to carry information content.