EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS MULTIMEDIA COMPUTER MODULES AS ENRICHMENT EXERCISES FOR INTRODUCTORY HUMAN-GEOGRAPHY

Quantitative proof that multimedia enrichment activities are a positiv e benefit to lower-division undergraduate geography is an alluring tho ugh elusive goal. The results are presented of a careful experimental evaluation of two multimedia computer modules used as enrichment devic es for an introductory human geography course at the University of Cal ifornia, Santa Barbara. The objectives were to determine their overall effectiveness, as well as the kinds of students and kinds of geograph ical knowledge and skills they best sewed. The rather disappointing re sults in respect of all three of these areas tend to corroborate one p ublished allegation that quantitative evaluation of multimedia effecti veness is itself ineffective, due primarily to the inherent complexity of learning. The conclusion of this article, and of the study, is tha t an array of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods will bet ter serve the important objective of improving multimedia use at the u niversity level.