what to consider when selecting appropriate media for business correspondence

Web Usability and Information Design Bug

Overview ~ Cost ~  Accessibility ~ Social-Political Suitability ~ Cultural Friendliness
Openness/Flexibility ~ Interactivity ~ Motivation Value ~ Effectiveness
Other Models ~ Determination ~ Appendix ~ References

Summary

The following paper describes eight practical guidelines distance educators and online instructional designers can use to assist select media to improve the quality of their programs. These guidelines take into consideration international problems and perspectives.

1. Cost

2. Accessibility

3. Social-Political Suitability

4. Cultural Friendliness

5. Openness/Flexibility

6. Interactivity

7. Motivational Value

8. Effectiveness

Past Peter J. Patsula, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul. 1999, Dec. 17.��

Overview - The "Clark Media Debate"

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For more than than a decade, the �Clark Media Debate� (1983, 1994) has sent everyone looking for the perfect medium - a phone pole in a forest. Equally a effect, we have forgotten about the forest. The ongoing debate, centering effectually the truism that �media will never influence learning,� has helped us recognize the importance of instructional methodology, only has done little to provide us with strategies nosotros tin can use to accomplish our instructional objectives.

To help remedy this, and give us more practical tools for solving distance and online didactics bug, CASCOIME (pronounced cas-coy-mi) outlines eight applied guidelines, compiled in descending order of importance, for evaluating and selecting new media or technology for distance and online educational activity. In particular, these guidelines are targeted towards distance educators wishing to meets the needs of minority groups and developing regions. However, these guidelines are useful for media selection for most any educational situation. These eight guidelines are summarized as follows:

CASCOIME

Practical Guidelines for Selecting Media

In an international setting, media tin be selected and evaluated based on the following CASCOIME criteria: Cost - Is the medium toll constructive? Tin can it reach a wide plenty audience? What applied science infrastructure is currently available?

Accessibility � Is the medium accessible? Does it facilitate distribution? Is it convenient to use? Is it convenient?

Social-Political Suitability � Is the medium socially and politically suitable? Does its use coincide with social and political agendas of governing bodies?

Cultural Friendliness � Is the medium culturally appropriate? Does it coincide with the culture�s traditional way of learning?

Openness/Flexibility � Is the medium flexible? Does it foster collaboration? Does it foster dissimilar ways of pedagogy?

Interactivity - Is the medium interactive? Does information technology promote learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction? Does it facilitate timely and quality feedback from instructors and tutors?

Motivational Value - Is the medium motivating? Does information technology encourage learners to study harder and longer?

Effectiveness - Is the medium effective? Does it help students acquire content faster (i.e., more efficiently)?

What is a minority group?

Thomas & McDonell (1995) define a minority group as �a section of society whose identity is determined by cultural properties not shared past all members of the social club and whose needs are not necessarily served when the needs of the society as a whole are being served� (p. 185). By definition, they add, �minority markets are too small to be cocky-sustaining for traditional learning and ofttimes too minor to warrant the use of industrial procedure and economies of scale inherent to, for example, delivery by correspondence�(p. 186). Hence, �minority groups throughout the world must battle constantly in guild to receive the same level of teaching services as is offered to the majority� (p. 187).

Minority groups in Canada, for case, include the French community in Ontario (see Paquette-Frenette & Larocque 1995), and aboriginal communities distributed in the territories and northern parts of Canada�s provinces (meet Spronk 1995).��

What is a developing region?

A developing region can be defined as a nation or group of nations requiring �major changes in social structure[s], populate attitudes and national institutions, also as, the acceleration of economical growth, the reduction of inequality, and the eradication of absolute poverty� (Todaro 1989 p. 88).

Developing regions include parts of Southward and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Southward Pacific region, the Middle East region, Latin America, and the Caribbean.��

What is media?

A medium can be defined every bit �a channel of communication, data, or amusement� (Mish 1989, 455). In this paper, media and engineering science are used interchangeably. Media includes technology such as print, radio, sound-cassettes, video-cassettes, broadcast Idiot box, satellite TV, cable Goggle box, multimedia CDs, computer-based learning, and online education over the Net.

What is quality media?

Juran (1989) defines quality every bit �fettle for use,� or every bit McIlroy and Walker (1993, 42) translate, �fitness for purpose.� Fahy explains (1999, September 24):

This definition has the advantage of brevity, while recognizing the essential relativity of the term. In other words, what one source may regard as �fit� may non arrange the purposes of some other; similarly, fitness standards may vary over time, and thus standards of what constitutes quality may change.

This definition can be extended by stating that quality is a fix of standards that can be used to evaluate a product or project. In support of this, Fahy (1999) advises that in defining quality, �in that location must be goals, or targets, and there must be measurement of the degree to which these are being met� (p. 104).

In selecting media for distance didactics in an international setting, quality media can be divers as media that is rated the highest using the CASCOIME guideline criteria (come across CASCOIME �Media Evaluation Nautical chart� in appendix).

1) Toll - CASCOIME

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Is the medium cost constructive?

Every bit educators, nosotros hope that our decisions regarding the adoption of a medium are based upon altruistic values, but reality often suggests otherwise. From the use of video to the persistence of print, the most important factor in the adoption of any new medium is cost irrespective of how effective or ineffective the medium truly is.

At that place are three primary costs associated with distance educational activity:

• fixed costs (including start-upwards costs, majuscule costs and administration costs)

• variable costs per student (which include student support services & course delivery costs)

• form materials costs (which include course design and product costs).

All of these costs are affected past the option of media. For example, if a impress medium is chosen for course delivery one has to determine how this choice volition impact the capital costs of printing, storing and shipping printed materials; the variable costs per pupil of postage and treatment; and the design and production costs of writing, editing, and purchasing ink and paper.

To determine the toll-effectiveness of a medium one needs to compare the relative costs of the learning achieved by examining: (a) the boilerplate cost per student to the institution i.e., What is the toll-efficiency of the altitude university relative to conventional universities?; and (b) the average toll to the student i.due east., Are the tuition costs affordable?

Despite the fact that distance instruction usually has higher development and showtime-up costs, �both large and small scale projects take plant that it may be possible to produce graduates at cost of between half and two-thirds of the costs for a student at a conventional institutions� (Republic Secretariat January 1985, 7, R.304). Tater (equally cited in Eastmond 1994, 88) reports that the Turkish Open Pedagogy facility was able to provide distance learners with a university education, judged at roughly ane-6th of the price of providing a conventional university education.�

However, Threlkeld and Brzoska (1994, 61) study that �marketing distance learning as a way to cutting educational costs is risky, at best. In the short run, there is lilliputian testify in the United States that distance pedagogy reduces costs over traditional instruction.� Keegan (1996, 213-214) warns us that �in spite of the long association of the field with the use of technological media, there is as nevertheless trivial grounded theory on the cost-effectiveness and the educational effectiveness of the use of media in distance systems.� We therefore should be somewhat skeptical of whatever new medium, which promises to reduce educational costs and increase learning especially if this claim is unsubstantiated, equally well as, any approach that claims to truly measure cost effectiveness. Because of the inherent difficulties in accurately measuring the quality of learning that takes place as a outcome of a new medium, for the most role, we as distance educators, when judging the toll effectiveness of a medium, resort to concentrating on merely that which is hands measurable, and that is dollar toll. Specifically, we tend to concentrate on the affect the medium has on fixed showtime-up and maintenance costs, as well every bit, class design and product costs.

Ii examples which clearly illustrate the importance of cost as a deciding factor in the success or demise of a medium are print and video. �Traditional impress-based correspondence study endures in spite of more than sixty years of technological innovation in mass communications and continued declarations of its obsolescence� (Pittman 1987, 33). As Pittman argues, �convenience and economy� are cardinal factors contributing to its continued use. Video, on the other paw, has nigh replaced film overnight equally an educational medium of choice for ane very uncomplicated reason � it�s much cheaper:

Film has become an expensive medium, both the software (films themselves) and the hardware (motion picture projectors). The video version to a title is generally a fraction of the costs of the film version, and the combination of a video player and video monitor costs less than a film projector. At that place are major reasons why institutions are willing to write off their considerable upper-case letter investment in films and projectors and adopt videocassettes as the format of selection for moving images (Heinich et al., 1996, 207).

When determining the cost-effectiveness of a medium, evaluators must likewise consider the cost to the student. Depending on the media being used, the cost to the student can vary considerably. Online instruction materials may lower printing and distribution costs to the host organisation, but to the pupil who has to purchase a computer, the cost of admission may be prohibitive. On one hand, to a typical American, buying a figurer might be price-constructive. Notwithstanding, for a typical Ethiopian, it is more likely an unattainable dream.

Can it reach a wide plenty audition?

Guy (1991) reports that distance education in developing countries is �predominantly a authorities financed activity and its expansion owes much to the willingness of governments to back up distance pedagogy� (p. 160). All the same, Rumble (1989) maintains that �the high costs of setting upwards a system and developing courses means that there can be little justification for the investment, in economic terms, unless there is a large plenty market to bring average costs downwards below those constitute in traditional education systems� (p. 101). Pe�alver (1990) supports this, arguing that whether distance education becomes cheaper depends on several factors, among others, on the degree in which variable directly costs per students are kept below the level of that price in traditional education, �and naturally, on the number of students� (p. 28). A selected medium must help attain economies of scale. This is especially important for developing nations looking for less expensive ways to educate its people.

What technology infrastructure is currently bachelor?

Hall (1987, as cited in Guy 1991) outlines the paradox of technology for the developing world. Although, �the increasing need for didactics in the developing earth lends itself to telecommunications . . . the very infrastructure to support such technology cannot be afforded by those developing countries� (p. 162). Thus, it is possible, as Pe�alver (1990) reports, that �many of the third world countries volition non be able to make use of the engineering related educational advances presently being made in industrialized countries� (p. 23). Pe�alver supports this assertion with the fact that �the economical crisis and the burden of strange debts . . . are depleting the resource of third globe countries and thereby restricting their ability to increase and amend educational opportunities� (p. 23).�

Granger (1988) reports that individual courses at OU �may cost a meg pounds or more to develop, drawing on the all-time talent available� (p. 81). Conspicuously, this is not possible for developing nations.

�This suggests the wisdom of assessing each situation in relation to the needs of the population, the availability of facilities and resources, and the cost-effectiveness of developing and implementing new construction as opposed to expanding those that are already in identify� (Pe�alver 1990, 28). In other words, cost-effective solutions for developing nations mean utilizing existing resources as much as possible. Beingness able to share resources with conventional educational institutions is also disquisitional to keeping media costs affordable.

2) Accessibility - CASCOIME

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Is the medium accessible?

Accessibility can be defined by factors such every bit:�

• availability � Can anybody afford it or have access to it (e.thou., reckoner for CMC or VCRs for video-cassettes? Is the necessary infrastructure available to facilitate distribution (eastward.chiliad., postal services for print, phone networks for tele-conferencing)?

• convenience � Does it allow learners to report where they want and when they desire? Is information technology piece of cake to get fixed?

• user-friendliness � Is information technology easy to use? Does everyone know how to use information technology? Is it an established standard used around the world?

According to Bates, �cost and accessibility� (as cited in Fahy 1999, 126) are the two nigh of import criteria in the selection of new media or technology.

Does it facilitate distribution?

Forster (1992, as cited in Oliver 1998) comments that �the speed of arrival, the time it takes to go feedback, the feeling of isolation, and the ability to collaborate with other learners are all affected by the distribution system� (p. 168). Threlkeld & Brzoska (1994) contend that �a delivery system which permits wide distribution of a course . . . can be shown to significantly reduce costs� (p. 60) and hence increase accessibility (i.east., more than people tin can afford it).�

However, Haque (1998) reminds usa that in contrast to the developed world, where �the postal systems (including courier) are so reliable and fault-free that distance education institutions do non find it an important bespeak for consideration during developing course materials� (p. 64), in developing countries, this is non necessarily the instance. Kenworthy and Russell (1998) in examining the distance educational activity problems of Mongolia report that �the institution of any class of altitude education system is problematic because of the lack of appropriate communication systems in rural areas and limitations in admission to impress based materials. Mail and telephone systems are not available to many rural communities� (p. 244). What does exist even so �is a very comprehensive radio network roofing 90% of Mongolia� (p. 245). They therefore conclude that in Mongolia, radio is the most suitable medium to provide distance education access.

Is information technology convenient to use?

Pittman (1993), in supporting the remarkable staying power of impress-based correspondence report, argues that �the more than sophisticated the medium, the more constraints students must accept� (p. 34). He says that:

college courses that employ technologically advanced media unremarkably put students on a fixed schedule, and often in a specified location, which many find inconvenient and undesirable. Such restraints apply to television, for case, whether via open circulate, cable, or sophisticated microwave systems (p. 33).�

The importance of convenience is also illustrated by the increasing popularity of the Internet. The Internet is giving students quick and convenient admission to data that earlier was unavailable to them. They no longer have to expedition to the library to inquiry fabric in an encyclopedia. Instead they can visit sites similar Microsoft�southward Encarta Online at http://encarta.msn.com/ and download info for free.��

Is it user-friendly?

New applied science is often met with stiff resistance. This resistance is greater in developing nations because they accept less experience with avant-garde engineering science and are more likely to perceive even uncomplicated solutions equally complex. Casas-Armengol & Stojanovich (1990) note that �generally speaking, one notices the lack of a solid technological culture in many underdeveloped societies, affecting their understanding of the true potentials and limitations of mod technology� (p. 131). This unfamiliarity extends not only to students, but teachers and administrators every bit well (Threlkeld & Brzoska 1994).

Thomas & McDonell (1995) recommend the following strategies for the successful introduction of new technologies to minority groups (196-198):

• Humanization � To make technology more convenient, attach real names to student e-mail accounts, welcome them by their proper noun when they logon, and give thanks them personally for visiting when they logoff.

• Multilingual Design � Non all equipment can exist taken off the shelf and used to serve minority groups. In many international settings, to be convenient, both hardware and software take to handle languages other than English. The management and development team accept to be committed to this principle so that every element of input, manual, output, and feedback can operate seamlessly in more than 1 language.

• Politicization or Empowerment � �Students on campus have many avenues to limited themselves, to participate in working groups and call back tanks, and to influence the process of their learning experience. An equivalent capacity has to be built in to new modes of delivery.�

• Socialization or Grouping Belonging � Creating �classroom� and �lounge� environments for both structured and unstructured word tin can aid reduce the dropout rate.�

• User Support � A user-friendly system is able to offer users dissimilar levels of assist depending on their literacy levels.

three) Social-Political Suitability - CASCOIME

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Is the medium socially and politically suitable?

Studies carried out by specialists and international agencies including UNESCO (1979, every bit cited in Da Silva & Esposito 1990) make it clear that �illiteracy and other educational disabilities are structural problems, closely associated with social, political, cultural, and economical factors� (p. 144). The problem is that �at that place are significant levels of concrete, linguistic, cultural, political and economic diversity within developing nations. The developing world lacks the relative homogeneity which characterizes students, systems and societies found in the developed world� (Guy 1991, 162). Thus, more and more, distance educators are being asked to design distance learning systems to suit local environments in an try to solve the social, political, and economic problems unique to each nation.

Does its utilize coincide with social and political agendas of governing bodies?

Distance didactics initiatives must carefully work under the social, political and economic policies of existing governments. Trillo (1982, as cited in Guy 1991, 160) reports on interference in the preparation and apply of distance materials by the Peruvian authorities. Materials had to exist rewritten several times �before political regimes were happy.� On some occasions, �distance pedagogy programs were closed down because of the unacceptable ideology in the materials.�

Many nations are too eager to participate in globe trade and become more prosperous. Withal, political and social organizations inside the nations may be concerned nearly globalization as a threat to their way of life. They are faced with the dilemma: we admission the globe, merely the world invades us (Evans 1998). They wonder: �How do we provide pedagogy for civilisation maintenance while at the same time promoting effective learning of western knowledge?� (Teasdale 1990, appendix 1.1). The potential �corrupting� influence of western ways on traditional ways of living has a powerful impact on the psyches of regime decision-makers. This bear upon is peculiarly evident in the Middle East region where data going in and out of the country, including Internet admission, is highly restricted.�

4) Cultural Friendliness - CASCOIME

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Is the medium culturally appropriate?

�It is widely recognized that perceptions of success and failure among people in non-Western cultures may be quite unlike from those reported past people in Western cultures� (Irish potato 1991, 27). Guy (1991) advises that �it may exist more than advisable to identify the cultures of the learners prior to the evolution of an institutional response then that it is sensitive to those cultural forms� (p. 163).

Does it coincide with the culture�s traditional way of learning?

Numerous researchers back up the importance of understanding a culture and ways of learning, before implementing a solution:

Ong (1982, as cited in Murphy 1991) reports that Turkey�s roots in an oral tradition, along with its emphasis on rote memorization and the sacredness of text, make independent textbook learning less suitable. Ong suggests that �those who live in cultures with strong oral roots are [more] likely to express themselves in terms of applied situations rather [than] in abstract terms� (p. 44). These types of learners are doomed to failure in unstructured environments.

Maehr (1977, as cited in Murphy 1991, 27) describes the prevailing view of achievement in the US every bit �an individualistic and totally self-serving thing � a person achieves on his own and maybe at the expense of someone else.� Such views, he adds however, �ignore cultural difference like co-operativeness and interdependence and group rather than individual goals of success.� Allison & Duda (1982, as cited in White potato 1991, 27) study that the Navajos � a group-oriented culture � saw success equally �helping the �People� or �when the team wins.� Spronk (1995), reporting nigh the learning needs of Aboriginal in Northern Manitoba and other parts of Canada, advises:

what clearly does not work with Aboriginal learners is the abode study model . . . correspondence materials, no matter how sophisticated their blueprint, are text- and prose-based, and involve the learner in � at best � a fictionalized human relationship with a faceless and largely unknown writer. Zip in Aboriginal learners� previous feel prepares them for the kind of learning these materials demand (pp. 91-92).

Spronk adds that �what does appear to work for Aboriginal learners is to emphasize face up-to-face contact with instructors, tutors, counselors, supervisors, mentors or other students, and to supplement these contacts with self-study impress materials (p. 92). Spronk�s findings chronicle to those of Paquette-Frenette & Larocque (1995) who after examining the learning needs of the Franco-Ontarian customs, similarly suggest that �interactive group learning, not individualized self-written report, is essential to people who identify strongly with a specific community� (p. 161).

5) Openness/Flexibility - CASCOIME

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Is the medium flexible?

Media tin be defined as being open and flexible if, among other things, information technology fosters collaboration and different ways of teaching.

Does it foster collaboration?

�The integrative nature of applied science and its use in distance education is pulling people around the earth into new and unexpected forms of collaboration� (Thach & Murphy 1994, 17). Collaboration will �increasingly become a major tool of institutional development� (Moran & Mugridge 1993, 163).

What this suggests is that media that facilitates collaboration is preferable to media that does not, especially for developing nations where information technology is economically advantageous to adopt the distance education structures of more advanced nations. High engineering science solutions, such as Internet based CMC and email, foster collaborative efforts. Not just is communication faster, only timely contributions to program development from experts around the globe is viable. Convenient collaboration allows conventional and domestic pedagogy systems to more readily share scarce physical and homo resources, reduce duplication, and concord on the areas of education each tin can best accost.

Does it foster unlike means of teaching?

According to Clark (1983, 456), �it is what the teacher does�the teaching�that influences learning.� Clark firmly believes that method is coincidental to learning while media is not. All the same, Kozma (1994) argues that �medium and method have a more than integral relationship; both are part of the design� (p. 205). He believes that certain media allow methods which �would have been difficult or impossible to implement in other media.� Irrespective of who is right, information technology tin can easily exist argued that any medium that allows course developers the liberty to incorporate a multifariousness of instructional methods is preferable to a medium that is more express.

6) Interactivity - CASCOIME

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Is the medium interactive?

Interaction is an of import office of all forms of learning. �All the major learning theories specify that some form of meaningful interaction must take place between learners, instructors, and the environment� (Szabo 1998, 44). The importance of interaction in altitude education has led Threlkeld and Brzoska (1994) to suggest that �although alive on-air interaction may non be important for student outcomes, information technology may be important as a consumer variable, a requisite condition sought by some learners�even if not used� (p. 48). They state:

Alive, interactive learning is what we are familiar with, it�s �school.� The early on automobile was designed, perhaps unconsciously, to look like the horse-drawn carriage. Information technology was decades before the automobile became an entity unto itself, developing according to its ain potential. Distance education may require a like aging period to evolve out of preconceived notions of what education should be (p. 48).

Barker, Frisbie and Patrick (1996) get every bit far equally to assert that interaction legitimizes distance instruction. They state:

The use of new and emerging technologies in distance education that foster live, teacher-student and student-to-pupil interactivity will enable distance educational activity to assume its rightful and respected function in the educational process (p. 46).

Does it promote learner-learner and learner-teacher interaction?

Keegan (1996) stresses the importance of learner-learner and learner-teacher interaction in distance instruction every bit a mode of recreating the educational activity human action. He reasons that:�

The separation of the teaching acts and the learning acts that is characteristic of distance education brings about a weak integration of the student into the life of the institution and this has been linked to dropout. It is hypothesized, therefore, that distance students accept a trend to driblet out in those institutions in which structures for the reintegration of the didactics acts are not satisfactorily achieved (p. xix).

According to Keegan (1996, 118), the reintegration of the teaching act is attempted by distance systems in 2 basic means: by designing materials �to achieve equally many of the characteristics of interpersonal advice as possible� and by using various media. The Bangladesh Open University has successfully followed through on the outset part of this communication by developing a handbook for textbook writing, that describes amidst other things, how to make distance didactics materials easier to read and locally more relevant (Haque 1998).

Does it facilitate timely and quality feedback from instructors and tutors?

Feedback is a particular blazon of learner-instructor interaction that bears recognition in distance education. �The swift feedback available from the contiguous learning model is most entirely absent� (Sewart 1980, as cited in Keegan 1996, 102) in distance instruction, which tin produce problems for item types of learners. The importance of timely feedback is supported past data nerveless from the Darling Downs Plant of Avant-garde Didactics (Barker et al., 1986). The DDIAE report discovered that �of the 82 students who failed to consummate [form] requirements, 55 of these experienced high plow-around fourth dimension, whereas of the 110 students who succeeded in completing requirements, merely 29 experienced a high plow-effectually, while 81 students had depression plow-around time� (p. 30). Although the DDIAE study concludes that in other institutional contexts, no such patterns emerged, findings in the DDIAE context suggest that some students may have been disadvantaged by the relatively tardy return of assignments.

7) Motivation - CASCOIGEastward

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Is the medium motivating?

Clark (1983, 454) reports that several studies have �fruitfully explored� the question of enjoyment and entertainment in the use of educational media. He states:�

The fact that nosotros acquire (though education and experience) to prefer some media or to attribute varying levels of difficulty, entertainment value, or enjoyment to media might influence instructionally relevant outcomes (p. 454).

In an international setting nevertheless, information technology is important to distinguish between technology that is intimidating and technology that is motivating. What is motivating to a Westerner, such as an interactive multi-media CD, might be threatening to a Papua New Guinean, who has never seen a TV, let solitary a remote command.

Does it encourage learners to study harder and longer?

Bates (1995, as cited in Fahy 1999, 105) notes that novelty �may help launch an innovation, but cannot sustain it.� Similarly, Clark reports that �comparisons of estimator and conventional instruction often testify xxx to 50 percent reductions in time to complete lessons for the computer groups� (C. Kulik, Kulik, & Choen, 1980; Kulik, Bangert, & Williams, 1983, as cited in Clark 1983, 449). Arguing against the influence of media in learning, he suggests a plausible rival hypothesis for the gains could be due to �[the] greater effort invested in newer media programs than in conventional presentations of the same material.� He reasons:

The increased attending paid by students sometimes results in increased effort or persistence, which yields achievement gains. If they are due to a novelty effect, these gains tend to diminish equally students get more familiar with the new medium . . . [rises in examination grades] for computer courses tended to dissipate significantly in longer duration studies (p. 450).

Regardless, of who offers the better hypotheses for the achievement gains, information technology is apparent that new exciting media has considerable motivational power. Any media, that has the potential to extract more attempt out of a pupil, even if the results misemploy over a longer period of time, is media worth considering.

eight) Effectiveness - CASCOIMEastward

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Is the medium effective?

It is rather discouraging as a altitude educator to realize that �in distance didactics institutions, the deployment of different media for dissimilar topics and learning tasks is controlled more past logistic, economic and human being factors than by pedagogical considerations� (Koumi 1994, 41). In other words, when it comes down to making a decision, the effectiveness of a medium every bit an educational tool is a minor consideration in the selection process.

A mutual theme in distance education research is to compare two or more than media in relation to their effectiveness: �does it teach better than . . .� (Threlkeld & Brzoska 1994, 42). �Literally hundreds of media comparing studies have been performed over the by forty years, and the results have been compatible: the instructional medium doesn�t appear to brand whatever of import difference in educatee achievement, attitudes, and memory.�

More than merely stated, effectiveness is not a serious consideration in media selection because no 1 has been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that media actually does influence learning. Of grade the trouble may not exist in the research itself, but in the definition of what effectiveness truly means. Just that is another paper.�

Does information technology help students learn content faster and develop new ways of thinking?

Clark (1994, 26) expresses the importance of choosing media that are �capable of delivering the method at the least expensive rate and in the speediest fashion.� Kulik and Kulik (every bit cited in Carter 1996, 34) accept also conducted studies which �highlight achievement efficiencies gained past using educational technologies.�

As well of special involvement, apropos this attribute, is the concept of accelerated learning, where for example, during lesson, adults can �learn foreign languages with unusual ease and high rates of retention� (Heinich et al., 1996, 349).� This approach grew out of earlier inquiry done by psychologist Georgi Lozanov in Republic of bulgaria. It is �based on putting oneself into a special land of relaxation in which the brain is most open and receptive to incoming data.� Educators tin can simply drool over the implications of media devices capable of inducing an �accelerated learning� in its learners. This excitement is further sustained by Simpson�s neurological findings (1994) which reports on the power of technological media to alter the biochemical structure of the brain. Simpson submits that it may be possible for new media to really be responsible for new ways of thinking.

Other Recommendations for Media and Engineering Pick Criteria

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Daunt (1998), Paquette-Frenette & Larocque (1995), and Bates (1995, as cited in Fahy 1999) offer the following communication in selecting media and engineering:

A) Daunt�south � Choosing the Right Engineering Strategies

Daunt (1998, 168-169) outlines the following strategies for choosing the correct technology:

• Establish your need-then cull the engineering. Daunt maintains that �a common error is to start with the technology then find a use for it.� She advises that �your needs should ever dictate which (if any) engineering science should be used.�

• Look at the range of technologies. Don�t be seduced by just ane technology or media. Daunt advises that �no single technology is superior to all the others.� She suggests that you inquire yourself: �How available/accessible is this engineering science? Volition the students be comfy using information technology?�

• Include the users in your selection process. Daunt warns us that �in some cases, resistance [to new engineering science] has been so loftier that the implementation of the technology has failed completely.� She adds that �technologists are very skillful at knowing the engineering, but oftentimes don�t have educational experience. They should be part of your squad, but call back, they are seeing the technology with a unlike set of values to educators.�

• Consider the needs of your learners.�Daunt believes that �just every bit teachers have to exist comfortable with a new technology, then do the learners.�

B) Paquette-Frenette & Laroque�southward � �Collective Approach� to Technology Selection

When needing to link �blueprint, delivery, and organizational structures� in an endeavor to implement a �commonage arroyo� in distance pedagogy, Paquette-Frenette & Laroque (1995, 164) suggest selecting technologies that are:

1. easiest to employ and that build on acquired competencies;

2. nigh interactive in real time;

3. the least expensive to operate, install, buy, and maintain;

4. easiest to connect in networks for group work; and

5. easiest to connect with existing installations (at the local, regional, provincial, and national levels).

C) Bates� � ACTIONS Model

Bates (1995, as cited in Fahy 1999, 104-105) provides the post-obit criteria for selecting engineering science:

• Accessibility � includes availability and attitudes toward the technology.

• Cost � per learner, including stock-still and variable costs.

• Teaching and learning implications � presentational and other factors which affect how the applied science impacts learning

• Interactivity and �friendliness.�

• Organizational implications � nigh popular innovations are those which require the fewest changes in present operations.

• Novelty � may help launch an innovation, but cannot sustain information technology.

• Speed � how fast the innovation can be mounted.

Decision

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The power to see the big motion picture and excerpt the right details to summarize that big pic has always led to clarity and progress. Einstein summarized the universe in the modest formula: E=mc2. He saw the truth before whatever one could prove it.

But in education, if only solutions could exist that simple. Koumi (1994) argues that:

there does not exist a sufficiently practicable theory for selecting media advisable to given topics, learning tasks and target populations . . . the almost mutual practice is non to utilize a model at all. In which case, it is no wonder that allocation of media has been controlled more past practical economic and human/political factors than by pedagogic considerations (p. 56).

CASCOIME (pronounced cas-coy-mi) advises international distance educators to select media based on Cost, Accessibility, Social-political suitability, Cultural friendliness, Openness/flexibility, Interactivity, Motivational value, and Eastffectiveness. These guidelines may not provide distance educators with easy answers to the problems of media selection in both domestic and international altitude didactics settings, but at least information technology will point us in the correct direction and go us asking the right questions. CASCOIME is a practical solution, a sequoia in a forest of saplings and underbrush. Information technology teaches us what is important, and what upon test, may bear more than fruitful insights into media selection, rather than leave united states of america to toss our hands up in the air and rashly resolve, �Okay, let�s pick the one with pretty pictures!�

Appendix - Media Evaluation Chart

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The following CASCOIME chart (pronounced cas-coy-mi) presents eight attributes/guidelines users tin can consider when evaluating media in an international setting. These attributes are listed in relative order of importance. The �Value� box allows users to increment the importance of key criteria. It is recommended in an international setting that CAS criteria are given �Value� ratings of 3; COI criteria �Value� ratings of 2; and ME criteria �Value� ratings of 1. Although these valuation assignments are somewhat arbitrary, they practise provide a more functional tool than if all criteria were valued equal. A number from i to x should and so be assigned to each criteria in the �Rating� box. The �Score� for the aspect is and then determined by multiplying the �Value� and the �Rating.�

CASCOIME Media Evaluation Nautical chart: 8 Practical Guidelines for Selecting Media in an International Setting
			Media ane		Media 2		Media three
	Factor	Value	Rating	Score	Rating	Score	Rating	Score
1	Cost - Is the medium cost constructive? Tin can it accomplish a wide enough audience? What technology infrastructure is currently available?
two	Accessibility � Is the medium attainable? Does it facilitate distribution? Is information technology user-friendly to use? Is it user-friendly?
three	Social-Political Suitability � Is the medium socially and politically suitable? Does its use coincide with social and political agendas of governing bodies?
4	Cultural Friendliness � Is the medium culturally advisable? Does information technology coincide with the culture�s traditional style of learning?
v	Openness/Flexibility � Is the medium flexible? Does information technology foster collaboration? Does it foster different ways of education?
6	Interactivity - Is the medium interactive? Does information technology promote learner-learner and learner-instructor interaction? Does it facilitate timely and quality feedback from instructors and tutors?
7	Motivational Value - Is the medium motivating? Does it encourage learners to study harder and longer?
8	Effectiveness - Is the medium effective? Does information technology assist students learn content faster (i.e., more efficiently)?
	Total SCORE

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