Many companies already have sources of movies and voice they would like to integrate with a course. You can integrate many types of multimedia into a web course. Here are some of our recommendations for deploying multimedia:
Audio is a multimedia element that should be carefully used in most business settings.
If employees are located in open (cubicle) environments, audio should be avoided. (Employees in nearby areas will be distracted.)
- If you decide to deploy audio, you should not make it an integral part of the course. Many business people either do not have the equipment to hear audio at work, or are barred from using audio by corporate policy.
- Video - Streaming video is a technology similar to TV where the video is sent over the Internet or your company's Intranet.
- Videos are an excellent tool to visually explain a specific task or how a specific task works.
- Video needs large bandwidth (high speed data transfer lines) to be received by a student in a reasonable amount of time.
- Most videos over the Internet come across choppy and fuzzy.
- We recommend that you turn your videos into Flash files. Flash is supported across most browsers while video formats like mpeg is not.
- It is best to break movies into short (1 to 3 minute) segments.
Tip The goal is to provide students with quality easy-to-use training material. Don't get caught up in the "flash" of multimedia. Use multimedia prudently to make the course more effective.
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