A classification scheme for multimedia interaction is described based on the degree of control and type of cognitive engagement experienced by learners in prescriptive, democratic, and cybernetic independent learning environments. Reactive, proactive, and mutual levels of interaction and their associated functions and transactions are discussed.…

Central Queensland University in Australia has developed an orientation program to introduce first-year university students to interactive teaching technologies. The program, called Passport to Flexible Learning, was organized in the form of workshops that run concurrently over a 5-day period during the university's orientation week. During the…

Trends in pedagogy and in technology are converging to make distance learning environments of the 21st century. Trends in pedagogy have encouraged the movement away from the learner as a passive recipient of information and toward a more active model of learning. Earlier generations of distance learning media and methods were ill-suited to the…