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The effectiveness of multimedia technology aids in transferring business knowledge
DISSERTATION

, University of Kentucky, United States

University of Kentucky . Awarded

Abstract

In a knowledge economy, corporations find it very important to have an educated workforce. To meet this demand, a primary goal of higher education is to effectively transfer knowledge to students. In order to improve teaching performance, multimedia technologies are being used increasingly to aid teaching. While the potential of multimedia for improving learning outcomes is obvious, not much research has investigated this issue systematically, especially for business-knowledge transfer settings. Thus, research is needed to deepen the understanding of the effectiveness of multimedia-aided teaching, especially for business-knowledge transfer.

The objective of this dissertation research is to conduct a series of experiments and investigate in what situation and to what extent multimedia-aided teaching enhances the transfer of business knowledge. Using dual-coding theory, research on human attention-seeking behavior, and cognitive-fit theory, this study develops a research framework and establishes hypotheses to systematically test the effects of multimedia instruction on learning outcomes. In this study, multimedia is stratified into three levels: level-1: pure-text (no multimedia); level-2: text + graph (low level multimedia); level-3: text + graph + animation (high level multimedia).

A pilot study was conducted in summer 2004, and then two actual experiments were done in spring and fall of 2005. The subjects of this experimental study were business school students. Data analysis results indicate that the use of high-level multimedia leads to improved learning outcomes compared with the use of no multimedia. So dual-coding theory and attention-related findings are supported in this situation. Also supported by data analysis is that multimedia instruction is more effective in improving learning performance for quantitative-modeling learning tasks than for business conceptual-knowledge learning tasks. Thus cognitive-fit theory is supported in the business-knowledge teaching field. The findings are unique because they are based on three theories that have not been used in the business-knowledge teaching context, and it is uncommon that individual differences (e.g., graph preference) are used as control variables. This research also offers an empirical base for better considering multimedia instruction design.

Citation

Li, P. The effectiveness of multimedia technology aids in transferring business knowledge. Ph.D. thesis, University of Kentucky. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from .

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

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