Understanding Intention to Use Multimedia Information Systems for Learning

Abstract

The challenge today for educators interested in online teaching and learning is how to create, use and assess multimedia technologies for enhanced learning. Unlike hypertext and web-based instruction, the reliance on reading blocks of text is minimized. There still remains little evidence supporting multimedia to enhance learning. From the author’s perspectives, the challenge is to better understand the processes involved in developing effective multimedia tools and to establish appropriate assessment methodologies that may be used to guide standards and ‘good educational multimedia design practice’. This paper aims at sharing the author’s experiences with the development of a multimedia tool and its assessment. A multimedia learning system (MMLS) is presented and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used to explain user acceptance. We investigate and discuss the TAM results involving a different technology used in a different context. As an initial attempt to understand students’ beliefs, perceptions, attitudes and intentions (and their inter-relationships) our results show that TAM performs well in explaining them.