Easy Ed: An Integration of Technologies for Multimedia Education

The accessibility of the World Wide Web and its flexibility for conveying digital information in various forms makes it a convenient mode of communication for education. In this paper with the help of a distance learning application called “Easy Ed,” we demonstrate how these properties of the World Wide Web along with a data model can be used to provide a classroom environment on the Internet. Easy Ed provides a rich medium for education that is achieved by integrating information across the different media types (text, video, audio, and graphics) in hyper-media form. Metadata conforming to the data model about different media types is stored in a relational database, which not only facilitates authoring but also makes it possible to reuse existing instructional material. Another unique concept of Easy Ed is the dynamic repurposing of content at the time of access. Dynamic information generation helps to customize information according to a user’s level of comprehension, the information medium, and hardware compatibility.