Cognitive Skill and Web-Based Educational Systems

Can Web-based educational systems (WBES) really facilitate cognitive skill development? It would appear from the common rhetoric that learning occurs as a somewhat automatic process through interactive multimedia. Moreover, it is taken for granted that a collaborative approach to life-long learning and knowledge transfer is a guaranteed WBES outcome. An examination of current multimedia courseware reveals the opposite is true. This is where effective learning management systems (LMS) can make all the difference. To this end there have been a number of developments towards identifying the management of collaborative instructional environments (Bhattacharya 2000). However, if we want to sustain the momentum towards achieving positive outcomes from interactive multimedia in a shared knowledge/experiential learning network (Sims 2000), we must first understand more about how to manage an individual's capacity to access information through human-computer interaction (HCI) (Preece 1994). Once we understand more about the HCI phenomenon and learn how to manage the so called e- Learning environment successfully, we may be in a position to claim that interactive-context-mediated learning has arrived (von Wodtke 1993). This paper discusses how the perspective of instructional design, where first principles take a fine grained approach to identify how the learning/instructional context is affected by multimedia. To assist with this, a Meta-Knowledge Processing Model is proposed as a courseware designing tool which identifies the major variables involved in an interactive multimedia learning environment. Because multimodal instructional materials tap into an individual's spatial ability, several controversial issues, relating to cognitive skill acquisition within a WBES, will be exposed. The paper commences by defining some of the problems facing courseware designers; providing a revision of instructional design terminology as a strategic methodology for understanding the complexity involved in bringing the best from the traditional pedagogy into the technological arena. It then discusses some of the operational principles of WBES environments. This is followed by an outline of expected or measurable outcomes. Conditions and limitations are outlined before the final section which addresses the realization that technological solutions will not always be the critical method to achieve desirable instructional outcomes. In closing, this paper will show how current progress points towards the future, revealing that much more work is needed to unlock the mysteries that surround multimodal instructional strategy development.