Multimedia technologies used to enhance the learning experience
1.Multimedia environments provided significant benefits for teaching and learning in open and distance learning (ODL) universities. From your experience as an ODL learner, suggest any TWO (2) multimedia technology that you would like Open University Malaysia to adopt that will enhance your learning experience in Open University Malaysia. Are there any aspects of learning that technology cannot replace? Justify your answer.
2.Online shopping is one of the multimedia applications that have become a part of our life. You are required to compare the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping as you see them. What impact does online shopping have on traditional stores and shopping malls? Justify your answer.
The use of multimedia technologies helps in providing several kind of opportunities for the creation of several form of environments of learning. These uses of the technologies would be able to extend the old form of technologies such as blackboards and books and thus replace them with the offering of new form of possibilities (Feng, Siu & Zhang, 2013). The use of inappropriate form of multimedia based technologies could be a factor of hindrance for the purpose of learning.
The main aspects of the multimedia technology that should be adopted by Open University Malaysia in order to enhance the learning experience are:
The multimedia systems are able to translate the media data into a form of standard streams of structured code that would allow the operations of data management (Steinmetz & Nahrstedt, 2013). This would include the exchange, analytical based processing, transmission, storage, recombination and a great control over the interaction. The multimedia technology has the great feature of interactivity that would normally refer to the processing and the integration of the several fragments of information. This would help in enabling the teachers to display real-time media such as image, text and audio (Babiker & Elmagzoub, 2015). In this process, there would be a less requirement of the time of teaching as compared to the traditional methods of teaching.
The multimedia technology would be very much helpful for teachers to integrate the content of the courses into multi-sensory representation with the help of various types of digital media (Hoffman & Ralph, 2013). This would also stimulate the sense organs of the student and would thus draw their attention to synchronize the video and audio. The use of multisensory resources within the multimedia technology would be helpful in providing the student with different kinds of learning materials, which would enhance the engagement and the retaining of the content of their learning courses. This would help in elevating the efficiency of teaching and the effectiveness of the instruction within the classroom.
Advantages of online shopping
There are many aspects of learning that cannot be replaced by technology. Although technology has been a major boom for the teaching sector. One of the aspect that would be never be replaced is the relationship and the bond between teachers and students, which has grown over the years.
Technology has certainly transformed the form of education in which the students would gain knowledge but still it cannot be a form of replacement for the teachers. Highly qualified teachers help in creating a good environment within the classroom, which is highly necessary for motivating the students and thus lead them towards their path of achieving success. The new generation of the students love the use of the technology in order to connect with their teachers. In order to connect with the students, the teacher would have to connect with the students in a physical form and thus would have to explore upon innovative ways of engaging the students. Technology will undoubtedly play a major role in achieving the purpose of the teachers. The use of technology has a major potential for the purpose of upgrading the recent educational system (Lim et al., 2013).
There is no such software or machine or artificial intelligence software, which can take care about the needs of the student and create an interaction within the classroom in a way that the teachers would be able to teach their students. Apart from the use of advanced form of technology, teachers would always be necessary within the classrooms for the internal development of the children.
However, the teachers should be extremely careful when they have to choose the right form of software within the classrooms. They should also take certain matter into consideration such as curriculum quality, privacy of the data and the right form of software, which would be able to interact or react mechanically with the students.
Online shopping could be done as one of the popular methods in order to make purchases. This option has become the most viable option of purchasing any kind of product as it allows the customer to purchase almost everything with the click of the mouse. The impact of online shopping is such that they would offer a wide range of services and products. It also allows the buyer to purchase airline tickets, clothing items and even grocery items (Dai, Forsythe & Kwon, 2014). There are many websites such as ebay.com, amazon.com that have become popularised as the forms of e-commerce sites. The comparison of the advantages and the disadvantages of the online method of shopping are:
Disadvantages of online shopping
The advantages of online shopping are:
Convenience – With the help of the online form of shopping, the buyers would be able to purchase their products by sitting at their homes. The online form of shopping has been made much more convenient and easier with the help of the internet.
Ease of Comparison based Shopping – With the help of the online form of shopping, the buyers would be able to compare from several products based on their price, availability and the quality of the products (Hsu, Chuan-Chuan Lin & Chiang, 2013).
Availability of Extensive Product Mix – The ease of the online form of shopping would help in providing much more options than if the buyer would focus on the local markets. The buyers would have to make decisions about the right kind of items from the online based stores.
Saving of Time – Online shopping would be quite helpful for the customers as they would be able to save their considerable amount of time. This would help them to save their time by going to the physical store.
Online Tracking – The buyers would be able to track the status of their ordered items. They can also track the status of their delivery. They would also be able to know the exact timing of the delivery of their products.
Saving of Money – In order to attract a wide number of customers, different marketers would offer several form of discounts to their customers. The retailers are often able to sell their products by providing attractive offers due to the elimination of real-estate cost and maintenance.
The disadvantages of online shopping are:
Delay in Delivery – The lack of a proper kind of inventory management and long duration of deliveries would often result in the shipment related delays. Though the process of selecting a product and ordering would take only a few minutes, but the product delivery would take few weeks. This might create a bad impression on the customer side.
Lack of interactivity – The online shopping would prohibit the user to touch and feel the quality of the product. They have to depend entirely on the reviews of the buyers who had purchased the product previously. The physical stores would offer the facility if negotiation with the seller whereas in the online stores the customers would not be able to get the facility of negotiation (Al-Debei, Akroush & Ashouri, 2015).
In the recent years, it has been seen that the traditional market has been hugely hit with the rise in the practice of online shopping. The developers of the malls are experiencing tough times as nowadays people are more attracted towards the online shopping. The margin of profit and the turnover has decreased within the recent past years. The retail stores are much engaged within services to satisfy the needs of the customer. In order to deal with the effect of online shopping, it would be recommended for the retail stores to change their business pattern and thus face the online competitive field. They should also adapt to the changes within the marketing strategy while focusing on the growth of their business (Kim, Suh & Lee, 2013).
References
Al-Debei, M. M., Akroush, M. N., & Ashouri, M. I. (2015). Consumer attitudes towards online shopping: the effects of trust, perceived benefits, and perceived web quality. Internet Research, 25(5), 707-733.
Babiker, M., & Elmagzoub, A. (2015). For Effective Use of Multimedia in Education, Teachers Must Develop Their Own Educational Multimedia Applications. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 14(4), 62-68.
Dai, B., Forsythe, S., & Kwon, W. S. (2014). The impact of online shopping experience on risk perceptions and online purchase intentions: does product category matter?. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 15(1), 13.
Feng, D., Siu, W. C., & Zhang, H. J. (Eds.). (2013). Multimedia information retrieval and management: Technological fundamentals and applications. Springer Science & Business Media.
Hoffman, P., & Ralph, M. A. L. (2013). Shapes, scents and sounds: quantifying the full multi-sensory basis of conceptual knowledge. Neuropsychologia, 51(1), 14-25.
Hsu, C. L., Chuan-Chuan Lin, J., & Chiang, H. S. (2013). The effects of blogger recommendations on customers’ online shopping intentions. Internet Research, 23(1), 69-88.
Jiang, L., Yang, Z., & Jun, M. (2013). Measuring consumer perceptions of online shopping convenience. Journal of Service Management, 24(2), 191-214.
Kim, H., Suh, K. S., & Lee, U. K. (2013). Effects of collaborative online shopping on shopping experience through social and relational perspectives. Information & Management, 50(4), 169-180.
Lim, C. P., Zhao, Y., Tondeur, J., Chai, C. S., & Chin-Chung, T. (2013). Bridging the gap: Technology trends and use of technology in schools. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(2).
Steinmetz, R., & Nahrstedt, K. (2013). Multimedia systems. Springer Science & Business Media