Using distance education to teach introductory multimedia design and production

An introductory course in the use of multimedia techniques for technical communication was designed and presented as a distance education course. The software application PowerPoint and several readily available HTML editors were used by students to create electronic presentations and Web sites that employed sound, animation, film, as well as a variety of graphics and text messages to achieve specific communication objectives. Students used a messaging application, First Class, and the Internet to get assignments, learn about multimedia, discuss their experiences and problems, communicate with their instructor and showcase and critique their own multimedia projects.