Annotated Bibliography

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Title: Annotated Bibliography of the Potential for Multimedia Integration When Considering the Development of Higher Education Curriculum Learning Contexts and Resources

Authors: Puneet Malik*, Karan Singh*, Jung-Lynn Jonathan Yang, Verena Roberts
*These authors contributed equally.

Introduction

This report documents research and related materials about the integration of multimedia in learning contexts to guide future work in the field. It provides an overview of the literature that covers some of the key themes in multimedia integration in educational contexts.

Background

Our review and search of the literature resulted in 61 sources, which we organized into seven categories:

1. The Power of Multimedia Learning
2. Data Visualization
3. Interactive H5P in Education
4. Interactive Videos
5. Universal Design for Learning
6. Podcasting
7. Images

Origins and Purpose of This Report

The intention of this report was to provide a “why and how to use multimedia resource” overview for developers participating in any curriculum development projects within Thompson Rivers University (TRU), Open Learning. The report was written by Puneet Malik and Karan Singh (TRU students), Dr. Jung-Lynn Jonathan Yang (TRU, OL Course Developer), and Dr. Verena Roberts (TRU, OL Instructional Designer). The report was edited by Kaitlyn Meyers (TRU, Open Press).

The integration of multimedia is becoming more prevalent in course development and design. Key considerations include the intention behind the integration and inclusion of the multimedia and how the integration will enhance and expand upon student understanding of content and not detract from it. The research considers a wide selection of distinct categories of multimedia based on context. The majority of the literature connects to one foundational resource: Mayer and Fiorella’s The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Mayer & Fiorella, 2021).

Methodology

This report is an annotated bibliography that surveys the current literature about the implementation of multimedia in instructional materials.

Intended Audience

This report is for Open Learning course developers and instructional designers at Thompson Rivers University. Nonetheless, anyone with an interest in education may benefit from the knowledge compiled in this annotated bibliography.

Research Questions

Two research questions guided this literature review:

1. What scholarly, research, and professional literature highlights when and how multimedia can and should be integrated into curriculum? 
2. What major themes emerge from scholarly and research literature about the integration of multimedia when developing courses?

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

We used a search term strategy that included

1. Multimedia use in higher education
2. Types of multimedia used in higher education
3. Why/how multimedia is used for learning in higher education

Inclusion Criteria

We conducted a search for high-quality, publicly available sources including:

1. Peer-reviewed journal articles
2. Conference papers (peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed)
3. Books and book chapters
4. Reports
5. Blogs and social media posts

Exclusion Criteria

We included two exclusion criteria for our study:  

1. Exclusion of non-scholarly sources with no opportunity for peer feedback
2. Literature that described the step-by-step of “how” to make a specific multimedia artifact without explaining why it was being made

Typology of Evidence

We used the typologies of evidence framework using research questions described by Petticrew & Roberts (2006) to help guide the literature review.

We considered searching for literature that included the following focus areas:

1. Experimental studies
2. Quantitative studies
3. Qualitative studies
4. Mixed methods studies
5. Literature reviews

Search Method

We conducted a search of sources available electronically through the TRU Library and the University of Calgary Library.

Limitations

We were limited by which research repositories we had access to. We also wanted to ensure that we chose more recent articles, so we tried to ensure we limited our search to the last 10 years.

Annotated Bibliography

The following summary is separated into key themes. There is an overview and summary of each of the key themes at the beginning. Then, there is a collection of annotated summaries of the literature.

1. The Power of Multimedia Learning
2. Data Visualization
3. Interactive H5P in Education
4. Interactive Videos
5. Universal Design for Learning
6. Podcasting
7. Images