Because the program stores video in a digital format on a hard disk, access and playback of any video segment is almost instantaneous. Simple summary statistics are also available. Next the paper reports on how this product has been used to precisely categorise how students use a multimedia product. The allocation of time to different student activities in formal university settings, has been a subject of interest to researchers in recent years. For example, in a study of the distribution of time devoted to a variety of learning activities, Laurillard found that 'attending' was by far the most common activity.
Children react rather than consider.
For many of these programs, the educational value for the player is inversely proportional to the reaction time required . The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt make the point that the learning environments they produce are meant to be explored and discussed at length rather than simply read or watched. In this vein, a program on assessment in mathematics was produced according to principles of situated learning or situated cognition . The program was designed to minimise students' keyboard responses, and maximise thoughtful, active reflection and discussion between the users. As part of an interpretive study into how students use interactive multimedia, small groups of students were videotaped using the assessment resource.