Interactive multimedia animation with Macromedia Flash in Descriptive Geometry teaching

www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu

Computers & Education 49 (2007) 615–639

Interactive multimedia animation with Macromedia Flashin Descriptive Geometry teaching

Ramon Rubio Garcıa *, Javier Suarez Quiros, Ramon Gallego Santos,Santiago Martın Gonzalez, Samuel Moran Fernanz

Department of Construccion e Ingenierıa de Fabricacion, Area de Expresion Grafica en la Ingenierıa,

Universidad of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain

Received 3 August 2005; received in revised form 4 October 2005; accepted 7 November 2005

Abstract

The growing concern of teachers to improve their theoretical classes together with the revolution in con-tent and methods brought about by the New Information Technologies combine to offer students a newmore attractive, efficient and agreeable form of learning.

The case of Descriptive Geometry (DG) is particularly special, since the main purpose of this subject isnot only to provide students with theoretical knowledge of Geometry and Drawing, but also to enhancetheir spatial perception, one of the seven forms of intelligence and the most essential and vital one inthe training of any engineer, but one which has not been sufficiently fomented in pre-university or universityeducation during recent years.

With these premises, and with the aim of accelerating the students� learning process, animations weredeveloped that permit the interactive observation by the students of the most important topics of Descrip-tive Geometry.

The software used in the development of the animations is Macromedia Flash; a tool that allows verysmall vectorial graphics files to be created, thus facilitating their electronic transmission to any user con-nected to the network.� 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Innovative learning; Macromedia Flash; Multimedia animation; Descriptive Geometry

0360-1315/$ - see front matter � 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2005.11.005

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 984 29 75 87.E-mail address: [email protected] (R.R. Garcıa).

mailto:[email protected]

616 R.R. Garcıa et al. / Computers & Education 49 (2007) 615–639

1. Introduction

Descriptive Geometry (DG) is the branch of Geometry that studies the representation of three-dimensional objects on a plane, using systems based on the concept of projecting a point on a planein order to reduce the three spatial dimensions to the two dimensions of the plane. At present, thebasic content of DG is taught in the last years of pre-university education and in practically allbranches of Engineering; it is of vital importance in Design, Mechanical and Civil Engineering.

DG teaching methodology has developed greatly in recent years thanks to the technologicalrevolution brought about by the introduction of new multimedia resources into the classroomswhere theory is taught.

This paper aims to demonstrate the impact on DG teaching produced by the use of animations.The main body of the paper is divided into three sections: the first section presents a series ofbackground concepts, touching on the way DG subjects are taught, what is taught and whatshould be taught. The next section considers the contribution of new technologies to educationand the potential role of multimedia animations.

Although computers are already used as a tool for teaching theory in most educational centres,teachers have not correctly analysed the content that needs to be fed into the computer and simplyproject the same content that was previously studied on paper. The problem of correctly designingeducational content for any multimedia resource is the order of the day, as we shall see in Section2. To mitigate this difficulty, the animations will be created using the Flash application, whichfacilitates the creation of attractive and instructive animations.

The advantages and disadvantages of this Macromedia software will also be analysed from atechnical and educational point of view.

Section 3 compares the traditional teaching method with a Flash animation created to teach theconcept of folding in DG. Finally, Section 4 analyses, from a theoretical and practical point ofview, the results of an experiment in which a group of 50 students used animations related to geo-metrical concepts. The conclusions drawn from the analysis made in this document aim, first, toencourage teachers to use new technologies in the creation of animations, as the success of thismethodology is guaranteed and second, to support and complete the bases for the constructionof multimedia materials.

2. Background

2.1. Traditional teaching–learning of Descriptive Geometry

How is DG learnt? Traditionally, like most technical subjects, DG and Drawing generally arelearnt through practice. Our teachers and our teachers� teachers acquired their knowledge ofDG by doing numerous exercises on each of the subjects using traditional drawing tools (pencil,set square, triangle, ruler, compass. . . and paper).

The appearance of computers in recent years started a very interesting debate in forums, con-gresses and corridors on the use of computers versus pencils for the study of Descriptive Geom-etry (Rubio, 2003). The evolution that computer systems have brought to the technical branchesof Drawing: speed, realism, storage capacity, accuracy and precision, is beyond all question. And

R.R. Garcıa et al. / Computers & Education 49 (2007) 615–639 617

applications, such as CAD, are improving daily and are even being adapted for educational use,to facilitate the study of Geometry and Visualization Systems.

But in contrast to this, some people remain unshakeable in the belief that computers will neversubstitute pencils, since they do not have their versatility nor their availability and must only beused as a tool or means for facilitating a process, but never as an end, in Technical Drawing(Rubio, 2003).

How is Descriptive Geometry taught? The methodology used by most teachers to impart theirknowledge is the traditional lecture. In their lectures, teachers use the blackboard to developthe theory and analyse the steps to be followed to solve the exercises (Fig. 1). Many of them alsouse overhead projectors and slides, and a few use laptop computers in their theory classes (Rubio,Suarez, Gallego, & Cueto, 2003a; Rubio, Suarez, Gallego, & Cueto, 2003b).

In a study carried out by our research team with a group of 50 students with two years� expe-rience in drawing subjects, we were able to observe their opinions on these means of communica-tion as a way of acquiring information and knowledge.

Among many other questions, we were interested in learning which means of communicationwere preferred by the students. Possible answers included: the blackboard, overhead projectoror laptop computer + projector. We were also interested in the students� description of the advan-tages and disadvantages of each of them.

Fig. 1. Intersection of two prisms.


The results reveal that the combination of laptop computer and projector is the preferred meansfor classroom teaching, followed by the blackboard, with slides coming last (Fig. 2). A large num-ber of students prefer the combination of blackboard and laptop computer or even the combina-tion of the three options.

The different and diverse reasons put forward by students when assessing the teaching optionscan be grouped in series of three (Table 1). Reading between the lines two basic ideas stand out:

� They demand a logical and clear structure of the subject to be explained. The weak point of pre-sentations made using a laptop, as regards the explanations given by the teacher, is the students�lack of understanding of the methodical construction of the exercises, i.e., although they can seethe exercise done step-by-step in multimedia presentations, they consider that it is too quick forthem to be able to take notes at the same time or to draw the same exercise. On the contrary,

Fig. 2. Student�s preferences related with educational media.

Table 1Points for and against the various means of communication

For Against

Laptop computer � Visibility� Dynamism� Animations

� Methodology� Correction� Conditions

Blackboard � Methodology� Clarifications� Freedom

� Vague� Slow� Time

Slides � Clarity� Speed� Notes

� Difficulty� Method� Boring


with blackboard-based explanations they do find this step-by-step construction and this,together with the freedom that this method affords the teacher to solve any spontaneous doubtor to make timely clarifications, and his ability to improvise, are the strong points of thetraditional methodology using chalk, blackboard and eraser. However, and although it mayseem contradictory, most students consider that each teacher tracing his drawings on the black-board takes up an excessive amount of teaching time, since making a complex drawing on theblackboard can consume a large part of the time that a teacher dedicates to his class: Further-more, the lack of practice in drawing on vertical planes means that the results are not of a veryhigh quality, leading to errors in the students� notes.� They are pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and dynamism provided by laptop computers,

since they had never before seen animations created by multimedia programmes in their theoryclasses, nor had they discovered the degree of dynamism and the clarity with which any contentcan be presented using a projection system. Presentations with slides have the same disadvan-tages as the laptop computer while lacking its dynamism and animations.

After analysing the most common technical means currently used in teaching, we asked the fol-lowing question: Is drawing a knowledge that needs to be transmitted? All subjects that a studenthas to study during his/her course are related, to a greater or lesser degree, with one of the intel-ligences in our brain (linguistics, logical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, inter-personal andintra-personal) (Gonzalez-Pienda, 2003). Specifically, it has been shown that students with ahigher capacity for spatial perception achieve better results in subjects related to Technical Draw-ing (Rubio, 2003), which highlights the importance of this innate characteristic in the assessmentof Drawing. However, it has also been demonstrated that students who practice exercises todevelop their spatial perception (even one who listens to Mozart�s sonatas) may increase theirvisual capacity and get to understand visualization exercises that they could not understandbefore.

How should Descriptive Geometry be taught? We should check whether the current DG teach-ing–learning technologies are the most adequate for the students. For this purpose it is first nec-essary to establish a final and specific learning target, one that is well defined and possible for thestudents to achieve, in order to subsequently analyse which technical means will help us to attainthe target in the shortest possible time and with the highest degree or level of understanding andretention. The target usually set for the students is the solution of exercises involving the intersec-tion of simple three-dimensional bodies (cylinders, prisms, tetrahedrons, spheres, pyramids) witha certain level of visual complexity.

This type of target is very common in DG teaching; as can be seen from the way the subjectmatter is structured in the DG teaching books and DG subjects at university.

The teaching means used to achieve this target are based on solving exercises of graduallyincreasing difficulty, the conceptual basis of which is a pyramid-type structure, where each newconcept is based on another one previously studied, and implies an ever greater mental and espe-cially visual effort. In other words, these methods are designed to educate, increase and developthe individual�s spatial perception (Mohler, 2001; Putz, 2001).

Spatial perception is one of the seven types of intelligence included in the mechanical-spa-tial skills of the students, and is of fundamental importance for mastering the three dimen-sions, volume and space–time (Gonzalez-Pienda, 2003). Therefore, this is the most important


kind of intelligence for an engineer (Mohler, 2001); in spite of its importance it is only devel-oped in subjects that involve working with the three spatial dimensions, as in the case of DG.Therefore, it may be that the aim of the subjects related to DG should be to foment this typeof intelligence. In order to achieve this and enhance the students� spatial perception, it is nec-essary to use not only the traditional methods of systematic repetition of well-programmedand structured exercises, but also the new technologies. The development of the students�mental capacity will greatly facilitate the solution of spatial problems quite different fromthose set in the classroom, and ones that the future engineer will encounter during his work-ing life.

2.2. New technologies in descriptive geometry teaching

The University sector has played a very important role in the development of new technologies;however, it does not teach what it discovers with the same speed. If, for example, we consider theuse of computers during the last decades (Lee, Winkler, & Smith, 1996; Rickman, Todd, Verbick,& Miller, 2003), we can observe that

� In the 70s: The computer enters the University. Universities have common rooms with worksta-tions that allow communication with other Universities. It is used as a means of communica-tion and programming.� In the 80s: The computer enters practical classes. The Departments have the first classrooms

where students may practise. The computer forms part of the students� weekly work.� In the 90s–present time: The computer enters the classroom. This is the first time that computers

are taken into the classrooms where theory is taught. The reduction in the price of laptop com-puters is partly responsible for their presence in the classroom.

Since that time, many teachers have become aware of the usefulness that these new technologiesmay have for their lectures (Balci, Gilley, Adams, Tunar, & Barnette, 2001) apart from their tra-ditional use in the practical classes. But trying to be on the cutting edge of technological knowl-edge has a high price for the teaching staff, as they have to dedicate many hours to personaltraining in new technologies.

In this regard, teacher training is an essential aspect of the new education for the XXI century,as a command of computer technology is ever more indispensable not only as regards its content,but also its use as a teaching tool. This requires knowledge of both the available hardware and theuse of the latest software.

DG does not escape from the enormous progress made in information technologies (Lieu, 1999;Toledo & Martinez, 2000) and many authors highlight the importance of multimedia software inthe development of spatial perception, and even warn of the educational danger that the failure touse it may cause. To quote Bertoline (Bertoline, Burton, & Wiley, 1992):

‘‘If students are not given an opportunity to develop and enhance their spatial abilities througheducational experiences using the latest technologies such as interactive multimedia or web-based resources, they may abandon their quest to become engineers or fail to achieve their fullpotential as practicing engineers.’’


It is for this reason that teachers of engineering and not only those teaching DG should tryto use web technologies, test applications or multimedia animations in order to verify theirvalidity, capacity and efficacy: they should also create and develop educational materials assoon as possible (Medeiros, 1998; Rubio et al., 2003a, 2003b; Syrjakow, Berbux, & Szczerbi-cka, 2000).

A great number of experiments have been made in recent years aimed at improving training inthe use of visualization systems, and specifically in DG. Among these experiments the followingwere carried out in Spain (Alvarez, 2003):

� Innovations in the teaching of graphic expression in technical education through interactive com-puter-aided drafting (Politechnical University of Madrid). This is basically a tool for drawingand self-assessment. Initially, the intention was to carry out the experiment on a teaching unitof Geometrical Drawing, but the success achieved encouraged the authors to extend its appli-cation to the various Visualization Systems and Technical Drawing.� Dihedral multimedia: bases of the system (University of Cantabria). It comprises two indepen-

dent programmes that present the information using field animations and graphics.� Self-assessment system for DG (Politechnical University of Madrid). This is an interactive com-

puter application based on a teach-yourself DG programme developed by ETSIIM.� AIMEC-DT: (University of Oviedo). The initials stand for integrated application in a multime-

dia environment for computer-aided teaching of Technical Drawing. This application coversfour basic areas of Technical Drawing: DG, Geometry, Views and CAD.

These, together with innumerable international experiments (Agogino & His, 1994; Brakhage,1990; Braviano, 1998; Lipmann & Lieu, 1994; Rais-Rohani & Young, 1996), warn of the dangerof using new educational materials without a prior analysis of the content and software; i.e., theycould be considered just as a new blackboard accessible to many people, unless consideration isgiven to the new possibilities they offer or to the fact that methodologies valid in a environmentwhere the students are physically present may not be valid in a virtual or remote environment.Orozco (Orozco, 2000) warns us about the risk:

‘‘However it is not the CIT that modify the teaching and learning processes but the way thatthese are used and the methodologies with which they are employed. Therefore, an effort mustbe made to promote new methods with the CIT, new forms of communication and teaching andto avoid the reproduction of old methods (explanation, notes, study, and examination).’’

In general, when faced with new technologies we all tend to think within the framework of ref-erence with which we are most familiar. In other words, the technology is incorporated withoutprior and critical thought and magical changes are expected from its mere existence. It is, indeed,true that the use of new technologies plays a psychological role (Sanz, 1999): when people learnthrough experiencing different situations, they key up all their senses seeking to understand whathappened (Medeiros, 1998). It is precisely this search that activates their attention in a way notachieved in more predictable situations. University teaching (Rubio et al., 2003a, 2003b) shouldseek new tactics that involve a quest, suspense. New situations have to be created in the classroomto surprise the students; they must be always alert, with all their five senses eagerly focused onwhat may happen in the classroom.


2.3. Animations in education

The results of the survey mentioned previously carried out by students on their preferenceswhen receiving classes of theory, repeatedly show their liking for the many animations displayedthrough the laptop computer to explain some theoretical concepts connected with TechnicalDrawing. In contrast to the static images and long texts that make up the most common technicalbooks on DG, multimedia in the classroom appears as a combination of text, animated graphics,sound and video in a computer controlled by the teacher. The success of this combination (Lieu,1999; Mohler, 2001) is shown by the fact that the students have to use two basic senses for thereception of information: sight and hearing, and, more especially, interactivity.

It has been demonstrated that the people�s retention capacity depends on the senses used tograsp the information, thus, we are able to remember 15% of what we hear and 25% of whatwe see; but we are able to retain 60% of the information if we interact with it (Wolfgram,1994, chaps. 5–8).

Academic staff teaching any type of content, whether technical, games, economic, scientific ormusical should always keep this experiment in mind. Interaction between an individual and theenvironment activates areas of the person�s brain related with experience; this involves storingthe experiences in the long-term memory areas. In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus showed how peo-ple forget what they memorize according to a law of forgetting. This law is graphically representedby a curve (%remembered–time). He was able to demonstrate that those people who learnt infor-mation by dedicating to this purpose only just the time needed to more or less comprehend it,were on the following day able to remember almost as much as other people who after studyingthe information, went over it again and again. It can be seen (Fig. 3) how, depending on the mean-ing or the way in which information is perceived, a different percentage is remembered, whichdecreases with time at a similar speed. The combination of senses produces a sum of the percent-ages retained (Rubio, 2003).

However, the same law that irremediably makes us forget content, also holds a pleasant sur-prise: When the content is revised and a command of the subject is achieved for a second time,some parts that have already been learnt will be lost again, but the gradient of the forgetting

Fig. 3. Ebbinghaus forgetting curves.

Fig. 4. Ebbinghaus forgetting curve with reinforced memorization.


curve it is not as high this time as it was after the first study (Fig. 4). The evolution of this curvehas been proven in numerous experiments, some of them relating to Technical Drawing (Rubio,2003).

The evolution shown in the Ebbinghaus curve with overlearning is intimately related with therole of animations in teaching. We should remember that students control the animations of thistype and, if they have not understood certain parts, they can repeat them as many times as theylike without any loss of quality of the information transmitted. In contrast, when the notes takenduring classes are checked, many of them turn out to be incomplete or contain concepts or steps inthe development of the solution that are incorrectly stated. Hence the knowledge feedback doesnot attain 100%, as it does with animations.

3. E-learning with Macromedia Flash

3.1. Introduction

Today, Internet has established a new model for providing information and services to all usersthroughout the world. Thus, the decision to use web technologies such as HTML, XML, Java andFlash is obvious (Syrjakow et al., 2000). Flash is a commercial application of Macromedia, themain purpose of which is to generate vectorial animations for the web. Many companies haveweb page that include animations created with Macromedia Flash, due mainly to the two mostimportant characteristics of this application: creation of vectorial graphics and interaction ofthe user with the animations.

The introduction of these new technologies is also intended to fill the gap caused by the lack ofequipment in many universities; in this way, processes that would otherwise require very expensiveequipment can be transmitted to the students in virtual form.

Vectorial graphics are easy to use: they store the information in the computers as a series ofdata (in text format) relating to geometrical properties, therefore the files are smaller in size thanin the case of animations generated by overlaid bit-map images, as the latter are stored in the form


of pixel data, without considering the entities or geometrical shapes (just as in the case of tradi-tional films).

We should add that Flash allows the user to interact with the animation being displayed, thusthe user can control the visualization of the film, take decisions, write, press buttons, move, drag,etc.

The contribution made by Flash is clear: animation + interactivity, and we should rememberthat interactivity is the greatest advantage that multimedia contributes to teaching (Lieu, 1999).It is only necessary to select the content correctly and insert them properly in the programme.

In most cases, Flash animations have become teaching aids (Ballanko & Collins, 2002) that arenow common in many courses and universities and, notwithstanding the disadvantages that wewill analyse later, this represents a notable advance in teaching innovation achieved in recentyears.

The latest version of Flash, MX 2004, improves productivity even more, as it can be used toconstruct highly interactive and high-quality materials that work perfectly with wide and narrowband-widths, regardless of the resolution of the monitors (Shank, 2003). It also facilitatesthe transmission of video in the animations, thanks to a new video format specific toMacromedia.

3.2. Design of content

New technologies in teaching have brought new doubts that arise when these technologies are tobe correctly used for teaching. Even though the task of creating a Web page, an interactive image,or a series of links to interesting resources, is today within anyone�s reach, there is a series of criteriathat have to be taken into account in order to create good teaching materials (Lowe, 2001).

The design of efficient educational animations is a challenge, because the information involvedin the animations is complex and there are not yet many studies on student learning throughanimations.

Bardzell (2004) has developed a number of characteristics that good teaching contents shouldcomply with:

� Learning is social.� The learning environment interface should meet standards for usability and accessibility.� Learning outcomes should be diverse and well defined.� Learning content should be contained in high-quality, modular chunks.� Online learning should be an active, not passive, experience.� An online learning environment should facilitate the addition of new content.� Learner assessment and course evaluation should be integrated and ongoing.

Other authors (O. Balci, Gilley, Adams, Tunar & Barnette) highlight four important aspects:

� Providing access to the modules on the web.� Teaching the topics in an interactive, animated manner.� Reusing existing material.� Implementing independent, extendable modules.


More specifically, in the case of multimedia animations, the steps to be followed are (Lowe,1999):

1. Analyse the dynamic situation and its events.2. Select the graphic entities, relationships and properties.3. Establish and sequence main events.4. Devise a presentation sequence.5. Construct a temporal structure.6. Cue the critical information.

It can be seen how some advice is repeated due to its importance in the development of contentThe people or team in charge of generating the multimedia content should take into account thatboth the student and the teacher form, in their respective roles, two feedback circles (Fig. 5).

In the case of teachers, they start with information that they aim to transmit to the student inthe most attractive manner. This type of information probably comes from the vast theoretical–practical data repository of the subject; it has to be filtered in order to eliminate less importantconcepts, exercises and lessons while preserving the key points of each subject or lesson. The fil-tering process can also be extended to the distinction between texts and images. The images willgive us a clue on of how to focus the subsequent visualization, while the text will guide the ‘‘pre-senter’’ or narrator (electronic teacher) in the explanation of the subjects. The following step is to

Fig. 5. Structure of design and learning with multimedia system.


provide these learning objects with multimedia properties (sounds, animations and interactivity)and, finally, they must be made available to the students through computers, via Internet or dis-played in the theory classroom.

The student gathers this information but, in order to convert it into learning, an internal transfor-mation of the content into knowledge (Gonzalez-Pienda, 2003) must take occur. This transformationmay finally depend on the means through which the information is received, especially those thatcompel the student to interact Once the basic concepts are learnt, these become part of the studentknowledge cloud that agglutinates and relates new information with information previouslyacquired. To close the student learning circle, the latter returns to the computer to see the anima-tions again, but this time in a different manner, with acquired concepts and a greater criticaljudgement that leads him to give his opinion on the animation itself, or have doubts on the con-tent that he will comment to the teacher. The teacher will then contrast the doubts, comments orproblems that arise with the information in his data store and thus the cycle begins again (Fig. 5).

In multimedia, there are five ways to format and deliver your message. You can write it, illus-trate it, wiggle it, hear it and interact with it (Wolfgram, 1994). Table 2 gives a series of recom-mendations we should take into account when designing content for our multimediapresentations using these techniques.

However, common sense and putting oneself in the place of the student is the best advice whencreating multimedia presentations. For instance, during one of the courses given by the researchgroup to Oviedo University students in the summer of 2003, called ‘‘Vectorial graphics in multi-media environment with Macromedia Flash’’, a group of students developed a total of 20 educa-tional projects for certain problems related with Geometry (Fig. 6) (http://aegi.euitig.uniovi.es/alumnos.php?a=11&e=q). None of them had previously created educational materials; however,they managed to develop a series of really good Flash animations in a very short time. In all cases,they sought interaction with the user, simplicity of form, striking sounds and explanations withbuttons that allowed all the concepts seen in the animation to be revised.

Table 2Advice for the elaboration of multimedia material

Advice

Scripting � Suit the language to the audience� Create simple sentences

Graphics � Be sure about the relationship between the image and the idea to be transmitted� Create your own drawings, images, diagrams� Use colours with care

Animation � Use video with care due to its hardware requirements� The duration of text movement must not exceed three seconds per line

Audio � Use music to enhance emotion� Sound effects to highlight instants, specific moments� Narration may be the most direct message

Interaction � Use it whenever possible without losing the idea behind the message to be transmitted� Examples: Videoconference, hypermedia, simulations

http://aegi.euitig.uniovi.es/alumnos.php?a=11&e=q

http://aegi.euitig.uniovi.es/alumnos.php?a=11&e=q

Fig. 6. Examples of animations for teaching Geometry created with Macromedia Flash.


3.3. Advantages and disadvantages

The first disadvantage of animations with multimedia content is that the users who want to seethe animations need to install a small ‘‘plug-in’’ programme in their operating system, in order todisplay the animation. The need for this ‘‘plug-in’’ programme arises from the small size of theanimation. As we could create an executable file that would not require such software and wouldbe fully visualizable by the user, what is the problem? The problem lies in the size of the executablefile (Fig. 7).

With the three most common types of animations for use in teaching, generated by Flash: swf,exe and avi, size plays an important role when part of that teaching material is to be transmittedby Internet. For an identical animation, the executable file exe may be 40 times as large, while thesize of an animation in avi format, as well as losing all interactivity, occupies a space inaccessibleon the existing network.

A study carried out by Macromedia in June 2003 shows that 97.4% of the users can see theSWF animations created with Flash (Macromedia, 2003). In our opinion, these findings are exces-

Fig. 7. Relative sizes of animation files.


sively optimistic; but it is true that there is a clear trend towards world-wide use of this plug-in,particularly since Microsoft has included it in its latest operating system, Windows XP.

Another disadvantage of Flash animations is their lack of accessibility when inserted in webpages. For instance, a blind user, even using a screen reader to facilitate access to the navigator,cannot currently access the Flash content in the pages. Thus, as it is not a standard item ofHTML, the possibility must be foreseen that the user cannot interpret it and alternative meansto access the page must be provided (Romero, 2001a, 2001b).

Jacob Nielsen, called by many the guru of usability, is one of the most severe critics of Flashanimations in web pages (Nielsen, 2000, 2002) and although most of the disadvantages he findsin the animations are related with navigation, as for example that the ‘‘back’’ button does notwork, the link colours do not provide information, it reduces accessibility for handicapped people,‘‘find page’’ does not work, etc., which, in principle, do not imply criticism of the animations asdevices for transmitting information in the classroom (teachers may have downloaded the anima-tions to their lap top computers), it is true that the freedom offered by Macromedia for the gen-eration of animations means that each user may create his own style of GUI controls, as forexample the scrollbars. It is very probable that the design of these controls does not have the rig-our or the study that has been dedicated to the operating systems of Windows and Macintosh,and even if they work, they will, in any case, reduce the effective capacity, as the users will haveto learn how to handle an unfamiliar component.

A priori, the use of Flash offers advantages and disadvantages typical of any commercial soft-ware. In any case, what is important is to employ it properly (Romero, 2001a, 2001b) to enrich theuser�s experience, and when that is the case, good teaching animations are created.

4. Traditional teaching vs. Flash animation

We are now going to consider one of the problems most frequently repeated in the final eval-uation of Graphic expression and DAO, a first year subject at the University School of Industrial


Technical Engineering of Gijon and try to compare the traditional solution of the exercise (Rodri-guez de Abajo, 1992) with the Flash animation.

‘‘Assuming any plane on which there is a circumference with radius R, the centre of which ispoint O. Find the projections of this circumference from its true shape, i.e., knowing the centreand the radius R.’’

This is a conceptually complex exercise as it adds the issue of homological affinity to the solu-tion of the problems of folding. The solution to the exercise is obtained through a series of stepsthat finalize with the display of the vertical and horizontal projections of the circumference(Fig. 8).

The problems that arise in a lecture when explaining this exercise are (Rubio et al., 2003a,2003b):

Fig. 8. Construction of the ‘‘True Magnitude’’ exercise on paper.


1. The construction of the exercise takes a long time (it should not be done in separate parts),and the students must not let their concentration slacken at any moment, as they risk omit-ting a specific step and losing track of the construction process, which would mean that theywould not be able to correctly complete their notes.

2. The student has to copy all the steps that the teacher is drawing as well as note down theconstruction methodology, since, as can be seen in Fig. 8, if the construction methodologyis missing, it is quite difficult to discover the way to reach the solution intuitively.

3. The teacher must strictly control the duration of the explanation since the exercise must becomplete by the end of the lecture.

The size of the file generated by Flash to show the construction of this exercise is 50 Kb; thisallows most users to download it from Internet into their computer in less than five seconds.

The True Magnitude lesson is shown on a very simple interface divided into four parts (Fig. 9)(for a better view: http://aegi.euitig.uniovi.es/ficheros/11q/mul/Abatimientos%20FLASH.swf).

� Spatial view: This part presents the problem in three dimensions as well as the successive stepsthat need to be followed to solve it.

Fig. 9. Interface of the .swf file showing the ‘‘True Magnitude’’.

http://aegi.euitig.uniovi.es/ficheros/11q/mul/Abatimientos%20FLASH.swf

Fig. 10. Final result of the exercise shown in Flash.


� Dihedral system: As each step of the solution is displayed in the spatial view, this screen showsthe same information as it appears in DG.� Presenter: The puppet comments on each of the steps carried out, and indicates how the user is

to interact with the film.� Control: By using three buttons (start–forward–stop) the user can control the film, stopping or

restarting it whenever he considers appropriate.

The animation screen also includes a button with which the user follows the instructions givenby the presenter, and the title of the current lesson.

Sometimes, when we want to refine the level of detail, we can omit the spatial view window andfocus on the DG, since this is what really matters to the student (Fig. 10).

5. Students’ opinion

Leaving aside the problems more specifically related to navigation and design, shown in Section2.3, and studying in greater depth those problems that students may find when working with theseanimations, an analysis was made with a group of 60 students, who gave their opinions on a series


of animations connected with subjects directly related to their studies and DG, which included theanimation analysed in the previous section.

The students, aged between 18 and 23, tested and worked with all the animations and subse-quently responded to a series of surveys giving us, the teachers, their opinions, advice, commentsand recommendations on the use of animations in the classroom.

5.1. Animations as a teaching method

The purpose of the first question is to go to the core of the issue concerning the use of anima-tions in the classroom. We proposed to the students that the traditional explanations of theorygiven by the teacher should be replaced by animations; but as can be seen (Fig. 11), the studentsclearly showed that they were absolutely opposed to it: 90% (55 students vs. 6) considered that theteachers� explanations should not be replaced.

The students were not positively impressed by the idea of receiving a class of theory without theteacher, as, despite their interactivity, animations still do not have the same level of interactivity asa teacher.

However, 18 of those 55 students qualified their answer, mentioning that animations may be agreat help for the teacher in the classroom.

In a second question, the students were offered the option of not taking notes during the classand receiving, instead, a kind of collection of animations corresponding to each of the subjects tobe studied (Fig. 12).

Fig. 11. Can animations replace classes of theory?

Fig. 12. Can the animations replace the notes you take in the theory class?


In this case, the answers differed slightly from the opinion expressed regarding the position ofthe teacher�s explanations. In this case, it seems that they have a little less confidence in theirnotes. As many students pointed out, the speed at which they have to take notes often leads themto make mistakes.

Even so, most students consider that the notes they take during the class cannot be replaced;due mainly to the personal slant mat each of them gives to what he understands from the teacher�sexplanations. Even though most of them consider that animations highlight the most importantconcepts of each lesson, they cannot show many of the details that a teacher explains in his tra-ditional lectures and of which the students take good note.

Up to now, the two questions asked relate to the way information is transmitted in traditionalclasses, i.e., those attended by the students. But what happens with the subjects taught through theweb? The number of courses offered through Internet is growing continuously and in this case,there is no possibility of the asynchronous transmission provided by the teacher in the classroom.On the contrary, in most cases the contents are stored in the form of text documents, generallyPDF, in a kind of indexed information store, which the students can access whenever they wish.The question we put to the students was to decide between watching animations through Internetor accessing the documents that may be available to them in a specific web page (Fig. 13).

The answers given by the group of students highlight the importance that animations may haveas transmitters of content in courses given through the Web. Here we should take into accountthat the large e-learning platforms such as WebCT or Blackboard base the transmission of infor-mation on a more or less organized store of documents, documents for the students to consult.

Finally, within this first group of questions, we wanted to find out the degree of attention of thestudents when working with animations, compared to the attention they maintain in theory clas-ses (Fig. 14).

Fig. 13. Which means do you prefer for studying a virtual subject.

Fig. 14. Do animations capture your attention more than theory.


More than half of the students affirm that they pay more attention to animations, while thenumber of students claiming to be more attentive in theory classes does not exceed 30% of thesample. Others (10%) state that they pay the same attention in traditional classes and to anima-tions. One of the objectives of animations is to capture the user�s attention and take advantage ofthis heightened curiosity excited by the novelty to transmit new knowledge, and it seems that thishas been partially achieved.

5.2. Advantages and disadvantages

Turning now to the animations, we examined their structure, interfaces, form of explanationand everything surrounding the animation itself. For this purpose, four questions, which allowus to check any mistakes made in the construction of the animations, were put to the students:


1. What do you think is the best of these animations?2. What do you think is the worst of these animations?3. What aspects you should emphasize from the animations? (step by step, the movement,

funny, repetitive)4. Do you think that they would be more interesting with sound?

The first is designed to discover the most positive characteristic of the animations. In somecases, the students gave more than one answer to the question (Fig. 15), most of them beingcommon to a large part of the students.

Of the answers given by the students, five were frequently repeated; this gives us an idea of whataspect of the animations they value most highly:

� Step-by-step: The most frequent answer to the survey is directly related with the control stu-dents have over animations. Most of the animations have controls that allow the user to stop,resume, go to the beginning, go to the end, go one step forward or one step back. These devicesallow the students to control the visualization and adapt the animation to their learning rate.Flash allows the user to control the animations, and although, in most cases, this is one of itsmost important properties, it may be counterproductive if the user progresses through the ani-mation at a higher speed than the speed of the visualization itself (Ballanko & Collins, 2002).� Amusing: The students find animations amusing and they consider this a positive characteristic.

As many of them pointed out, they are learning unconsciously, without being aware that theyare visualizing three-dimensional concepts with quite a high level of complexity. This affectivecharacteristic of learning is highly motivating as it attracts and holds the user�s attention – anessential aspect without which teachers will never be able to use with advantage any kind ofeducational resource (Lowe, 2001). This is why affective characteristics may play a very impor-tant role in the teaching–learning process.

Fig. 15. What is the best aspect of the animations?


� Availability: Another of the strong points of animations is that, as they are located in a webserver, they can be consulted at any time. Furthermore, the students consider that having mate-rial they can access as many times as they want constitutes an enormous advantage.� Explanation: The three characteristics mentioned above would be of no use if the teaching ani-

mations created do contain clear explanations with a well-defined structure that address themost important concepts of each lesson in a didactic way.� Resolving queries: Another of the aspects highlighted by the students was the efficacy of the ani-

mations for solving certain doubts that students have about the topics.

Finally, other answers not included within the previous group highlighted aspects of the anima-tions such as ease of handling or the improvement in spatial perception achieved by watching ani-mations in three dimensions.

As opposed to the most positive characteristics, the students also found quite a number ofobstacles to the learning process (Fig. 16).

In this case, there were four drawbacks frequently mentioned in the students� answers:

� They do not solve doubts: The main problem that students find when working with animations isthat in spite of the control they have over the visualization and speed, it cannot be consideredequal to a complete asynchronous communication, as they much appreciate the possibility ofsolving doubts that may arise at any given moment. This ceases to be a problem if the anima-tions are watched or analysed at least once with the teacher is in the classroom. In order to havea communication channel with the teacher at all times, his e-mail address should always beincluded in the animation.

Fig. 16. What is the worst aspect of the animations?


� Accessibility: One of the problems most frequently mentioned by the students in the surveys isthe difficulty to access this material. It is true that they can access it easily and quickly at theuniversity, but not all of them have a wide-band connection at home. This problem cannot beeasily solved by the teaching staff; however, the animations could be given to each student onphysical support at the beginning of each course or subject.� Speed: Some students found it difficult to follow the explanations given in the animations while

others, on the contrary, considered that the speed of the explanation was too slow. One possiblesolution to this problem is to break down the contents into smaller units so that the student canpass from one to another more or less quickly.� Distraction: In the case of very colourful animations with sound, some students lost track of the

explanations and were distracted by the movements of the animated items. This is due to adesign that aims to be too amusing and does not have a proper balance between distractionand the information it transmits.

6. Conclusions

Flash technology has revolutionized Internet. The generation of animations of a very small size,together with their interaction capacity and ease of use, has led to the spread of this technologyamong most creators of web pages, and many sites include animations or colourful presentationsin their initial pages, thanks to Flash.

This technology opens a field with many applications for university teaching, since the theorycontent of the subjects can be converted to a greater or lesser extent into multimedia content,which students may consult and control at any time. But animations are not a solution to teachingproblems since, if they are not correctly designed, they may be counterproductive for the learningprocess.

In the specific case of DG, the use of these animations is more enriching as, in many cases, itaccelerates the development of the students� spatial perception – a basic objective in the training ofany engineer. From experiments carried out with students who used animations created withFlash, a series of practical findings were obtained on how to create educational animations forDG:

� Split up the content to be animated by Flash into basic learning units.� Provide the animations with as much interactivity as possible.� Hold the user�s attention without recourse to unnecessary distractions.� Allow the student to control the animation at all times.

The creation of these animations, together with their use in theory classes as a supplement tothe work of the teacher, is guaranteed success among the students, as our experience shows.

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