Seminal Articles

This article explores an exemplar of a Type 2 (Research to Improve Implementation Strategies) study. As the introductory article in this series described (Roblyer, 2005), our increasing reliance on technology-based communications has put many technology-based strategies into common use. These have often become strategies of choice not necessarily because they result in higher achievement or savings of time (for which there are few Type 1 studies to confirm), but because they use technologies that have become the automobiles to replace yesterday’s horses and carriages. Because implementations of these technology-based strategies vary widely and situations in which they are used have infinite permutations, we need many studies that examine thoroughly why certain implementations of a given technology can work well while others do not. While we cannot answer all questions about all possible implementations, we can discover trends that yield guidelines for how technologies should be implemented for maximum impact in many or most environments. The published study reviewed in this article offers such guidelines for the design and use of multimedia materials.