The evaluation of: Encarta 97. A multimedia learning package

Abstract

This paper reports the results of the evaluation of Encarta 97 (English Edition), one of the well known Educational Mulitmedia Encyclopedia. An experiment has been carried out in Kuwait University and a random sample of 17 students participated in the evaluation. A questionnaire approach was used, and the evaluation was based on four aspects: Usability, Learnability, Enjoyability, and Media Capability. The study indicates that Encarta is a very good multimedia learning package, it scored 4.20 in the scale of 1 - 5, where 5 is excellent and 1 is poor, and shows that Learnability is the best aspect. the researcher outlines some recommendations for designing and evaluating Multimedia Learning Packages, and suggests the need to carrying out further studies which might present different results.