AC 2007-2125: MULTIMEDIA TUTORIALS FOR MINORITY NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING

Requirements analysis methods. Ian Pravata, Florida Institute of Technology Ian is an Software Specialist with Harris Corp.<br><br> and recently graduated with his MS/CIS degree. He has helped develop tutorials and methods on this project. Kohl Witmer, Florida Institute of Technology Kohl is a Software Tester and Computer Science undergraduate student at F.I.T.<br><br> He has helped develop tutorials and methods on this project. Gholam Ali Shaykhian, NASA Gholam Ali Shaykhian is a software engineer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Engineering Directorate. He is a National Administrator Fellowship Program (NAFP) fellow and served his fellowships at Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida.<br><br> Ali is currently pursing a Ph.D. in Operations Research at Florida Institute of Technology. He has received a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Computer Systems from University of Central Florida in 1985 and a second M.S.<br><br> degree in Operations Research from the same university in 1997. His research interests include object-oriented methodologies, design patterns, software safety, and genetic and optimization algorithms. He teaches graduate courses in Computer Information Systems at Florida Institute of Technology 9s University College.<br><br> Mr. Shaykhian is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and is the Vice-Chair (2005-2007), Education Chair (2003-2007) and Awards Chair of the IEEE Canaveral section. He is a professional member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), serving as the Program Chair and Web Master for the Minorities in Engineering Division of ASEE (2006-2008).<br><br> He was an assistant professor and coordinator of the Information Systems program at the University of Central Florida prior to his full time appointment at NASA KSC. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Multimedia Tutorials for Minority non-English Speaking Students and Software Engineering Methods for the Same Abstract Multimedia tutorials available online are becoming popular as a means of providing canned explanations for difficult material for brick and mortar classes and online courses. The availability of free multimedia products like Flashplayer by Macromedia © and the increasing proliferation of high speed access also provides the perfect set of circumstances to produce and make obtainable tutorials for K-12 children who may be especially challenged in some way.<br><br> For instance, these tutorials would be appropriate and helpful for non-English speaking children to help them learn English and acclimate to their new American environment. This is the perfect time with the increasing Hispanic population within the borders of the United States. Students in the Computer Sciences and Computer Information Systems programs at Florida Institute of Technology have been working on such tutorials that have video, animation, audio, text, and images to help get across new ideas and topics to school age children.<br><br> At the same time, software engineering methods for designing such tools are being developed and explored. The scope of this research is being extended to include audio in multiple languages for non-English speaking students. <br><br>

less