Development of multi‐media teaching packages for user education in online retrieval systems

Abstract

A multimedia teaching aid, the Mediatron, has been developed by the Central Information Service of the University of London to illustrate the potential of online by recording searches displayed on a VDU and voice commentary together with pulses for the synchronization of the display of slides. The Mediatron is now being used in training in a variety of ways. Simple searches can be recorded to demonstrate the principles of online searching, and programs have been developed at the University of London to teach basic command languages, database structure and specialized search techniques. A self‐teaching program using all three media is described.