The engagement agenda,multimedia learning and the use of images in higher education lecturing: or,how to end death by PowerPoint

This article is concerned with student engagement and understanding in large group teaching in Higher Education (HE). Specifically, it is concerned with the application of Multimedia Learning (MML) methods in Politics, History, International Relations, Sociology, Social Work, and Business and Economics teaching that privilege the use of images to complement text in lecture presentations. This ‘visual’ method, it is claimed in the literature, generates engagement and understanding better than text alone. This article develops, applies and empirically tests with students, MML methods across a range of Higher Education disciplines over three years. The research deploys Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods engaging students as active agents of investigation and change. It finds evidence to support the hypothesis that apposite images combined with reduced text increases students’ engagement and understanding with academic content, but that much formal research needs to expand on the range of demographics tested.     

Ten Years of the National Policy on Education in Nigeria: An Assessment of Policy on Special Education

The National Policy on Education in Nigeria is an important document that had attractive plans for the Educational System of the country in general and, in particular, for persons with a disability. As the policy concerns the welfare and education of persons with a disability, its implementation has been fraught with the problem of lack of a legal document to regulate implementation activities. Basic to this problem, of course, are those of funding, limited definitions and policy objectives. This paper highlights these problems with brief discussions and concludes with suggestions for effective implementation.