Abstract
This research focused on the design of software environments to support rich asynchronous communication and to understand the impact of such communications on understanding and recall in a military context. The goal was to explore how the design of a multimedia asynchronous communication tool influenced the understanding and recall of information. 46 ROTC cadets each received a company Operations Order, and based on that were required to write a platoon OPORD followed by two recall questions. Half of the cadets received the company OPORD in a conventional text format that included a static map overlay. The other half received the OPORD with 4 subsections presented with a multimedia presentation tool that included synchronized animation and voice narration. Overall, our findings show that the group that viewed the multimedia presentation recalled mission critical information 26-47% more often.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.