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The study presented in this paper investigates the potential effects of including non-speech audio such as sound effects into multimedia-based instruction taking into account Sweller's cognitive load theory (Sweller, 2005) and applied frameworks such as the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2005) and the cognitive affective theory of learning with media (Moreno, 2006). Proceeding from the assumption that sound is an incisive means to affect people's emotional state it is argued that sound may also be well suited to stimulate involvement and motivation in learning situations, thereby bringing the learner to invest more mental effort into learning, which finally leads to better learning performance. This paper refers to an experimental case study, which was carried out within the framework of a Master's Thesis at the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven (Germany). In order to investigate the cognitive effects of including sound into multimedia learning, two groups of 1st semester Digital Media students were asked to learn about a historic subject using two different experimental designs: One version of a prototypical learning application consists of a photo slideshow with accompanying audio narration and another version consists of the same material supplemented with environmental sounds that illustrate the content of the lesson. Comparing both groups, the results don't reveal significant differences in learning performance. However, the subjective mental effort ratings of the participants are identified as a positive predictor for the performance score and are thus hypothetically discussed as being an indicator for learner motivation. The analysis finally confirms that the learner involvement, which is a measure relating the performance score and the mental effort ratings (Paas et al., 2005), during the subsequent achievement test is significantly higher when sounds were presented during instruction. These results suggest that the inclusion of sound may have positive effects on motivation and learning, which is according to a cognitive-motivational theory. [For the full proceedings, see ED562093.]

In contrast to developing educational games e.g. for schools, the development of games for museums has to meet even more limitations and specific requirements. These limitations concern the character of the game, its content, its location in the exhibition, its design and interface. In our paper, we present and discuss our experiences and drawbacks in developing an educational computer-based game for the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, a game dealing with the Hanseatic League and the old Hanseatic cog. This game was developed by Digital Media master students of the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven in close cooperation with the responsible museum expert. Demanding a certain amount of the visitors' time and attention, a game risks competing with the exhibition rather than being part of it. Due to this context, the game design has to consider specific requirements and restrictions, concerning not only the game content that has to be (of course) true and serious but also the limited time available for playing, the flow and number of people as well as restrictions on size, sound and its location in the exhibition. Furthermore, a terminal game - in contrast to an exhibition guide - needs to be flexible enough to provide additional value for visitors at different phases of their museum visit: It needs both to engage visitors in applying knowledge acquired in the exhibition as well as to stimulate them exploring the environment more carefully after playing. Trying to master these challenges the game in this project was created in several development cycles, where game prototypes were reviewed by museum experts, tested by school children and optimized according to the evaluation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]