Animated Comic as an Assisting Teaching Tool

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

ANICOMIX: ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING

PEDAGOGICAL TOOL

NUN NAJMEEN BINTI NOR AZAM

BACHELOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

(MULTIMEDIA COMPUTING)(HONS)

JULY 2014

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

ANICOMIX:

Animated Comic as an Assisting Pedagogical Tool

Nun Najmeen Binti Nor Azam

Report submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the

Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons) (Multimedia Computing)

Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 1

Contents Chapter one: Introduction .................................................................................................. 3

1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Project Background ........................................................................................................ 3 1.3 Problem statement .......................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Objectives .......................................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Project scope ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Research significance ...................................................................................................... 7 1.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter two: Literature Review ....................................................................................... 9 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Concept Learning ............................................................................................................ 9 2.3 Comic Books ...................................................................................................................10

2.3.1 Comic Book Terminology .................................................................................................. 10 2.4 Application of comic in education .............................................................................12 2.5 Animated Comic ....................................................................................................................13 2.6 Limitations on the current assisting pedagogical tools .........................................14

2.6.1 Social media network ........................................................................................................... 14 2.6.2 Video Tools ............................................................................................................................. 14 2.6.3 Presentation softwares ......................................................................................................... 14

2.7 Learning Theories .........................................................................................................15 2.7.1 Cognitive skills ...................................................................................................................... 15

2.8 Application of Multimedia In Education .................................................................18 2.8.1 Interactivity in Learning Process .................................................................................... 18

2.9 The tools for developing comic ...................................................................................18 2.9.1 Hardware .................................................................................................................................. 18 2.9.2 Software ................................................................................................................................... 20 2.9.3 The Digital Needs of Comic Book Creators ................................................................. 20

2.10 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................21

Chapter Three: Methodology ......................................................................................... 22 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................22 3.2 Research Activities ........................................................................................................23

3.2.1 Data Gathering and Research Analysis ............................................................................... 24 3.2.2 Design ............................................................................................................................................ 26 3.2.3 Concept Testing .......................................................................................................................... 27 3.2.4 Development ................................................................................................................................ 27 3.2.5 Implementation and Evaluation ............................................................................................. 29

Chapter Four: Results and Findings ............................................................................. 30 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................30 4.2 Design and Development Stage ..................................................................................30

4.2.1 Design Stage ........................................................................................................................... 32 4.2.2 Development Stage .................................................................................................................... 44

4.3 Testing and Evaluation ................................................................................................57 4.3.1 Evaluation Result .................................................................................................................. 57

Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendation ...................................................... 61 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................61 5.2 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................61 5.3 Limitation ........................................................................................................................62

2 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL

5.4 Recommendations .................................................................................................................62

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 64

APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................... 72 Appendix 1: The Phases in Mitosis ..........................................................................................72 Appendix 2: Question Set ..........................................................................................................74

Pre-testing question set ....................................................................................................................... 74 Post-testing question set ...................................................................................................................... 75

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 3 Chapter one: Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Generally, this chapter explained briefly about the project title as mentioned

above. In this chapter, there are concise clarification about the project background,

problem statement, project scope, project goal, objectives and significance of the

study for this project

Basically, the project background explained about the existing electronic

pedagogical tools and the benefits of learning using comic. The problems that were

related to the project title are briefly explained in the problem statement. In the

problem statement, a brief explanation about the current issues on the existing digital

comic used in learning and on the researches that have been done about it were

shown.

In the project scope, there are some scopes that is focused on and applied in

developing this project. The scopes that are to be focused on are about the specified

content of the animated comic that is presented to the target user, the target user and

the language that used in the application. For this project, there are three objectives

that were to be focused on throughout the development process. There is also some

significance in developing this project mainly for students.

1.2 Project Background

There are various electronic pedagogical tools being developed nowadays

such as, digital storytelling, games and multimedia course wares. However, all of

these tools have their weaknesses.

Storytelling is an ancient method of delivering complex and multidimensional

information and thoughts through narration (Savita, Hazwani, & Khalid, 2011). On

the other hand, there are no book illustrations with more visual imagination to seize

the listeners’ attention for storytelling (Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer, & Lowrance, The

4 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL Effect of Storytelling and Story Reading on the Oral Language Complexity and Story

Comprehension of Young Children, 2004). Thus, children may experience a cognitive

restraint as they attempt to comprehend story from others since they have to envision

the fantasy (Liu, Liu, Wang, Chen, & Su, 2012). Digital storytelling faces difficulty of

having to present complicated and large amounts of information (Gershon & Page,

2001). According to Gershon and Page, successful presentations utilizing the

storytelling approach require abilities like those natural to film directors, not only just

someone that has expertise in computer engineering.

An educational game, one intended for learning, is a subset of both play and

fun. It is a merging of instructive substance, learning principles, and computer games

(Prensky, 2003). However, one of the most extreme disadvantages of applying video

games in education is their high development costs ( Torrente, 2010). This creates an

obstacle for introducing educational video games because for most educational

organizations it is rather impossible to acquire large financial source.

Courseware is an instructive material planned as kits for educators or mentors

or as excercises for scholars, normally packaged for utilization with a machine.

(Rouse, 2005). Whilst having a lot of benefits to the learners when including

multimedia elements, it may not be receptive to a huge area of its target groups which

does not have admittance to multimedia-capable machines (Riley, 1995).

This research focuses on designing and developing an animated comic in

education through visualization of multimedia environment. The educational potential

of comics is an issue worth researching (Vassilikopoulou, Boloudakis, & Retalis,

2007). By scaffolding educational material with stories, comics can make use of

situational narratives to provide context for material and thus a mechanism for

improving student learning (Hosler & Boomer, 2010).The educational content is

Mitosis, which is claimed by Tavasuria Elangovan and Zurida Ismail in their

articleThe Effects of Realistic Simulation and Non-Realistic Simulation on Biology

Students’ Achievement , to be one of the few difficult topics to be learned in Biology

Form 4 (Lazarowitz & Lieb, Formative Assessment Pre-Test to Identify College

Students’ Prior Knowledge, Misconceptions and Learning Difficulties in Biology,

2006). Animated comic is a visualization comic which has an interactive activity

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 5 with user through multimedia elements like animation, sound and human computer

interface (HCI) and it includes cinematic motion of the comic, giving a more realistic

affect to the users. This multimedia application can also be applied for any

concepts that cannot be explained verbally.

1.3 Problem statement

Comic books are a graphic art form combining text and images to effectively

represent a story (Tobita, DigestManga: interactive movie summarizing through

comic visualization, 2010). Comics can be read in a wide variety of styles, not only

on paper (e.g., magazines and newspapers) but also as electronic content (e-books and

the Internet). Without a doubt, comics are one of the most popular and familiar forms

of graphic content (Tobita, Hiroaki Tobita - Members and Interests - Sony Computer

Science Laboratories, Inc.). People can read comics easily and learn many things, so

even children can learn about cultures and trends, among other things, through

comics. (Hiroaki, 2010). Animated comic does not have a clear and precise definition

but to describe it, motion comic is a story told with artwork, sound and cinematic

motion. Animated comic could also be a story-telling enhanced with artwork,

sound and cinematic motion. (What is a motion comic? : Digital Motion Comics).

An interactive comic takes a lot of reader input. Frequently, the author will take so

much reader input that nearly the entire webcomic is made of user suggestions.

(Main/Interactive Comic - Television Tropes & Idioms)

The educational potential of comics is an issue worth researching

(Vassilikopoulou, Boloudakis, & Retalis, 2007). Comic books can be a valuable

teaching aid (Vassilikopoulou, Boloudakis, & Retalis, 2007). It can also increase a

student’s confidence in their abilities, and may even prompt a further interest in

reading (Smith, 2006 ). A study conducted by Department of Technology Education

and Digital Systems, University of Piraeus (Vassilikopoulou, Boloudakis, & Retalis,

2007) has been proven that the use of digital plurimedia web comics may offer the

possibility of promoting positive attitudes to teaching and learning amongst student-

teachers.


However, a research carried out by Faculty of Education, Universiti

Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) reported that students need to create comics based on

the topic that is being learned during classroom time. Teachers also need to monitor

students activity in an online classroom and needs frequent action plans (Vrasidas,

2004). Therefore the existing approach is rather time consuming and impractical. On

the other hand, one of the unfavourable uses of ICT in teaching using digital comic is

lack of access to the computer lab and internet connection (Melor Md. Yunus, Hadi

Salehi, & Asnarita Tarmizi, 2012).Therefore, this research has looked into

designing and developing an animated comic which added a little amount of

interactivity, making the application more efficient and developing the application

as an off-line pedagogical tool.

1.4 Objectives

1. To design an educational animated comic as a teaching aid.

2. To develop a prototype of an animated comic involving little interactivity and

utilizing more multimedia elements for learning.

3. To evaluate the satisfaction and effectiveness of learning the concept of

complex procedures on users.

1.5 Project scope

Basically this application can be delivered through CD, making it off-line.

This is to solve the problem of lack of internet connection

The target users for this research consisted of Form 4 students. The content of

this software is about a chapter in Biology Form 4 which is Mitosis.

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 7 1.6 Research significance

There are a lot of significances of the study for this project as it could benefit

the students and also the community.

For students, it will be an enjoyable way for learning as this approach

exercise their cognitive thinking. Their use in education is based on the Clark’s &

Paivio’s (1991) dual coding theory, which supports the importance of imagery in

cognitive operations which can be a vital tool in preparing students for a digital future

while integrating imagery from photography and video and featuring audio

soundtracks, animation, hyperlinks and interactivity. (Vassilikopoulou, Boloudakis, &

Retalis, 2007). Comics also have the ability to meet the needs of students in a

variety of learning styles (Thacker, 2007 ).

This project will also benefit the community and other parties as it helps

in conveying the concept of any complicated ideas that is difficult to be delivered

verbally and orally. Comics help to boost the cognitive thinking of users as it mostly

consists of visual. Comic visualization is useful for complex data (Tobita, 2010)

.While the interactivity and multimedia elements added in the comic will increase the

users’ participatory in the lesson. When adults and children are having fun, they are

more willing to focus, take part eagerly, and since their anxiety level is reduced, they

are more open to learning process (Vincent Didiek Wiet Aryanto , 2007).

Photorealistic images, particularly moving ones, might help the comprehension

and learning of notions that cannot be demonstrated verbally for learners with a

low level of verbal understanding (Forouzesh & Khoii, 2010).Therefore, the issues

existed before on the use of animated comic as a pedagogical tool will be overcome

and diminished by designing and developing this project.

8 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 1.7 Conclusion

In brief, this chapter described about the background of the project which

explained about comics, the use of comics in education and the existing multimedia-

based pedagogical tools. Besides, there are several issues have been discussed in the

problem statement which emphasized on the use of digital comic as a pedagogical

tool. This project should follow the scopes that are provided so that it will be

developed well without any conflicts. The project goal and objectives should be

achieved to ensure that this project is successful and effective to the target user which

is children. Last but not least, this project will bring a lot of benefits in developing the

creative and cognitive thinking of all types of average learners.

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 9 Chapter two: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, a brief explanation on concept learning and comic books

characteristics were described respectively. Also, the application of comic in

education, description of animated comic and the existing electronic pedagogical tools

have been explained. Besides, this chapter also clarifies on the details on the learning

theory that is going to be implemented while using animated comic.

Moreover, related researches on multimedia in education are also being conveyed in

this chapter to facilitate the significance of these researches as guidance for this

project. The clarification on development of animated comic for this project is also

being included in this chapter in order to give more explanation on software,

hardware, game devices and platform that commonly used in the developing a digital

comic.

2.2 Concept Learning

One of the powerful tools man possesses is the capability to think from

abstract situations. It is literally true that we never step into the same river twice;

every situation is in some sense unique. By classifying our experiences into categories

by labelling and defining situations as a member of collection of situations for which

responses x, y, etc. are appropriate. We classify. Classification is not a passive

process (Hunt, The nature of concept learning., 2012).

According to Hunt, concept learning is a situation where by a human need to

make a decision. Hypotheses must be chosen throughout the learning environment.

Decisions are involved in the use of concept. Labelling objects with particular names

must be decided by the learner. In some cases, the decision that ought to be made is

that there is insufficient information on which to make a decision (Hunt, 2012). We

are continually forced to ask: "What is this step for?"--"What characteristics must it

have?" The argument is in no sense teleological; it is simply a statement of empirical

necessity. To apply it to concept learning, all we are saying is that concepts can be

10 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL learned by humans. The learning of concepts requires the execution of particular

tasks, which in turn require mechanisms with particular performance characteristics.

Therefore, humans must possess such mechanisms (Hunt, 2012).

2.3 Comic Books

2.3.1 Comic Book Terminology According to Serials Review, Volume 24, Issue 1 (Griffin, 1998) :

TERMINOLOGY MEANING

PANEL A single picture, usually rectangular. A

comic book typically consists of six to

eight panels per page. The panels are

usually sequential and tells the story,

from left to right and from top to bottom.

GUTTER White space between panels

SPLASH PAGE A page composed of a single panel

GATEFOLD An oblong, oversize front cover that folds

in. Gatefolds are used to extend cover art,

although they can also be used for

advertising. Recent Marvel comics have

been using gatefolds to provide

background for the current story line on

the inside cover

WRAP-AROUND Cover art which encompasses both the

front and back covers in order to present

a single, panoramic drawing.

PAINTED ART Instead of going through the three-step

process of artist, inker, colorist, some art

is painted. This method is usually

reserved for covers and graphic novels.

Art can be either photo-realistic or


impressionist. Examples include Marvel

Comics’ Marvels and DC’s Kin?-dom

Come.

PHOTO COVER Cover art which uses one or more

photographs rather than paintings or

drawings. Photo covers may utilize

fairly standard por- traits, as with Topps

Comics’ X-Files covers, or may employ

complex, inventive mosaics, as with

DC’s Sandman Mystery Theater

COLOR SEPARATIONS Provides coded instructions for the

printing process. Printers generally deal

with five colors only; separations are

what give the machines the percentages

of each primary color necessary to create

new colors

INDICIA Publishing information equivalent to that

found in the publisher’s statement of a

newspaper or periodical. In American

comics, the indicia is usually found in the

bottom margin of the first page, but

sometimes can be seen on the inside front

cover.

12 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 2.4 Application of comic in education Symeon Retalis, Marianthi Vassilikopoulou, Petros Georgiakakis and Michalis

Boloudakis (2010) found that there are some strength of comic in education world:

a). The natural attraction of human to graphics, comics have the ability to keep the

learners motivated interested.

b) Versaci (2001) has stated that the use of visual is important as the learners are able

to generate an emotional with characters when the character is given “life”. Visual is

especially crucial when an unanimated object is represented by a human.

c) Permanent. "Visual permanence" is unique to comics, while time... progresses at

the pace of a reader, in contrast to film and animation Williams (1995). Text medium

is permanent but not "pictorial".

d)Intermediary. Scaffold to difficult disciplines and concepts, give reluctant readers

non-threatening practice and to experienced ones inspiration and confidence

e) Popular. "there should be harmony between the user's on-going life activities and

his experiences in the school" Hutchinson (1949)

• Comic books promote media literacy, encouraging students to "become

critical consumers of media messages" (Morrison, Bryan, &Chicoat, 2002).

• In social aspects students may examine "contemporary lifestyles, myths, and

values" (Brocka, 1979)

f) Development of thinking skills. Analytical and critical thinking skills can be

developed, uncovering the deeper meaning of a work and offering a profound insight. A study conducted by Hutchinson (1949) reported that 74% of teachers claimed that

comics help build motivation in learners, while 79% stated that comic “increase user

participation” and it could make the learning process easier.

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 13 2.5 Animated Comic

According to “What is a motion comic? : Digital Motion Comics”, the

definition of Animated Comic or also known as Motion Comic is still vague and

undefined as a standard term. It may always be post-modern and come down to the

individual’s personal perspective. But as you can see from the five examples above,

the more it sits between the comic and cartoon, the furthest away from either, the

more it appears to be its own art form instead of a corrupted version of another

medium.

Perhaps some definitions of animated comic are:

1. A story told with artwork, sound and cinematic motion.

2. Story telling enhanced with artwork, sound and cinematic motion.

An animated comic starts with the basic medium that is a comic, that said

comic is then enhanced by digital technology and computers by having motion added

and possibly sounds, voices and music. The final product is then presented as a video,

sometimes interactive, sometimes not. It floats somewhere between a normal comic

strip and a fully animated cartoon.

“Animated comics” are comic panels that had been “animated” through the addition

of pans and zooms and a soundtrack with narration, voices, music (Carlson &

Carlson, 2009).

An infamous way to do an animated comic is the method on how the story

is delivered is comical. However, in order to enhance mood the mood, some

cinematic effects are added along with the action moments and narration. Only a

small inclusion of animation in the comic is worth to be kept in mind. For example,

the characters’ mouths are not moving but voices are added. (What is a motion

comic? : Digital Motion Comics)

14 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 2.6 Limitations on the current assisting pedagogical tools

According to Jane Hart who did a research and wrote an article titled “Top 10

Tools for Learning 2013” (Hart, 2013), a pedagogical tool is an instrument for your

own personal or professional use or one used for instructing and learning purposes.

Among the top three in the list that she compiled were social media network, video

tools and presentation tools.

2.6.1 Social media network

Nicole B. Ellison defines social media network or commonly known as social

network sites(SNS) as web-based services that permit people to develop an open or

semi-open profile inside a limited system, articulate a rundown of different users with

whom they share a connection, and view and cross their rundown of connections and

those made by others inside the system (2008). Twitter is the top social network site

used for learning purposes (Hart, 2013). However, Groseck and Holotescu had a

different opinion on Twitter. They pointed that the activity can be too distracting,

time-consuming, the people will only be picked up by those that have Twitter

accounts and it can be addictive (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2008).

2.6.2 Video Tools

Youtube is a famous video sharing site worldwide and for learning purposes

(Hart, 2013). YouTube has strength in assisting the students effectively in theirt their

modern learning technique. However, this famous video tool also has some

limitations. For example, browsing for suitable or particular clips on YouTube’s

massive database can be assertive, especially if the teacher or facilitator does not give

out specific title for the learning materials. Because of this complex, students have to

take their time in browsing and watch every video that match the keywords of the

topic they need understanding (Burke & Snyder, 2008).

2.6.3 Presentation softwares

Students did not believe that making presentation slides like Power Point and

Google Docs prepared prior to class was a firm encouragement in attending class

(Frey & Birnbaum, 2002). They concluded that the challenge seems to be in

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 15 harmonizing the load of lecture plan with the student gain of jotting down notes.

Student may not be interested in attending the class when they see the large amount of

slides that has been posted online before going to class. Students prefer slides with

more visual images and less amount of slides. Also lecturers tend to talk more quickly

when they present their slides making the students difficult in taking notes (Frey &

Birnbaum, 2002).

2.7 Learning Theories

2.7.1 Cognitive skills

In Design of adaptive hypermedia learning systems: A cognitive style

approach (Mampadi, Chen, Ghinea, & Chen, 2010), the authors described cognitive

styles as how different people prefer to organize and manage information and

experience consistently(as cited by Messick, 1984).

According to Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno (2007),the educational

benefits of new educational technologies such as multimedia learning environment is

to use instructional technology in ways that grounded in research-based theory. The

overarching theme of this paper is that effective use of a new instructional technology

must be guided by research-based theory of how students learn. Fortunately, advance

in cognitive psychology provide the starting point for such theories. We are convinced

that one of the most important avenues of cognitive psychology is to understanding

how technology as multimedia can be used to foster student learning.

In multimedia learning, Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno (2007) states the

learner engages in three important cognitive processes. The first cognitive progress,

selecting, is applied to incoming verbal information to yield a text base and is applied

to incoming visual information to yield an image base. The second cognitive process,

organizing, is applied to the word base to create a verbally-based modelof the

explained system. Finally, the third process, integrating, occurs when the learner

builds connections between corresponding events in the verbally-based model and

visually based model. The model is explained more fully by Mayer (1997) which he

generated a series of experiments yielding five major principles of how to use

16 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL multimedia to help students understand a scientific explanation. Each principle of

multimedia design is subject to further research:

• Contiguity Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, present

corresponding words and pictures contiguously rather than separately. The

second principle is that students better understand an explanation when

corresponding words and pictures are presented at the same time than

when they are separated in time. For example, students who read a text

included captioned illustrations placed near the text generated about 75%

more useful solutions on problem-solving transfer questions than did students

who read the same text and illustrations presented on separate pages(Mayer R.

E., 1989; Mousavi, Low, & Sweller, 1995). This result is consistent with the

cognitive theory of multimedia learning because corresponding words and

pictures must be in working memory at the same time in order to facilitate the

construction of referential links between them.

• Split-Attention Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, present

words as auditory narration rather than as visual on-screen text. The third

principle is that words should be presented auditory rather than visually. For

example, students who viewed an animation depicting the formation of

lightning while also listening to a corresponding narration generated

approximately 50% more useful solutions on a subsequent problem-solving

transfer test than did students who viewed the same animation with

corresponding on-screen text consisting of the same words as the narration

(Mayer & Moreno, in pres.). This result is consistent with the cognitive theory

of multimedia learning because the on-screen text and animation can over load

the visual information processing system whereas narration is processed in the

verbal information processing system and animation is processed in the visual

information processing system.

• Coherence Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, use few rather

than many extraneous words and pictures. The fifth principle is that students

learn better from a coherent summary which highlights the relevant words and

pictures than from a longer version of the summary. For example, students

who read a passage explaining the steps in how lighting forms along with

corresponding illustrations generated 50% more useful solutions on a


subsequent problem-solving transfer test than did students who read the same

information with additional details inserted in the materials (Mayer et al,

1996; Mayer & Harp, 1997). This result is consistent with a cognitive theory

of multimedia learning, in which a shorter presentation primes the learner to

select relevant information and organize it productively.

2.6.2 Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development According to psychologist Jean Piaget, children progress through a

series of four key stages of cognitive development. Each stage is marked by shifts in

how kids understand the world. Piaget believed that children are like "little scientists"

and that they actively try to explore and make sense of the world around them.

There are basically five stages of cognitive development. These stages are

categorized according to ranges of ages. The stages are as followed:

Stages Range of ages

(years old) Explanation

The Sensorimotor From birth- 2 The infant builds an understanding of himself and reality through interactions with environment

The Preoperational 2- 7 The child is only able to label objects in a simple method, by highlighted feautres.

The Concrete Operational 7- 11 The child is able to think hypothetically explaining in a logical structure in a manner he experiences it

The Formal Operational Begins around 11 – 15 and then spans into adulthood

The person is able to deduce and hypothesize an interpretation.

18 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 2.8 Application of Multimedia In Education

2.8.1 Interactivity in Learning Process A study conducted by Song et al (2013) that the design of behaviorally

interactive features in an instructional application can influence the way cognitive

process unfolds in a high stakes and complex learning domain. According to Song,

the effectiveness of interactivity in instructional contexts lies in its ability to stimulate

cognitive processing (as cited by Domagk et al, 2010). Instructional designer must

carefully consider the way in which interactive features shape a learner’s cognitive

experience of the learning material and thus the construction of elaborated mental

models.

2.9 The tools for developing comic

2.9.1 Hardware

Certain hardware components are necessary for digitally comic books

drawing. Which ones are needed most depends on how much of the creation and

distribution will be done digitally:

• Computer. Since high quality graphics work is resource intensive, a newer

computer with a powerful processor and a lot of memory is ideal.

• Scanner. Artists who prefer to draw comics with traditional media, then

augment their art on a computer, need a scanner to transform it into a digital

file. The scanner glass needs to be big enough to accommodate the sheets or

boards of original artwork.

• Stylus and Tablet. Since fluid drawing with a mouse is nearly impossible,

those wishing to draw freehand within a computer drawing program need a

stylus and tablet. These come in models for various budgets – in general, the

bigger they are, the pricier they get. Special screens that double as tablets for

styluses are the most like drawing on a real page.

http://luke-arnott.suite101.com/buying-a-scanner--what-to-look-for-a210740


• Printer. Printing is an important part of making comic books, though it's not

needed for comics that will be distributed digitally. Amateur creators can self-

publish in small batches with any decent-quality home printer. As to whether

an inkjet or laser printer is better, black and white line art is much cheaper to

reproduce with a laser printer, but color art (or black-and-white washes)

requires an inkjet for the best results.

http://luke-arnott.suite101.com/laser-printers-vs-inkjet-printers-a187668

http://luke-arnott.suite101.com/color-laser-printers-the-pros-and-cons-a236086


2.9.2 Software

Even the right hardware needs software to run. Common types of use

to amateur or aspiring comics creators include:

• Drawing and Painting Programs. Drawing comic books directly on the

computer requires specialized software. Depending on artists' style and

preferences, this could be a drawing program, such as Adobe Photoshop, or a

painting program, such as Corel Painter.

• Photo-Editing Programs. Photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop,

has tools that add extra effects to computer-generated and scanned artwork

alike.

• Rendering Programs. Another option is rendering software, which can create

scenes with 3D computer models. Poser is a popular choice in this

category. 3D comics made in this way can sometimes compensate for a lack of

traditional drawing skills.

• Comic Book-Drawing Programs. There are a number of computer programs

specifically designed to help draw comics. They have panel templates

and speech-balloon tools, for instance. Some, like Pixton, are designed to be

used online, through a web browser. Others, such as Comic Life or Comic

Book Creator, are fully-featured, standalone programs.

2.9.3 The Digital Needs of Comic Book Creators

Artists who draw and distribute solely through the computer might focus on

using a stylus, tablet, and painting program. Those who prefer to make hard copies

might have more use for a scanner, printer, and photo-editing software instead.

But whatever their choices, anyone wishing to incorporate digital tools when drawing

comic books should first get familiar with the available options (SerjTech, 2006).

http://www.adobe.com/

http://www.corel.com/

http://luke-arnott.suite101.com/3d-comics-computer-generated-and-stereoscopic-comic-books-a342024

http://luke-arnott.suite101.com/the-visual-parts-of-a-comic-book-page-a129842

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 21 2.10 Conclusion

Therefore this chapter concluded about concept learning and the terminologies

used in comic. Besides, the current pedagogical tools have been discussed earlier in

this chapter. The definition of animated comic is being determined in order for a

better understanding of the research. The reasons for applying animated comic for

learners also have been discussed. The learning theory and importance of interactivity

in learning process been discussed in this chapter. Moreover, in the development of

the animated comic, all the hardware and software that has been used to develop the

animated comic was discussed. Therefore, this chapter will help the development

process during the development phase.

22 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL Chapter Three: Methodology

3.1 Introduction Basically, this project has used the standard methodology in building

multimedia application. The project is focused on the information planned in

the method process and how they operate during the phases of design and

development process. This design gives the opportunity to improve the

structure process easily as well as to enhance the method specifications after

evaluating the comic

Figure 1: Research Framework – Conceptual Model

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 23 3.2 Research Activities

Basically, in this project, there are five steps that are going to be carried

out: 1. Data Gathering and Research Analysis 2. Design 3. Concept Testing 4. Development 5. Implementation and Evaluaion

Figure 2: Flow Chart of Research Activites

24 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 3.2.1 Data Gathering and Research Analysis

Table 1: Data Gathering and Research Analysis

In this research, variety of data has been gathered and conducted in order to

collect an appropriate and relevant data for implementation in the animated comic.

Data were gathered from several interviews and reading materials.

3.2.1.1 Interview

An unstructured interview have been conducted on a group of students in

Faculty of Computer Science & Mathematics and in secondary schools about their

learning styles and how they process information about subjects that have

complicated topics which are hard to understand and remember. Also, informal

questions about their opinions of using digital comic in education have been asked.

Even though the comic content used is a subject from the Form 4 syllabus, from

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development explained in Chapter 2.6.2, 16 years old

students and universities students (ranged from 21 to 25 years old), are grouped in the

same stage which is the Formal Operation stage. Therefore, it is reasonable to conduct

an informal interview on universities students even though the comic content is not

very familiar to university students or other non-science stream students aged 15 and

above as this application’s goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of understanding a

concept of a certain process or procedure.

3.2.1.2 Reading Materials

Materials such as journals, articles, proceedings report and also web resources

mainly on animated comics and its application in education are referred to gain much

information and data on learning concept, appropriate technique to design a better and

suitable interactive motion comic as a pedagogical tool. Most of the journals and

Activities Deliverables

Gather information and resources. 1. Books 2. Journals 3. Thesis 4. Websites

Summarization and overview of literatures and related information about the studies area

Examine and analyze information related to studies area.

Conduct a problem statement, goal and objectives of the research.

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 25 articles were taken from web resources and digital library such as ACM Portal,

Science Direct and IEEE Xplore.

In analysis phase, the research title is discussed with supervisor and later

confirmed as the “ANICOMIX: Animated comic as an assisting pedagogical tool.”

This phase includes the process of achieving the objectives to be achieved. The

problems faced by the learners when using the other existing methods for applying

animated comic in classroom was also determined in this phase.

26 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 3.2.2 Design


Design the flow chart

Design the framework

Design the sequence diagram

All the designs for the

application is explained

throughout the paper

Design the application content structure

Design the storyboard for content structure

Evaluation all design

Figure 3: Design

In design phase, the comic design is determined based on the chosen topic in

Biology Form 4. The topic that has been agreed is about “Mitosis”. Full information

on Mitosis can be referred in Appendix 1. Developer organized the phases

accordingly by following the Biology text books and reference books. The storyboard

for the comic has been built, the type of multimedia elements which are text, graphic,

audio and animation has been determined for every screen. Users need to choose the

options that are going to be given from the beginning of the animated comic until the

end. Therefore, whatever happens in the comic will be of the user’s decision.

The specific steps in creating a digital comic are followed accordingly from

the websiteFalse Positive: A Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Webcomic Anthology -

Webcomic Tales of the Surreal, Fantastic & Macabre. The creator and author of the

webcomic, quasilucid, claimed that he/she followed these three major steps in

creating a digitalcomic:

1. First, using a stylus & tablet with Corel Painter, a loose sketch is created

and then take it to finished black & white digital inks.

2. Next, open the file in Adobe Photoshop and create the values, grey-tones,

and textures.

3. Then, while still using Photoshop, the hues are adjusted to bring tints and

color saturation to the illustration.

It is worth noting that in this project, Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop will

be used in order to animate the comic.


3.2.3 Concept Testing

After designing the plans to carry out the project, a simple, semi-functional

prototype is created to test whether the concept of the project is achieved. Researcher

tested the functionality application of the animated comic on her peers.

3.2.4 Development


Assess the technicalities and functionalities

A complete prototype with

functionality Develop the prototype

Evaluate the development

Figure 4: Development

This phase builds on both the analysis and design phases. The purpose of this

phase is to produce the lesson plans, method and skills, techniques, materials such as

elements and any media will be used in the projects, and also any supporting

documentation needed.

3.2.4.1 Suitable hardware and software requirement

The suitable hardware and software are required to develop this projects

application, without the specifications tools, the process of development will face

many kind of problems. It will cause time delay and additional cost to fix it. So it is

better to confirm the specification tools first-hand and also the backup tools if any

technical problems come up.

These requirements below are needs to fulfill the tools required by the developer.

3.2.4.1.1 Hardware Requirement for Development

• Stationery such as pencil, color pencil, pen and eraser.

• Drawing Comic Books (Sketches Books).

• Wacom Cintiq 21UX

• Wacom Stylus Pen

• Toshiba Notebook Satellite M840 series i7AMD Radeon

28 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 3.2.4.1.2 Software Requirement for Development

• Adobe Photoshop CS6

• Adobe Flash CS6

• Video Format for 3D Videos as edited flash videos.

3.2.4.1.3 Hardware Requirement for End User

• Suitable for any personal Computer

3.2.4.1.4 Software Requirement for End User

• Flash player

• Developer also create projects flash projector files so the applications will

easily run on any suitable platforms


3.2.5 Implementation and Evaluation


Launching the prototype

The prototype is delivered to the end user.

Distribute the prototype

Figure 5: Implementation

In the implementation phase, a full prototype which is ANICOMIX had been

distributed as a stand-alone application. It has been tested to the target users which are

Form 4 Malaysian students who are taking Biology subject, with the homogeneous

group at age 16 years old. In this phase, the effectiveness of understanding the chapter

“Mitosis” based on the storyline in the comic they have used has been tested.

30 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL Chapter Four: Results and Findings 4.1 Introduction

This chapter discussed in details about the design and development process of

‘ANICOMIX: Animated Comic As An Assisting Tool’ which specify to the

application. Besides, the results and finding of the project are also described in this

chapter.

4.2 Design and Development Stage

In the development stage, there are several processes that have been done to

design the animated comic. One of them is designing the flow of the comic which is

shown as in the flowchart below (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Flowchart of the animated comic

According to the flowchart, firstly, there is an introduction page that appeared

when the users launch the animated comic after the loading page. In the introduction

Introduction of characters

Comic story start

Prologue

Phases in Mitosis • Prophase

• Metaphase

Story ends

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 31 page, there are the main characters that act as buttons which the user should click in

order to know about the characters in the animated comic. After the users finished

getting to know the characters, there will be button labelled “FLIP” at the bottom-left

corner of the screen. The “FLIP” button is metaphorically used as it is a typical comic

book.

After introducing the characters, there will be a prologue where it explains

beforehand about the main character that narrated the comic which is Mino. Mino

explains about himself, his parents and other things that are highlighted throughout

the comic. This to “warm up” the user before the real story which are the phases

starts. At the end of the prologue, the user needs to “flip the page” and then, there is a

strip that consists of interrelated multi-panel sequence. Each panel represents the

labels of phases in mitosis. When the user clicks on a panel, it leads the user to a

comic story that relates to the phase of the panel labelled. For example, when the user

clicks the first panel, which is the Prophase, a comic story about the phase begins.

There is an instruction as soon as the user enters the multi-panel comic strip. The

instruction states that user must click the panels according to their ascending order for

them to understand the flow of mitosis. As the animated comic is just a prototype,

user is only allowed to click on the first and second panel even though there are five

panels displayed. The user is still able to click on the other panels but it is locked

(user is not able to go to the phase).

In this stage, the animated comic is designed based on the conceptual model

that has been constructed as in Figure 1: Research Framework - Conceptual model in

Chapter Three: Methodology. The animated comic is designed so that they will

comply to the concepts that are highlighted in the conceptual model itself for

examples the comic genre, comic content, metods of evaluation and also delivery

media that have been used in the making of the animated comic. This animated comic

uses English language as the language medium to deliver the story of the comic to the

target users. Further explanation is provided according to each comic design stage

below.


Furthermore, content of the comic is about the consecutive phases of Mitosis

which a subtopic in Chapter 5 of the subject Biology Form 4. Based on the comic

content, the animated comic is designed by preparing the comic-based story

background, characters, objects and the interface by drawing, editing or modeling.

The animated comic genre and theme are Teen Humor and Love Story respectively.

The reason why researcher chose to use the particular genre and theme is so to

approach target users (which are teenagers) in a way that they could have experienced

it themselves in real life. in order to approach the target users which are teenagers.

The other details design on the interface of the games such as colors and fonts used

are also described further in each comic design stage.

There are sketches or storyboards that are designed which represent the

content structure of the animated comic. The suitable sound effects and background

music used in the animated comic are also selected and edited in this phase.

4.2.1 Design Stage The design stage for the animated comic consist of selecting and designing the setting

of the story, drawing and editing the buttons, characters, objects or props,

backgrounds, fonts and colors that have been used in the comic and also selecting and

editing the sound effects and background music based on the game characteristics in

the conceptual model that has been prepared, selected comic content, storyline and

delivery media. These elements are essential to be designed since they are crucial in

the delivery of the comic content to the target users later.

The interface of the animated comic is designed by sketching in the form of

storyboard. The storyboard sketching helped in presenting the flow of the animated

comic from the beginning until the end. It is also provided the view on how the users

can navigate through each scene or page in the animated comic.

The animated comic does not have any agent that is designed to guide the user

throughout the application. Only instructions that appeared as an animated streaming

banner will appear to indicate any interaction with the comic. Basically, the animated

comic offered the responsive control to the users to response and control the flow of

the animated comic by themselves without the help of any virtual agent or main

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 33 character. The users are given full control over the presentation to navigate every

buttons and scenes in order to make the users feel immersed.

The animated comic has applied an interactive comic book as a metaphor of

the application. There will be a button labelled “FLIP” in certain scenes. The design

of the “FLIP” button is placed at the bottom right of the comic as a metaphor that

could bring an analogy which showed the users are flipping a scene as though they are

flipping a page.

Figure 7: The loading page of COMICELL

Figure 8: The loading page of COMICELL

As you can see, the difference between Figure 7 and Figure 8 is the state of

change of the button “FLIP” at the bottom right corner of the screen. When the

34 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL loading page finished loading, the FLIP button will appear, only showing a text

“FLIP” indicating the users to mouse over the text. When the user hovered their

mouse over the text, it immediately changed as though the users are actually flipping

the page.

Figure 9: Home button

Figure 10: Back button

Figure 11: Replay

button

Figure 12: Credit

button

Figure 13: Prologue

button

Figure 14: Character

button

Figure 15: Information

button

The buttons which are available in this animated comic are designed based on

the suitability of the theme and interface that has been designed. The buttons are

designed to be in similar shape and appearance except for color. When the users

hovered over their cursor to the buttons, text version labelling the buttons will appear.

For example when the users hovered their cursor over the red colored button, the text

“HOME” will appear. This is to ensure that the users know the function of each

button and make the navigation become easier.


Figure 16: designing the characters

The characters and objects are designed from sketches on paper into Adobe

Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Flash CS6. There are some background scenes that are

real photographs taken by the researcher and some scenes are downloaded from the

Internet. The researcher basically drew the characters’ expressions and body postures

using the Wacom Tablet and Interactive Pen. The instruments gave the researcher

more control in how to draw the characters more realistic. There are two main

characters which are Mino and Rika. The other characters are Mom and Dad, which

are Mino’s parents and Mama and Papa, which are Rika’s parents. The researcher

purposely colored the parents’ of each character similar to the color of the character

so that the users could easily identify who belongs to whom as a family.

The researcher colored Rika and Mino in light pink and light blue as the both

of the colors is stereotypically belonged to female and male respectively. In order to

make the characters comical, the characters have no eyes and large heads. In drawing

the mouths, expressions and body postures, the researcher had referred to many

comics like Lawak Kampus, Adventure Time and Hunter X Hunter.


Figure 17: Lawak Kampus by Keith

Figure 18:Hunter X Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi


Figure 19: Adventure Time by Pendleton Ward

Some background scenes were real-life photograph taken by the researcher to

add a more realistic feeling and later being edited in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Other

background scenes are downloaded from the Internet and later edited in Adobe

Photoshop CS3.


Figure 20: Background scene "loading"

Figure 21: Background scene "home"


Figure 22: Backgroud scene "intro" (a)

Figure 23: Background scene "intro" (b)

Figure 22 and Figure 23 belonged in the same scene. Figure 22 is where all the

characters can be seen and users need to choose the characters to get to know them.

When the users click on a character, Figure 23 appeared, acting as a stage for each

character.


Figure 24:Background first frame of scene "early prophase"

Figure 25: Background final frame of scene "late prophase"


Figure 26: Background scene "metaphase"

In figure 27, a multi-panel strip is displayed. The panels represent phases in

Mitosis. The multi-panel strip concept is applied to comply with the essence of a

comic book. The researcher has made the orientation of animated comic as landscape

to follow suit with other common applications that are wide screen and landscape to

avoid eye strain and better multimedia experience (Richards, 2014). The users would

see a streaming banner of animated text that contains instruction at the bottom of the

page, telling the users that they need to click on the panel according to its ascending

order to understand the Mitosis process better. The panels displayed are labelled with

numbers from left to right and top to bottom. When the users hovered over their

cursor to each panel, the name of each phase will show.


Figure 27: The panels and round, colourful icons that act as buttons

Some props are drawn first-hand and the rest are downloaded from the

Internet and later edited in Adobe Photoshop CS6. The researcher also drew and

downloaded images of the actual components of cell such as chromatin, chromosome

and centrioles. These images and drawings are used on each character and object only

in the introduction page so as to remind the users about the actual “appearance” of the

cell components that represented by characters and object. The researcher had also

drawn the chromatin and chromosome as shown in Figure 29 based on the actual

illustration as seen in Figure 30.

Figure 28: Microtubule


Figure 29: the design of a chromatin

Figure 30: The actual representation of chromatids (also known as chromatins) and

chromosome

After the completion of all the drawing, editing and designing of graphics, the

recording of voice for the narration is carried out. The recording of voice is

synchronized with the text available in the animated comic. A teenage boy’s voice is

used to deliver the animated comic’s storyline to comply with the character’s age.

After the recording is finished, the voice recorded, sound effects and background

music are edited by using Audacity software which involved the process of trimming,

equalizing and editing the pitch and amplitude. The audio formats that are used are

MP3 and WAV since they produce a good quality.


4.2.2 Development Stage

In the development stage, all the elements such as graphics, text and audio are

organized and developed according to the design planning as explained in the design

stage. The development of this animated comic is according to the flowchart design

that has been created in Figure 6.

In the development process of animated comic, Adobe Photoshop CS6 is used

as a platform to draw, edit and model the graphics, text, images and also the

backgrounds as shown in Figure 31. The transparent background content is set to

transparent mode so that it is easier to be exported and used in other platforms. Then,

the completed drawn and edited graphics are saved in PNG file format since it

supports the drawing graphics well as shown in Figure 32.

Figure 31: The developement of drawing and editting objects


Figure 32: Objects that are editted are saved as PNG for better quality

The selected recorded voices, sound effects and background music that are

used to be integrated with the graphics are edited, trimmed and equalized in Audacity

software. Then, the voice recorded is synchronized with the animation of the story.

Figure 33: The developement stage of editting audio using Audacity

After the drawing, editing and modeling of the elements of comic are

completed. Then, Adobe Flash CS6 is used as platform to develop the animated

comic. The chosen stage is Flash File ActionScript 3.0.


Figure 34: The chosen stage for ANICOMIX

The graphics, text, audio, images and other objects that have been drawn and

editted were imported into the main library in Adobe Flash CS6.

Figure 35: Objects are imported into the main library

Because the objects imported and used are a lot, the researchers organized the

object by categorizing them according to its function and roles and store them into

folders.


Figure 36: The imported objects are organized into folders based on their roles and

functions

In developing animated comic, the flowchart that has been designed in Figure

6 is used to ensure that the flow of the animated comic is systematic. All the media

elements from the library are added to stage in a different layer at variety of time.

Most animations that are performed in this development used the motion preset,

motion tween and classic tween effect.


Figure 37: The use of classic tween and motion tween on the objects

For every scene, there is a linking which allows them to navigate through each

other. There is a button which connects one scene with another by using

addEventListener function in ActionScript. This function is linked to the desired

scene when the users click on the button. The scene is navigated to the other intended

scene since there is a gotoAndPlay function. Some buttons are also linked to intended

frame by using gotoAndStop and gotoAndPlay.

Figure 38: The implementation of Code Snippets applied on buttons


Audio, sound effects and music background are synchronized with time by

using SoundChannel on intended frames. Every buttons also have their sound effects

when the users hovered over them.

Figure 39:The implementation of SoundChannel on the timeline

Figure 40: Sound effects are applied on the timeline of each button desired

Text are also synchronized with audio based on variety of time. The role of the

application of SoundChannel in specific frame plays a crucial role in this

synchronization.


Figure 41:Synchronization between text and audio based on the timeline

The use of masking is also used to point items and motion of objects. This is

to add more effects on the objects in the animated comic besides by only using

tweening solely.

Figure 42: The application of masking in revealing objects

The animated comic storyline is divided into scenes for easier organization.

The first scene is the loading page that would direct the users to the next scene when

the users click on the Flip button. This scene appears as soon as user launches the

application.


There are a total of seven scenes in ANICOMIX. Figure 43 shows the list of

scenes.

Figure 43: The list of scenes in ANICOMIX

Figure 44: The loading page

Users need to click on the Flip button that would link them to the scene that

functions as the Home page. In this scene, a multi-panel strip would be displayed.

52 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL Each panel is numbered according to their phases. A streaming banner of animated

text containing instruction would appear before the users are able to click on the

panels. The instruction placed at the bottom of the page will guide users in what they

need to do before interact with the panels. At the left hand side, there are buttons of

different colors organized vertically. Each button links users to another scene. The

blue button will lead users to the introduction of characters page. The lime green

button will lead users to the prologue animation. The black button will reveal brief

information of ANICOMIX. The turquoise button will display the credits and

appreciation.

Figure 45:The Homepage scene

When the users clicked on the blue button, it will link users to a new scene

which is the introduction page where the characters are introduced. Users need to

click on each character to get to know them. When they clicked on a character, it

would bring them to a new frame that consists of an animation of information about

the character that they need to know. Users could also hover their cursor over the

character to see their real appearances which are the actual graphic of cell components

which are represented by each character.


Figure 46: The "Intro" scene which by characters are being introduced

When the users clicked on the lime green button, it wil lead the users to

another new scene which is the Prologue scene. A character named Mino would

introduce himself before he briefed the users about what they need to know before

they start “reading” the animated comic.

Figure 47: The "Prologue" scene

Each panel would lead the users to a new scene. As the users need to click on

the panels according to their ascending order, they need to choose the first panel

which would link the users to a new scene named Prophase. In this scene, the users

would found out on how Mino meets Rika and how the both of them became close to

each other. The flow of the story in this scene represents the concept of how the

chromatins become condensed and visible, how the nuclear membrane and nucleolus

disappeared. Comical effects and humor are added to comply with the purpose of

54 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL comic. The Prophase scene is divided into two scenes which are names Early

Prophase and Late Prophase beforehand to avoid an overloading of frames and

objects in one scene as this phase is much longer compared to the other phases.

Figure 48: The beginning of the scene “early prophase”

Figure 49: The ending of the scene “early prophase”


Figure 50: The beginning of the scene “late prophase”

Figure 51: The ending of the scene “late prophase”

At the end of the Late Prophase scene, the users need to click on the red round

icon to go back to the multi-panel strip which leads the users to the “home” scene that

acted as the homepage in order to move on with the comic’s storyline and choose the

second panel which is the Metaphase. The second panel would lead the users to a new

scene which is the Metaphase. This scene is the continuation of the storyline in

Prophase whereby Mino’s and Rika’s parents gave them a controller and told both of

them to go to the Spindle Equator with the controllers. The controller represents

Microtubule that would form the spindle fibre attached to Rika and Mino respectively.

At the end of the scene, an instruction telling the users to click on the Comic Panel

icon indicated that they reached at the end of the Metaphase.


Figure 52: The beginning of the scene "metaphase”

Figure 53: The ending of the scene "metaphase”

All seven scenes of the animated comic which were being developed are

compiled to the comic characteristics and content in the Figure 1 that shows the

conceptual model of this project.

Before the completed prototype is being tested by the users, the unit testing is

carried out to ensure every scene and buttons are functioning well and can perform

correctly without any errors. If there are errors found after testing the prototype, the

error is fixed and the prototype is re-tested.

Then, the system testing is applied to the prototype of animated comic to

ensure the performance, functionality and operability of prototype is in a good

condition. The objectives of the project are achieved.

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 57 4.3 Testing and Evaluation

User testing and evaluation have been done on the 3rd of June 2014. The target

audience consisted of 16 years old secondary school. Before starting the evaluation,

students were given a brief explanation about the project and the objectives of the

testing being done.

Once they understood, they were given a set of questions as a Pre-Testing

before they start launching the animated comic in their respective notebooks that were

provided by the school laboratory. The example of questions set is in Appendix 2:

Question Set.

Once they have completed answering the set of question, they were asked to

test the application. Their reaction and behaviors toward the application were

observed. Students tend to be more excited when they launched the animated comic

and interact with the characters and object in the animated comic in order to

understand the phases.

After they have completed testing the applications, they were asked to fulfill

the post-testing question set. In post-testing, the same questions were given like as in

pre-testing. Another set of questions to determine the satisfaction of their experience

while interact with the ANICOMIX were given. The reason of conducting pre-testing

and post-testing is to collect data on the performance of students’ knowledge about

the phases in Mitosis. Photos of students during testing and evaluation can be seen in

Appendix 2.

Informal interviews and discussion with the students were conducted after the

post-testing in order for data gathering and to know more about the students’ personal

opinions, difficulties, preferences and experience while using the animated comic.

4.3.1 Evaluation Result

As the questions related to phases in Mitosis are objective questions in which

they have to choose from four options of possible answers, the researcher compared

the percentage of correct and incorrect answers of each questions answered in pre-

58 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL testing and post-testing based on the correct answers only. The result of Pre-testing

and Post-testing are shown in Figure 53 and Figure 54 respectively.

The formula used to calculate the percentage for both pre-testing and post-

testing is as followed:

Average percentage = 𝑥𝑦

× 100

Where,

x = number of students that got the correct answers

y = total number of students that answer the question

4.3.1.1 Pre-testing

Figure 54: Results for the pre-testing questions

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q 4 Q5 Q6

correct answer

incorrect answer


4.3.1.2 Post-testing

Figure 55: Results for the post-testing questions

After the students finished answering the post-testing question set, a set of

questions that determined their satisfaction using ANICOMIX were given to

each of them. The result for the satisfactory test is shown in Figure 55. The

formula used to calculate the average percentage for the satisfactory test is as

follows:

Average percentage = 𝑎𝑦

× 100

Where,

a= the number of students who answered “YES”

y = total number of students that answer the question

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6

correct answer

incorrect answer


Figure 56: Satisfactory question set in post-testing question set

01020304050607080

90

100

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6

No

Yes

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 61 Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendation 5.1 Introduction

This chapter will discuss about the conclusion of the project, limitation of the

project and the recommendation that can be considered for future use.

5.2 Conclusion

Once the research was completed, it can be concluded that the solution for

problem statement have been solved. The goals and all the three objectives also have

been achieved. There are five phases in Mitosis but researcher only tested for the first

two phases which the Prophase and Metaphase as the researcher’s main goal is to

evaluate the knowledge and understanding of the concept and terms. Finally, the

evaluation had been done for the target users aged 16 years old secondary school

students to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of animated comic on the students.

During the evaluation process, the animated work smoothly and no programming

error had been detected. Hence, the animated comic had given a good impression for

the target audience when they used the application.

The evaluation uses the pre-testing and post-testing approach to construct a

result of average percentage of performance from the students that have tested the

application. Based on the result, it showed that only a handful of students had

answered incorrectly in the pre-testing questions. However, after using the animated

comic, the most of the students have answered correctly in the post-testing questions.

Based on the satisfactory test, most of the students stated that the animated comic was

enjoyable to use, the content in the comic was helpful and the animated comic also

helped them to understand each phases better. Basically, the comic has aided the

students in answering the same set of questions given before they used it more

effectively. This might be because the users developed an emotional bond with the

characters as the theme and genre of the comic is suitable with the target audience.

The plot was light, simple and users were able to relate it with their personal

experience or similar to that. Therefore, the animated comic aided them to understand

the phases of Mitosis that cannot be seen using the naked eye by enhancing their

imagination with the help of the comical characters in the application


As a conclusion, animated comic is an effective type of an assisting

pedagogical tool that able to deliver the concept of a complex process among.

5.3 Limitation During the process of developing and testing the applications, a few weaknesses

have been detected in the animated comic. The limitations are as followed:

1. The narration (audio) was not very clear and sometimes the volume of the

narration is not standardized. In some scenes, the narration is loud but in other

scenes, it is very low and hard to listen to.

2. The animated comic does not have a virtual agent to guide them throughout

the phases

3. The users needed the help of the teacher or instructor in explaining about the

characters and the storyline throughout the phases when they used it for the

first time.

5.4 Recommendations The animated comic “ANICOMIX” still needs to be improved for the future

enhancement or research. There are a few aspects that can be improvised such as:

1. Graphics

The graphic should be more detail in term of the drawing so that user will be

more immersive. The colors also should be improvised well by using the

colors that will keep the users attracted.

2. Animation

The animation of the story can be improvised to be more detailed and smooth.

This will help user to be more interested in watching the animation. It will

attract user to give a full attention to the comic content.

3. Audio

More sound effect can be added in the animation such as wind and waterfall

effects. This will help user to be immerse in the story. Also, the volume of the

audio should be consistent throughout the application


4. Interactivity

More interactivity during the learning of phases should be added so that user

can fully participate and interact with the objects so that they could stay

immersed.

5. To extend the study on other comic genre as well.

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APPENDIX Appendix 1: The Phases in Mitosis

Mitosis is a continuous process and divided into 4 main phases based on the appearance and behavior of the chromosomes.

1. Prophase 2. Metaphase 3. Anaphase 4. Telophase

Early prophase

• Chomatids condense and become visible in a light microscope • Nucleolus disappears • Paired centrioles move to opposite ends of the cell

Late prophase • Nuclear membrane disappears • Spindle form

Metaphase

• Spindle fibres are fully form • Sister cromatids line up at the spindle equator • At the end of metaphase, the centromers divide

Anaphase • Anaphase begin with the separation of the centromers


• The sister cromatids are drawn to opposite poles of the cell by contraction of spindle fibres

Telophase

• Telophase begin when the two sets of daughter chromosomes have reached the two poles of the cell.

• The spindle fibres disintegrate, the nuclear membrane forms around each set of daughter chromosomes and the nucleoli reappear

• The chromosomes uncoil and become less visible under the light microscope • In plant cells, the stages of mitosis are same. Only cytokinesis in plant cells is

markedly different. • A cleavage furrow does not form. Instead, membrane-enclosed vesicle gather

at a plant cell’s equator between the two nuclei. • Vesicle fuse to form a cell plate

Cytokinesis Cytokinesis is the process of cytoplasmic division to form two daughter cells.

• Cytokinesis usually begins before nuclear division is completed. • Cytokinesis in animal cells and plant cells are different. • Animal cells, the cytoplasm contracts to pull the plasma membrane inwards,

forming groove called a cleavage furrow

74 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL Appendix 2: Question Set

Pre-testing question set NAME:__________________________________ AGE:___________ QUIZ: MITOSIS 1. What is a chromatin?

a) An animal cell b) A combination of DNA c) A combination of protein and DNA d) A combination of DNA and calcium

2. Examine the picture of the cell. What phase is the cell in? a) prophase b) anaphase c) metaphase d) telophase

3. What is the structure labelled "X" on the picture? a) centriole b) spindle c) chromosome d) chromatid

4. During which phase does chromosome first become visible? a) Interphase b) Telophase c) Metaphase d) Prophase

5. Each chromosome consists of 2 _____. a) Centrofibers b) chromatids c) daughter cells d) centrioles

6. What forms the spindle fibre ? a) chromatin b) centriole c) microtubule d) nucleolus

ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL 75 Post-testing question set

NAME:__________________________________ AGE:___________ QUIZ: MITOSIS 1. What is a chromatin?

e) An animal cell f) A combination of DNA g) A combination of protein and DNA h) A combination of DNA and calcium

2. Examine the picture of the cell. What phase is the cell in? e) prophase f) anaphase g) metaphase h) telophase

3. What is the structure labelled "X" on the picture? e) centriole f) spindle g) chromosome h) chromatid

4. During which phase does chromosome first become visible? e) Interphase f) Telophase g) Metaphase h) Prophase

5. Each chromosome consists of 2 _____. e) Centrofibers f) chromatids g) daughter cells h) centrioles

6. What forms the spindle fibre ? e) chromatin f) centriole g) microtubule h) nucleolus

76 ANICOMIX : ANIMATED COMIC AS AN ASSISTING PEDAGOGICAL TOOL SATIFACTORY QUESTION SET

Please circle your desired answer.

1. Was the animated comic fun and attract your attention? YES NO

2. Was the animated comic easy to use? YES NO

3. Was the animated comic easy to understand? YES NO

4. Do you understand the concept in each phases in Mitosis better after you use ANICOMIX? YES NO

5. Would you use ANICOMIX if improvements are made in the future? YES NO

6. Would you use ANICOMIX if it is available for other subjects? YES NO

Animated Comic as an Assisting Teaching Tool

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