This book joins a large number of textbooks designed for post-secondary courses in multimedia development. It is divided into four parts and an introduction. The prefatory materials are excellent and set the stage for great things to come. However, the book that follows is disappointing. A question emerges: How can anyone so obviously knowledgeable about a subject write a book that falls so short of its mark? The answer is found on page 6, where Boyle explains that this book is written for novices as well as for experienced developers. One size does not fit all. This book has no clearly defined target audience.

Part 1, five chapters on “Learning through Interactive Media,” is unnecessary for the knowledgeable and too intensive for novices. These 65 pages are supposed to compensate for lack of the prerequisite mastery of traditional computer-assisted instruction, learning theories, instructional methodologies, and authoring systems.

In Part 2, three chapters on “Conceptual Design,” the author’s stated purpose of serving multiple audiences begins to show. These chapters, though wordy and academic, are full of wonderful advice and show that the author knows his field. However, the content of Part 2 is unnecessary to experienced readers and will overwhelm the uninitiated.

Parts 3 and 4, “Presentation Design” and “Project Development, Evaluation, and Delivery,” are very much like Part 2 in scope and language. Too much of the content and too many of the examples are from computer-related areas such as programming and word processing. There are a few references to science topics, but the liberal arts and humanities are totally ignored. The book ends with a comprehensive reference list and an appendix that provides Web access points for information on multimedia and learning.

In general, the book touches too briefly on many complex concepts and ideas. More in-depth discussion in parts 2, 3, and 4 would be helpful. Another source of frustration is the author’s stating that the chapters may be read in any order, and then referring back to previous chapters in the text. In spite of everything, I enjoyed reading the book and agree with most of the ideas posited. However, I would not use it as a text. It is this type of “support material” that turns students away from learning and makes teachers wish they were otherwise employed.