Tutorial Booking and Tracking Application Interactivity A Multimodal Social Semiotic Analysis Framework

Abstract

Electronic texts can be highly interactive. Forms of interactivity, such as hyperlinks, shortcuts or tags are not only signs to make meaning on the e-page but also space for actions and changing textual situations. Here, e-page interactivity and textual interaction become two different realms and make a gap between the text analysis and multimodal analysis. This case study aims to analyze the interactivity of the online tutorial booking and tracking application called ‘ ASP tutTrak’ by using a social semiotic multimodal framework for text and image analysis. The application is currently used in the Academic Success Center (ASC) of a tertiary level institution in the United Arab Emirates and was designed by the Information and Communication team of the same institution. The theoretical framework of the study presents multimodal social semiotics analysis of sites, signs and images of the ‘ASP tutTrak’ application through three metafunctions of communication (Halliday, 1978, Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996, 2006). Since the application under consideration is in the academic domain, this study adapted Chou’s (2003) framework for interaction types for learner-interface and learner-content. Analysis of five sample pages indicate that the interactive meaning potentials of the digital text, interface and content are high and the application is interactive.