KAMISAH OSMAN and TIEN TIEN LEE IMPACT OF INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA MODULE WITH PEDAGOGICAL AGENTS ON STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING AND MOTIVATION IN THE LEARNING OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY Received: 29 January 2012; Accepted: 18 February 2013 ABSTRACT. The Electrochemistry topic is found to be difficult to learn due to its abstract concepts involving macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic representation levels. Studies have shown that animation and simulation using information and communication technology (ICT) can help students to visualize and hence enhance their understanding in learning abstract chemistry topics. As a result, an interactive multimedia module with the pedagogical agent (IMMPA) named the EC Lab (Electrochemistry Lab) was developed in order to assist students in the learning of Electrochemistry topics. A non- equivalent pretest–posttest control group design investigation was carried out in order to gauge the effect of the IMMPA EC Lab on students’ understanding and motivation in the learning of Electrochemistry. Some 127 Form Four students from two secondary schools in one of the districts in Malaysia were involved in the study. Each school had one treatment group and one control group taught by the same Chemistry teacher. Instruments involved were a pre- and posttest, a pre- and post-motivation questionnaire, and the IMMPA EC Lab. Results showed a significant difference between the control groups and treatment groups in the understanding of concepts in the learning of Electrochemistry. KEY WORDS: electrochemistry, interactive multimedia module, pedagogical agent INTRODUCTION Chemistry is the science of matter concerned with the composition of substances, structure, properties and interactions between them. Chemistry should be taught at three representational levels, macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic (Johnstone, 1993). Macroscopically, the chemical process can be observed and sensed by our sensory monitoring. The arrangement and movement of particles and the interactions between them can be explained at the microscopic level. All the chemical processes involved can be represented by symbols, numbers, formulae, and equations symbolically. Chemistry is taught at upper secondary level for science stream students in Malaysia. The themes for the Chemistry Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10763-013- 9407-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 2013 # National Science Council, Taiwan 2013