Occupations in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) are among the key growth and innovation areas in the labour market (Bundesargentur für Arbeit, 2025). In 2024, around 1.52 million ICT specialists were employed in Germany. Around 27% of them came from Europe, particularly Italy and Spain (ibid.). Although around 93.5% of people with ICT qualifications were employed at EU level in 2024, Spain had the highest proportion of unemployed people with ICT qualifications at 9.9%. As a non-EU country, Serbia saw the most significant increase in the proportion of employed persons with ICT training in 2024, with an employment rate of 90.0% (Eurostat, n.d.).
In addition, different development patterns are emerging in the field of IT education. For example, there has been a slight increase in informatic degree programmes (academic year 2023/24: 258,000 students), while the number of trainees is declining. In 2024, almost 20,000 new training contracts were concluded in the ICT sector. However, this represents a decline of 8% compared to 2023 (Bundesargentur für Arbeit, 2025). In addition, the ICT sector offers flexible entry for career changers, as companies are open to hiring employees with informally acquired skills (Jansen et al., 2020). Career changers are becoming increasingly important in the applied informatics sector, as only around 27% of new hires have a university degree and 37% have completed dual IT vocational training. Career changers account for 27% of new hires (Bitkom, 2026). The question of the quality, focus and effectiveness of educational programmes in vocational and academic qualifications is becoming increasingly important, with a particular focus on innovative teaching concepts such as media-supported learning environments, as these can help to improve the match between qualifications and the labour market (KMK, 2021).
This outlined development points to increasing country-specific mismatches between the qualifications offered and those in demand. One way to counteract this mismatch is seen in the increasing promotion of cross-border cooperation partnerships to enhance the quality and relevance of the activities of participating organisations and strengthen their networks. Such partnerships also promote internationalisation and networking across national borders (European Commission, n.d.).
This paper provides an insight into the interim results of the Erasmus+ project ‘Multimedia Learning Environment for Work-Based Learning Tasks for VET- and university students in the sector of Applied Informatics’ (acronym: MULE). The project aims to develop an online multimedia learning environment tailored to applied informatics and enriched with learning and work tasks in order to strengthen cooperation at EU level between Germany, Serbia, Italy and Spain. The goal is to integrate current trends in applied informatics into curricula through cooperation between vocational schools, universities and industry. Despite the promising design features of media-supported learning environments (e.g. independent selection of learning content by learners, high practical relevance to the professional situation), empirical evidence on the user-friendliness and effectiveness of certain design features from the learners' perspective is still underrepresented (Denninger & Käpplinger, 2021; Siemer, 2023).
Against the background outlined above, the aim of this article is to make predictions about effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction from the user's point of view. The article examines the following research questions: 

1. To what extent are users satisfied with the multimedia learning environment?
2. Can country-specific differences in usability scores be identified in the development cycles of the pilot?
3. To what extent can starting points for design decisions be derived?

The design and development work for the multimedia learning environment was carried out by combining existing models: In a first step, professional spheres of activity were defined across countries based on Howe & Knutzen (2021a). In a second step, learning and work tasks were designed through close collaboration between vocational schools, universities and industry (Howe & Knutzen, 2021b). The design and development work for the multimedia learning environment is based on the ten learning psychology and didactic decision-making areas according to Niegemann (2020): (1) format decision, (2) content structuring, (3) learning tasks and narration, (4) technical conditions and developments, (5) multimedia design, (6) motivational design, (7) interaction design, (8) time structuring, (9) graphic design & layout and (10) implementation. A design-based research (DBR) approach was chosen for the research design. This model is iterative and cyclical in nature. Reinmann states that there is no absolute beginning and no absolute end. Theoretically, the DBR process can be entered at any point and repeated as often as desired (Reinmann, 2020). A characteristic feature of the DBR approach is the close link between research and practice, as the research addresses a real, practice-relevant educational problem for which no mature solution exists yet. In this context, new approaches or products are developed, such as educational and teaching-learning concepts, didactic methods or media technology infrastructures (Reinmann, 2017). The methodological approach of this study follows a quantitative research approach. In order to obtain an overall view of the subjective assessments of the user-friendliness of the multimedia learning environment, our survey instrument is based on the System Usability Scale (SUS), based on Brooke (1996). Our questionnaire consists of 10 items with Likert-scaled response options. The 4-point scale ranges from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. Testing of the pilot began in August 2025 and will end in May 2026. At present, the sample in the first cycle consists of n = 70. In order to get an overall impression of the user-friendliness of the multimedia learning environment, we will first determine descriptive-statistical parameters (Döring, 2023). The sample consists of students of applied informatic science and trainees at vocational schools for IT in the partner countries Italy, Spain, Serbia and Germany.

With regard to the research questions, the following interim results can be derived. Overall, users rate the multimedia learning environment positively. Taking into account the ten learning psychology and didactic decision-making areas, it should first be emphasised that users rated the content structure (area 2) positively. The learning content of the multimedia learning environment is perceived by users as being clearly structured. In addition, the current structure helps to better understand the learning paths. The integrated learning and work tasks are also easy to understand and well explained from the user's point of view in terms of their instructions and task descriptions (area 3: Learning tasks and narration). Across countries, the learning and work tasks seem to offer easy access to learning for users. In addition, the results show that the first pilot has a simple overall usage (area 6: Motivational design). In the iterative process, users perceive a need for adaptation, particularly in the areas of multimedia design (area 5) and interaction design (area 7), which are relevant to learning psychology and didactics. The next step should be to make adjustments to the multimedia elements used to date to support learning and work tasks (e.g. text, symbols, graphics). Interaction design should also be adapted for intuitive and smoother use. For the second cycle, qualitative data is used to ensure a more precise adaptation of the multimedia learning environment. The use of multimedia learning environments represents a potentially effective approach to promoting sustainable learning processes. The specific learning outcomes will be determined following the piloting of the prototype as part of further follow-up research.

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