Practice principle #1: Add Sufficient Practice Interactions to e-Larning to Achieve the Objective

Beginning on page 257 of our textbook Clark and Mayer identify the benefits of practice and the challenges of designing practice into instructional materials. It is not enough for most learners to only see the explanation of the performance of a complex cognitive process. Nor is it enough for learners to solve only one such problem. To remember how to apply and repeat the performance later, it is often necessary to complete many variations of the same performance. Only then is it likely that the process and its performance will "stick" in the mind of the learner.

Source: "MySecretMath Tutor YouTube video - Statistics - Find the z Score

The need to find a z score is a common and frequent need in statistical problems regarding probabilities. The performance involves multiple "elements" that are not familiar to many learners. It is likely that learners will only master the process by having seen and worked through the process many times. This is an important example of the kind of learning objective that is likely to require including many opportunities for practice into design of a course.


References

Clark, R. C. & Mayer, R.E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven Guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.