Clark and Mayer (2011) recommend on page 207 and following that complex lessons including multiple major aspects be presented to learners in a logical sequence of segments. This is especially important when designing instruction for learners who are novice in the subject-area. By presenting complex information in a logical sequence of parts, learners are less likely to become confused and frustrated.
Kahn Academy's course on the Chemistry of Life appears to present the first lesson by breaking down the content into three segments -- Periodic table, Atom, and Element.
Source: Kahn Academy - Chemistry of Life
However, the video presentation of the first lesson is not segmented, but rather proceeds upon a "fabric of instruction" that weaves together the concepts featured in the lesson. Assuming that the learners already have a basic understanding of these concepts, this is not a "bad" or incorrect design. However, I believe that if the intended audience was people for whom these concepts were not already somewhat familiar, a segmented approach to instruction would be more effective.
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.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Personalization Principle #2: Use Effective On-Screen Coaches to Promote Learning
Clark and Mayer (2011) suggest or recommend the use of pedagogical agents in the design and development of online instructional materials (p 193). Their major interest is such agents regards their abilities to employ sound instructional techniques that foster learning.The authors do not address the question of the ages of the learners who may benefit from the use of such agents. Nor do the authors adequately address the necessary nature of interaction of the agent with learners (in my opinion).
Direct link to example above
The example above is from the Oddcast company that sells hosting services for its variety of agents, used for marketing and other purposes. I used one of their agents with some of my adult students years ago. The response of the students was remarkably underwhelming. In fact, no one provided any feedback to me at all. The instructional capacities of my agent, "Alvin" were limited. In the absence of any feedback, and faced with a monthly charge for Oddcast hosting, Alvin was of short duration. My guess is that such instructional resources work better with children, and that unless the programming behind the avatar allows it to provide highly personalized feedback to learners, the novelty does not last long. I believe that the demonstration above is an adequate example of the use of an avatar for marketing or instructional purposes.
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.
The example above is from the Oddcast company that sells hosting services for its variety of agents, used for marketing and other purposes. I used one of their agents with some of my adult students years ago. The response of the students was remarkably underwhelming. In fact, no one provided any feedback to me at all. The instructional capacities of my agent, "Alvin" were limited. In the absence of any feedback, and faced with a monthly charge for Oddcast hosting, Alvin was of short duration. My guess is that such instructional resources work better with children, and that unless the programming behind the avatar allows it to provide highly personalized feedback to learners, the novelty does not last long. I believe that the demonstration above is an adequate example of the use of an avatar for marketing or instructional purposes.
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.
Personalization Principle #1: Use Conversational Rather than Formal Style
Clark and Mayer (2011) recommend a personalized style of speaking or writing that addresses learners in the second person. They refer to this as Personalization Principle 1: Use Conversational Rather then Formal Style. In this Coursera MOOC titled, "Fixing Healthcare Delivery," Dr. Frederick Southwick addressed learners in the second person and personalizes the course by use of many examples, including his own experiences as a patient.
Source: Coursera.com, especially, Fixing Healthcare Delivery course description
Notice that the evidence of the use of Personalization Principle 1 is evident. In the syllabus Dr. Wouthwick address learners as "you." The course begins in week one with the study of the true experiences of a patient named Mary.
On page 184 Clark and Mayer note that, "expressing information in a conversation style can be a way to prime appropriate cognitive processing in the learner." Ideally, the spirit of modern medical care in the United States is that care should be patient-centered. The use of personalization and patient-based examples in the course aligns well with the spirit of patient-centered care.
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.
Source: Coursera.com, especially, Fixing Healthcare Delivery course description
Notice that the evidence of the use of Personalization Principle 1 is evident. In the syllabus Dr. Wouthwick address learners as "you." The course begins in week one with the study of the true experiences of a patient named Mary.
On page 184 Clark and Mayer note that, "expressing information in a conversation style can be a way to prime appropriate cognitive processing in the learner." Ideally, the spirit of modern medical care in the United States is that care should be patient-centered. The use of personalization and patient-based examples in the course aligns well with the spirit of patient-centered care.
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.
Coherence Principle #3: Avoid e-Lessons with Extraneous Words
Clark and Mayer (2011) recommend against the inclusion of text (words) beyond what is required to convey necessary information at the intended level of instruction. The addition of interesting but extraneous words may result in poorer learning (p 166). Extraneous words can detract from learning for the same psychological reasons that extraneous sounds and graphics should be avoided (p 168). The issues include relate both to the constraints of human working memory and to the potential to create incorrect or sub-optimal neural connections by triggering tangential existing neural patterns rather than the neural patterns containing the target points of attachment in long-term memory.
Source: https://www.commoncraft.com/video/rss
The screenshot above is from a site intended to teach viewers the value of the use of Commoncraft resources for use by teachers. The instructional video (example) is overly hyperactive in my opinion (but perhaps not by modern practice). The video and the context in which it is displayed is heavy with a lot of textual content that may be relevant to the company trying to sell its product but which is probably extraneous to most people viewing the presentation. The presentation contains a lot of text and so a lot of rapid animation that serves to overload at least my working memory.
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.
Source: https://www.commoncraft.com/video/rss
The screenshot above is from a site intended to teach viewers the value of the use of Commoncraft resources for use by teachers. The instructional video (example) is overly hyperactive in my opinion (but perhaps not by modern practice). The video and the context in which it is displayed is heavy with a lot of textual content that may be relevant to the company trying to sell its product but which is probably extraneous to most people viewing the presentation. The presentation contains a lot of text and so a lot of rapid animation that serves to overload at least my working memory.
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.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Coherence Principle 2: Avoid e-Lessons with Extraneous Graphics
Clark and Mayer (2011) recommend against the inclusion of pictures in instructional multimedia that do not directly relate to instructional content. They report that extraneous pictures can interfere with the learner's attempts to make sense of the material presented (p 159). They report that extraneous pictures (an their text captions) interfere with earning because they become sources of distraction, disruption and seduction (p 161). By seduction they mean that the pictures can trigger existing knowledge tending to create incorrect neural associations between the new material and existing knowledge. Clark and Mayer recommend that when graphics are used that the graphics be simple so as to not overload working memory.
Source: Understanding Exposure, 3rd edition by Bryan Peterson
I would argue that while instructional multimedia about learning to produce photographs for instructional purposes is likely to be full of photographs, the inclusion of many photographs are not likely to be a violation of Coherence Principle 2. So long as a photograph in such a book or online medium is included for the purpose of illustration rather than decoration, it is a needed design element. Brian Peterson's books available at Amazon.com and other book sellers.
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.
Peterson, B. (2010). Understanding Exposure, 3rd ed: How to shoot great photographs with any camera. New York: Amphoto Books.
Source: Understanding Exposure, 3rd edition by Bryan Peterson
I would argue that while instructional multimedia about learning to produce photographs for instructional purposes is likely to be full of photographs, the inclusion of many photographs are not likely to be a violation of Coherence Principle 2. So long as a photograph in such a book or online medium is included for the purpose of illustration rather than decoration, it is a needed design element. Brian Peterson's books available at Amazon.com and other book sellers.
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.
Peterson, B. (2010). Understanding Exposure, 3rd ed: How to shoot great photographs with any camera. New York: Amphoto Books.
Coherence Principle 1: Avoid e-Lessons with Extraneous Audio
Clark and Mayer (2011) advise teachers not to include unnecessary audio (including music) in instructional multimedia. They reason that background music and souncs may overload working memory (p 154). The authors point out that there is arousal theory which predicts that students will learn more from multimedia that includes interesting sounds and music (p 156). But according to the authors cognitive theory of multimedia learning indicates otherwise.
Link to video titled, The Best Prezi Presentation Ever!
The Prezi presentation above titled, "The Best Prezi Presentation Ever!" is not. It may have been designed to pacify the hyperactive mind. It includes music with lyrics that do not correspond with any of the other media coming at the viewer rapidly. I think the fact that it contains lyrics makes it all the more likely to overload working memory. Several of the comments posted below the presentation on YouTube commend the music. But based on research reported by Clark and Mayer it is likely that viewers retain less of the intended content because of the presence of the music. If the purpose of instructional content is to get lesson content through working memory and to anchor that new content in long-term memory, music and lyrics are more likely to clog up working memory than to facilitate learning.
Reference
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.
Link to video titled, The Best Prezi Presentation Ever!
The Prezi presentation above titled, "The Best Prezi Presentation Ever!" is not. It may have been designed to pacify the hyperactive mind. It includes music with lyrics that do not correspond with any of the other media coming at the viewer rapidly. I think the fact that it contains lyrics makes it all the more likely to overload working memory. Several of the comments posted below the presentation on YouTube commend the music. But based on research reported by Clark and Mayer it is likely that viewers retain less of the intended content because of the presence of the music. If the purpose of instructional content is to get lesson content through working memory and to anchor that new content in long-term memory, music and lyrics are more likely to clog up working memory than to facilitate learning.
Reference
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.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
The Redundancy Principle
The Redundancy Principle is similar to the Modality Principle except it states that delivering the same words using both audio narration and screen text at the same time is redundant (Clark & Mayer, 2011). "People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text." (Faculty Center for Learning Development)
I think this video regarding a MOOC offered by Coursera does not violate the Redundancy Principle because what the instructor is saying (through audio narration in the video) is not replicated as words on the screen. However, the video is embedded on a page with A LOT of text on the screen that competes for the users attention while the video plays on the page. Although the words are not redundant, I believe the viewer may be overwhelmed with words unless he or she uses the feature to enlarge the video to full screen while watching the video.This example does meet the principle because the words on the screen are not the same words spoken in the video.
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.
Faculty Center for Learning Developoment (no date). University of Hartford. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
https://www.hartford.edu/academics/faculty/fcld/data/documentation/technology/presentation/powerpoint/12_principles_multimedia.pdf
I think this video regarding a MOOC offered by Coursera does not violate the Redundancy Principle because what the instructor is saying (through audio narration in the video) is not replicated as words on the screen. However, the video is embedded on a page with A LOT of text on the screen that competes for the users attention while the video plays on the page. Although the words are not redundant, I believe the viewer may be overwhelmed with words unless he or she uses the feature to enlarge the video to full screen while watching the video.This example does meet the principle because the words on the screen are not the same words spoken in the video.
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.
Faculty Center for Learning Developoment (no date). University of Hartford. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
https://www.hartford.edu/academics/faculty/fcld/data/documentation/technology/presentation/powerpoint/12_principles_multimedia.pdf
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