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3. Teaching with Technology
3.1. Teaching
Multimedia & Learning
Research on the use of graphics and animation in learning
This is a summary of research conducted on the use and design of animations as instructional tools. The research pertains to stand-alone tutorials or demonstrations, although some of the points would also hold for in-class demonstrations.
- What types of processes or objects benefit most from the use of animations?
- Animations are best suited for information that is procedural in nature, has a certain degree of complexity, and is difficult to observe in the real world.
- In particular, animations are useful for processes that:
- take place over very long periods of time such as continental drift, embryological development, etc.
- take place too quickly in real time, such as engine cycles, neuronal conduction, etc.
- are microscopic (or invisible), such as a cell membrane, viral infection, etc.
- are macroscopic, such as astronomical motion
- have many complex sub-processes, such as photosynthesis
- require concrete visual representations of qualities, such as speed, density, or temperature
Principles of Animation Design
The following principles are based on various research studies that have examined the effectiveness of animation and on cognitive theory, particularly dual-code theories of mental representation.
Briefly, these theories suggest that multiple forms of instructional materials (e.g., text, audio, visuals, etc) will facilitate learning only if they help the learner to:
- form representational connections between the verbal material and verbal mental representations,
- form representational connections between the visual material and the visual mental representations, and
- form referential connections between verbal and visual representations.
Thus instructional materials must help students map the verbal and visual material onto mental representations and support the integration of these representations into one coherent representation i.e., mapping the mental image of the action onto the mental representation of the verbal material.
In general, animations that have violated these principles have shown either no or even negative effects on student outcomes.
- The design must focus and guide the attention of the user to the relevant information.
- Learners, especially low-knowledge ones, often have difficulty determining what to attend to and how it is relevant. Advantages for animations have often been shown for high-knowledge learners because they were able to filter out irrelevant information and focus on the relevant aspects.
- Motion or objects that are irrelevant to the narration (or the relevant concept) can distract the learner from the relevant material.
- Pointers or cues that clearly show the user which objects and actions are relevant improve learner outcomes.
- Learners, especially low-knowledge ones, often have difficulty determining what to attend to and how it is relevant. Advantages for animations have often been shown for high-knowledge learners because they were able to filter out irrelevant information and focus on the relevant aspects.
- Narration must occur simultaneously with the relevant animation.
- When narration occurs before or after the relevant animation learning effects are significantly diminished.
- This ties in with the dual-representation theory: multiple information formats will only be advantageous to the degree that the different mental representations (verbal and visual) can be connected.
- Action should be linked to the narration. Action irrelevant to the narration should be avoided or at least minimized or made secondary to the main point.
- Misconceptions can lead to misinterpretations and misperceptions of the relevant information.
- When possible, commonly held misconceptions should guide the design of the animation and narration to override or reduce the misconception and its effects.
- For example, if students often make sequence or causal link errors then the narration or animation can emphasize that misconception. Or, if an interactive component of the tutorial was developed, a question that requires the student to create the causal chain of events (by clicking objects or dragging them in sequence to their required locations) could clearly demonstrate their misconception with immediate feedback (e.g., the incorrect sequence leads to no effect, different effect than desired, etc)
- Color and/or sound for its own sake may not have any impact or possibly a negative one if it suggests importance or differences among objects that don't exist.
- The color or sound should highlight or provide an additional (redundant) representational code for the relevant concept (e.g., learner might remember green things acted one way & red another and/or the different items sounded different and can link the sound to an action)
- Use color to discriminate among objects or aspects of objects that are relevant. Irrelevant differences in color can distract and mislead learners.
- Use sound to discriminate among actions or processes (e.g., one sound to accompany movement of an ion through the membrane vs a different sound to indicate an ion bouncing off the membrane) or feedback (e.g., correct vs incorrect action on the part of a use)
- The color or sound should highlight or provide an additional (redundant) representational code for the relevant concept (e.g., learner might remember green things acted one way & red another and/or the different items sounded different and can link the sound to an action)
- Text within the animation should be used sparingly.
- This relates to the issues of focus, distractibility, and cognitive overload. Too much visual information, presented simultaneously has been found to create an attentional overload. Again, this has a larger negative effect on lower-knowledge or lower-ability learners.
- If text is needed to label new objects entering the visual field or that have been introduced in the narration, action should pause, and after a minimal delay the label should appear. Then the label can disappear and the action resume.
- The pause before providing the label gives the user some time to form an hypothesis about the new object, further engaging them in the instructional sequence.
- This relates to the issues of focus, distractibility, and cognitive overload. Too much visual information, presented simultaneously has been found to create an attentional overload. Again, this has a larger negative effect on lower-knowledge or lower-ability learners.
- Use the appropriate Level of Abstraction.
- Objects and actions within the animation should not be so detailed that they can cause information overload or so abstract that it is cognitively taxing to make the connections between the objects and their real-world referents.
- Intermediate levels of abstraction are desirable. The relevant dimensions or properties should be represented and other aspects of the objects or actions should be eliminated.
- Often relative, proportional relationships are more important than actual size, speed, etc.
- Objects and actions within the animation should not be so detailed that they can cause information overload or so abstract that it is cognitively taxing to make the connections between the objects and their real-world referents.
- Use of metaphor.
- Familiar processes or objects that share properties with the instructional materials can be useful for learners, especially learners with lower-knowledge.
- For example, water flowing through pipes as a metaphor for the flow of electricity has been shown to help students understand properties of electrical circuits, resistors, etc.
- Familiar processes or objects that share properties with the instructional materials can be useful for learners, especially learners with lower-knowledge.
- Create User controls.
- Because learners are varied in terms of their prior knowledge, learning styles, etc, the ability of the user to control the presentation is desirable
- Options for user control can include speed, reverse, or repeat sequence (or start-over), and quit.
- Clearly mark the end of the animation.
- Rather than have the animation end and quit the program, it should stop or return to the beginning of the animation and request or require the user to "quit".
- Users don't always expect or recognize the end of the animation (e.g., may think that a computer error has occurred) or may want to review or replay aspects of the animation.
- Rather than have the animation end and quit the program, it should stop or return to the beginning of the animation and request or require the user to "quit".
- The type of assessment or desired learning outcome is important to consider.
- Assessments that only measure recognition or recall of static details do not show benefits of animation over other modes of instruction.
- Animations show advantages for assessments targeting:
- Problem-solving or transfer type problems. Tasks that require recreating a procedure or sequence of steps to accomplish a goal
- Diagnostic-or trouble-shooting questions (e.g., "what would happen if.", or "if this happened, how might you explain it")
References
- Cook, L.K., & Mayer, R.E. (1988). Teaching readers about the structure of scientific text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80,448-456.
- Large, A., Beheshti, J., Breuleux, A., & Renaud, A. (1996) The effect of animation in enhancing descriptive and procedural texts in a multimedia learning environment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46, 340-347.
- Mayer, R.E. (1994). Visual aids to knowledge construction: Building mental representations from pictures to words. In W. Schnotz & R.W. Kulhavy (Eds.), Comprehension of graphics (pp. 125 - 138). Elsevier Science B.V. : North Holland.
- Mayer, R.E., & Anderson, R.B. (1991). Animations need narrations: An experimental test of a dual-coding hypothesis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 484-490.
- Mayer, R.E., & Anderson, R.B. (1992).The instructive animation: Helping students build connections between words and pictures in multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 444-452.
- Mayer, R.E., & Moreno, R. (1998). A split-attention effect in multimedia learning: Evidence for dual-processing systems in working memory. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 312-320.
- Mayer, R.E., & Sims, V.K. (1994). For whom is a picture worth a thousand words? Extensions of a dual-coding theory of multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 389-401.
- Moreno, R., & Mayer, R.E. (1999). Cognitive principles of multimedia learning: The role of modality and contiguity. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 358-368.
- Moreno, R., & Mayer, R.E. (2000). A coherence effect in multimedia learning: The case for minimizing irrelevant sounds in the design of multimedia messages. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 117-125.
- Reiber, L.P. (1990). Animation in computer-based instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 38, 77-86.
Adapted from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University
