Annotated Bibliographies for Module 10
Reading #1:
Johnson, C. & Priest, H. A. (2014). The feedback principle in multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 449-463). New York: Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 19)
This article explains in detail the feedback principle in multimedia learning. The basic premise of the feedback principle is that novice level learners perform better when given explanatory feedback than with corrective feedback alone. Corrective feedback is very cursory in nature and only tells the learner if their responses was correct or incorrect. Explanatory feedback is much more detailed and provides the learner with an explanation of why their response is correct or not. As expected, research has demonstrated that explanatory feedback is more effective. The rationale behind this principle is that corrective feedback, when used alone, can cause extraneous processing as the learner is left to figure out why their response was judged to be correct or incorrect with no additional guidance. This principle has been demonstrated experimentally in multimedia environments as well as in more traditional instructional environments. Several boundary conditions exist in terms of feedback in multimedia instruction , most notably that feedback should encourage active processing in order to be effective and that good design principles must be implemented as part of the multimedia instructional method to ensure that feedback will lead to deeper understanding. This area of research is still emerging and further studies are needed to deepen our understanding of feedback principles in multimedia environments.
Reading #2
Scheiter, K. (2014). The learner control principle in multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 487-512). New York: Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 21)
Research studies suggest that giving the learner some control over the pacing, sequencing, and selection of information in a multimedia instructional environment can have a positive effect on learning. This is known as the learner control principle. However, the level of prior knowledge a learner has prior to beginning instruction and the amount of support provided to help learners become comfortable in the learning environment are two major boundary condition existing within this principle. Giving learners control over major aspects of the instructional process can actually increase cognitive load in a negative manner if learners do not possess a great deal of prior knowledge in the concepts being taught through multimedia instruction. Additionally, if students are not familiar with the multimedia learning environment, the effect of learner control on understanding can be a negative as precious cognitive resources are devoted to understanding how to interact with the environment instead of being applied to understanding the material. It has been theorized that increased learner control should lead to increased motivation to learn, but this has not been demonstrated in empirical research studies into this topic. In fact, the opposite has proven true in related to the two major boundary conditions previously considered. Learners do not necessarily make better learning choices for themselves, especially if their level of prior knowledge is not high. The authors suggest that instructional designers should careful consider the strengths and weakness of the target student population to determine if learner control is necessary. If learner control is desired, proper instructional supports should be created as part of the overall instructional design.
Reading #3
Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (2005). Role of Guidance, Reflection, and Interactivity in an Agent-Based Multimedia Game. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(1), 117-128.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of guidance, reflection, and interactivity in an educational multimedia game environment. The authors hypothesized that feedback and interactivity would increase learning. Three experiments were designed to test these hypothesis. All three experiments used a game-based science environment related to environmental factors affecting plant growth. In experiment one, the role of guidance and reflection were examined. Results showed that explanatory feedback provided in the game was more effective than corrective feedback, confirming other research of the feedback principle in multimedia learning. However, asking students to reflect on their answers following the test did not reflect any significant gains. The second and third experiments were designed to test this reflection result to see if interactivity in the game would effect the reflection piece. Results were seemingly contradictory, but showed that retention was improved when a reflective activity was included when interactivity was reduced. This is likely because this step led to an increase in deep cognitive processing.
Reading #4:
Kalyuga, S. (2007). Enhancing Instructional Efficiency of Interactive E-learning Environments: A Cognitive Load Perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 387-399.
This article reviews many of the concepts covered previously in our readings regarding the nature of human cognitive architecture in relation to multimedia learning environments. The limitations of working memory are reviewed for the reader, reminding us that the ability to hold information in working memory is extremely limited and can easily be overloaded. Overloading working memory leads to a reduction of resources available to construct meaning and severely impacts overall learning. Students with a greater range of prior knowledge in a topic are able to reduce cognitive load, which has implications on the construction of learning environments. This result suggests that discovery based multimedia learning environments with minimal guidance would not be suitable for low lever learners due to inadequate cognitive processing capacity available. As multimedia learning environments can range greatly from simple to extremely complex with various levels of interactivity and learner controls, instructional designs must consider the cognitive load implications that the environments could produce in their learners. Steps should be taken to reduce cognitive loads and make the environment appropriate for the task and learning needs of the target group.
Reading #5:
Mayer, R. E. & Chandler, P. (2001). When learning is just a click away: Does simple user interaction foster deeper understanding of multimedia messages? Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 390-397.
This research study examined the impact of simple user controls in a multimedia presentation on learning retention and transfer. This would seemingly be an extension of previous research on learner control principles in multimedia instruction. Over two experiments, the author tested this effect using multimedia presentation on lightning formation. In experiment one, the two groups of students viewed the same presentation. The first group viewed the presentation in parts with the ability to control the pace of the presentation, and then viewed the presentation a second time without user controls. The other group viewed the presentation in reverse order. Results of this experiment showed that students in the first group who viewed the presentation in parts before viewing the whole presentation did better with transfer but not retention. The second experiment again divided students into two groups, with one group receiving the instruction twice but only in parts with user controls, and the second group viewing the presentation twice without any user control both times. Results of this experiment were similar to the first with students viewing the presentation only in parts both times doing better on transfer but not retention. This result is keeping with what we know of cognitive load theory. The authors theorize that the simple user controls as part of the presentation allowed the users to control the flow of information whereas viewing the entire presentation at once led to cognitive overload. Conventional wisdom often suggests that viewing information in its entirety first would provide necessary foundational knowledge but the results of this and similar studies suggest otherwise. I chose this article because I am very interested in the positive impacts user controls can have on learning and retention of knowledge. I have long believed in the conventional wisdom of a whole-part-whole construction of instruction but have learned that this is not always best practice, especially in multimedia learning environments.
Johnson, C. & Priest, H. A. (2014). The feedback principle in multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 449-463). New York: Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 19)
This article explains in detail the feedback principle in multimedia learning. The basic premise of the feedback principle is that novice level learners perform better when given explanatory feedback than with corrective feedback alone. Corrective feedback is very cursory in nature and only tells the learner if their responses was correct or incorrect. Explanatory feedback is much more detailed and provides the learner with an explanation of why their response is correct or not. As expected, research has demonstrated that explanatory feedback is more effective. The rationale behind this principle is that corrective feedback, when used alone, can cause extraneous processing as the learner is left to figure out why their response was judged to be correct or incorrect with no additional guidance. This principle has been demonstrated experimentally in multimedia environments as well as in more traditional instructional environments. Several boundary conditions exist in terms of feedback in multimedia instruction , most notably that feedback should encourage active processing in order to be effective and that good design principles must be implemented as part of the multimedia instructional method to ensure that feedback will lead to deeper understanding. This area of research is still emerging and further studies are needed to deepen our understanding of feedback principles in multimedia environments.
Reading #2
Scheiter, K. (2014). The learner control principle in multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 487-512). New York: Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 21)
Research studies suggest that giving the learner some control over the pacing, sequencing, and selection of information in a multimedia instructional environment can have a positive effect on learning. This is known as the learner control principle. However, the level of prior knowledge a learner has prior to beginning instruction and the amount of support provided to help learners become comfortable in the learning environment are two major boundary condition existing within this principle. Giving learners control over major aspects of the instructional process can actually increase cognitive load in a negative manner if learners do not possess a great deal of prior knowledge in the concepts being taught through multimedia instruction. Additionally, if students are not familiar with the multimedia learning environment, the effect of learner control on understanding can be a negative as precious cognitive resources are devoted to understanding how to interact with the environment instead of being applied to understanding the material. It has been theorized that increased learner control should lead to increased motivation to learn, but this has not been demonstrated in empirical research studies into this topic. In fact, the opposite has proven true in related to the two major boundary conditions previously considered. Learners do not necessarily make better learning choices for themselves, especially if their level of prior knowledge is not high. The authors suggest that instructional designers should careful consider the strengths and weakness of the target student population to determine if learner control is necessary. If learner control is desired, proper instructional supports should be created as part of the overall instructional design.
Reading #3
Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (2005). Role of Guidance, Reflection, and Interactivity in an Agent-Based Multimedia Game. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(1), 117-128.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of guidance, reflection, and interactivity in an educational multimedia game environment. The authors hypothesized that feedback and interactivity would increase learning. Three experiments were designed to test these hypothesis. All three experiments used a game-based science environment related to environmental factors affecting plant growth. In experiment one, the role of guidance and reflection were examined. Results showed that explanatory feedback provided in the game was more effective than corrective feedback, confirming other research of the feedback principle in multimedia learning. However, asking students to reflect on their answers following the test did not reflect any significant gains. The second and third experiments were designed to test this reflection result to see if interactivity in the game would effect the reflection piece. Results were seemingly contradictory, but showed that retention was improved when a reflective activity was included when interactivity was reduced. This is likely because this step led to an increase in deep cognitive processing.
Reading #4:
Kalyuga, S. (2007). Enhancing Instructional Efficiency of Interactive E-learning Environments: A Cognitive Load Perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 387-399.
This article reviews many of the concepts covered previously in our readings regarding the nature of human cognitive architecture in relation to multimedia learning environments. The limitations of working memory are reviewed for the reader, reminding us that the ability to hold information in working memory is extremely limited and can easily be overloaded. Overloading working memory leads to a reduction of resources available to construct meaning and severely impacts overall learning. Students with a greater range of prior knowledge in a topic are able to reduce cognitive load, which has implications on the construction of learning environments. This result suggests that discovery based multimedia learning environments with minimal guidance would not be suitable for low lever learners due to inadequate cognitive processing capacity available. As multimedia learning environments can range greatly from simple to extremely complex with various levels of interactivity and learner controls, instructional designs must consider the cognitive load implications that the environments could produce in their learners. Steps should be taken to reduce cognitive loads and make the environment appropriate for the task and learning needs of the target group.
Reading #5:
Mayer, R. E. & Chandler, P. (2001). When learning is just a click away: Does simple user interaction foster deeper understanding of multimedia messages? Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 390-397.
This research study examined the impact of simple user controls in a multimedia presentation on learning retention and transfer. This would seemingly be an extension of previous research on learner control principles in multimedia instruction. Over two experiments, the author tested this effect using multimedia presentation on lightning formation. In experiment one, the two groups of students viewed the same presentation. The first group viewed the presentation in parts with the ability to control the pace of the presentation, and then viewed the presentation a second time without user controls. The other group viewed the presentation in reverse order. Results of this experiment showed that students in the first group who viewed the presentation in parts before viewing the whole presentation did better with transfer but not retention. The second experiment again divided students into two groups, with one group receiving the instruction twice but only in parts with user controls, and the second group viewing the presentation twice without any user control both times. Results of this experiment were similar to the first with students viewing the presentation only in parts both times doing better on transfer but not retention. This result is keeping with what we know of cognitive load theory. The authors theorize that the simple user controls as part of the presentation allowed the users to control the flow of information whereas viewing the entire presentation at once led to cognitive overload. Conventional wisdom often suggests that viewing information in its entirety first would provide necessary foundational knowledge but the results of this and similar studies suggest otherwise. I chose this article because I am very interested in the positive impacts user controls can have on learning and retention of knowledge. I have long believed in the conventional wisdom of a whole-part-whole construction of instruction but have learned that this is not always best practice, especially in multimedia learning environments.