Multimedia Learning Principles (Forums)

Learning With Technology (Ch. 2)

The Chapter 2 lays out, I believe, a great framework for instructional designers to
critically analyze how modern technologies, commonly believed to be cost effective
and joyful learning tools, can be used to create an environment that effects learner's
experience (positively). The risk modern technologies carry is that the instructional
designers can often get carried away with the fancy ideas such as game-based
learning, because it makes learning sound like a fun activity, and in the process,
overuse and misuse of these technologies that adds to cognitive load for the learner
can be ignored. Therefore, it is highly critical for instructional designers to know how
and when to use these technologies to create a successful learning environment.
It is very crucial for instructional designers to find ways to minimize extraneous
processing, aimed at avoiding unnecessary information or words; manage essential
processing, amid at keeping the core content within manageable range of learner's
cognitive capacity to free up space in working memory for deeper processing; and
foster generative processing, aimed at deeper understand of the materials.
I agree with the solution presented to resolve the training dilemma that media should
be used to the company's purposes instead of making employees adapt to new
technologies. The approach should be based on learners, not otherwise.

Chapter 5: Contiguity Principle

As a former newspaper city editor and lifelong reader, it has never occurred to me
that placing caption right under the photographs, very common even today across the
world, violates the contiguity principle. The design dilemma presented in Chapter 5
discusses whether visual examples should be presented after the learner have read
the text (as Ben suggests) or visuals and texts should be integrated (as Reshmi
suggests). I agree with the authors that the violations we often see include texts and
visuals are separated, feedback is displayed on a separate screen or feedback popup
box covers the content, unnecessary gap between directions and activity/examples
and captions are placed under graphics. These violations cause split attention, making
learners go back and forth to pay attention to different things and at the same time
try to hold the information form each section which adds to burden to working
memory of the learners.

My initial response to this dilemma was Option B which says "learning is more efficient
when visuals and texts are integrated" (Clark & Mayer, 2016, p. 106). The reading
mentions that separation of text and graphics causes learners to make more effort to
process the information, therefore, the text should be embedded within the graphics.
Citing psychological reasons, the reading says if text and graphics are not integrated,
then "people must use their scarce cognitive resources to match them up" (Clark &
Mayer, 2016, p. 116). This chapter also discusses how using hyperlink, a very common
phenomenon in e-learning, can violate the contiguity principle, as it makes learners
to leave the current page and go to a new page and then process the information
from two different pages at the same time.

Reference:
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction : proven
guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Chapter 7: Applying the Redundancy Principle

The chapter 7 discusses when redundant on-screen text stops helping learners
because, as Clark & Mayer (2016) suggest, “adding redundant on-screen text to a
multimedia presentation could overload the visual channel, creating what is called
extraneous cognitive load” and what are the “boundary conditions” (p. 151), that
indicate the certain situations; such as when graphics are not available, the
presentation rate is slow, narration includes unfamiliar words or added texts is
shorter than narration; that benefit from the use of redundancy in the e-learning
environment.

In order to pick the correct option to resolve the dilemma, I was not sure between A
and B which one is the right one. However, I quickly found out that authors support
Option B that “visuals with audio alone promote best learning, per the modality
principle described in Chapter 6,” (p. 151). The authors argue that redundant on-
screen text is not the best choice because “learners might pay so much attention to
the printed words that they pay less attention to the accompanying graphics. When
their eyes are on the printed words, learners cannot be looking at the on-screen
graphics, (p. 152).” I agree that it is not possible for learners to look at the visuals
and the written words at the same time and process them rather it will increase the
cognitive burden on the visual processing channel.

However, there are certain situations when adding on-screen text is highly advised;
one of them, which I have seen working in my personal experience, is when it requires
greater cognitive effort on part of the learner to comprehend spoken text in a foreign
language. When I moved to the United States 7 years ago, I struggled not only to
understand the “spoken English”, which is different what I read in books, but also to
comprehend the American accent. I watched tons of Netflix movies and shows with
subtitles on to understand what is being said. Though the research shows the subtitles
for foreign language learners are helpful when the lesson is slow-paced or learner can
control the pace, as Mayer, Lee, and Peebles found that adding subtitles to a fast-
paced video narrated in English did not help non-native English speakers perform
better on a transfer test (effect size of .01 favoring no subtitles), (p. 162), in my case
I never had to slow down speed the Netflix movie (which is not even possible in
Netflix, I think) and I was able to keep up with the pace of the spoken text. In short,
it has not only helped my English listening abilities to improve but also with my
speaking skills as I learned a great deal of colloquial and everyday English.

Reference:

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction :
proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Chapter 10: Applying the Segmenting and Pre-training Principles

The chapter 10 focuses on techniques to reduce extraneous processing with the help
of segmenting and pre-training. Sergio's outline was primarily based on presenting
content to learners in a sequence without any practice or production, which is why it
sounded like not the best option to teach the Excel lesson. However, Reshmi's plan
sounded better because "she separated key concepts from the procedure" (Clark &
Mayer, 2016, p. 219), which apparently makes it sound like a meaningful segmenting.
This chapter offers clear guidance for simpler task as to how material should be
segmented to reduce essential overload for learner because "when an unfamiliar
learner receives a continuous presentation containing a lot of inter-related concepts,
the likely result is that the cognitive system becomes overloaded- too much essential
processing is required" (Clark & Mayer, 2016, p. 223). The chapter also presents
research-based evidence for how segmenting can help learners to process information
more effectively; however, the writers acknowledge that there has not been
sufficient research done for segmenting, which is why it is hard to determine how big
should a segment be and how to define what meaningful segment actually means.

This chapter offers detailed view of how pre-training can be helpful in the situations
in which "the learner is overloaded by the need to engage in essential processing",
(Clark & Mayer, 2016, p. 225). The writers argue that "the rationale for the
pretraining principle is that it helps manage the learner's essential processing by
redistributing some of it to a pretraining portion of the lesson", (Clark & Mayer, 2016,
p. 228). It is absolutely helpful for learners when they are presented with key
concepts, ideas or information in advance and in a way, pre-training is related to
flipped classroom approach, which has gained popularity in the world and for a reason
too. However, as Clark & Mayer (2016) mentioned, we don't know how extensive pre-
training should be and how best to identify the key concepts to be put in the pre-
training. One of the critical decisions an instructional designer has to make is when it
is useful to include pre-training and when learning will be better if key concepts are
presented with the text or material in the training or classroom. It was no surprise
that the authors suggest applying options B and D, as the latter provides learners with
the choice to work at their own pace with the information presented in small bits and
chunks.
Reference:

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction : proven
guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

CHAPTER 16 e-Learning to Build Thinking Skills

The chapter 16 takes on the challenge almost every office faces that how to create a
workforce that adapts to ever changing conditions which can best be coped with the
high level of thinking skills. There is no argument about the importance of critical
thinking and employees’ ability to resolve problems in the 21st century; however, the
fundamental questions that arises through discussion is if critical thinking can be
taught or not. If so, whether general thinking skills will be sufficient to cope with the
challenging situations. This chapter discusses these kind of questions and possible
answers to them in length. This chapter divides thinking skills into three categories:
creative thinking which means generating novel ideas and solving unfamiliar
problems; critical thinking that refers to “application of skills related to
interpretation, evaluation, and inference;” and metacognition that is related to
setting goals, monitoring progress, and adjusting approaches.

The authors recommend that thinking skills should always be taught within the
domain specific context because, as Clark and Mayer (2016) suggest, “problem solving
in the workplace requires domain-specific knowledge, the most promising solution
may involve (1) generic skills adapted to specific job roles and/or (2) domain-specific
skills derived from analysis of expert performance in specific job roles, (p. 360).” The
right approach to teach the thinking skills, according to the writers, is “expert
modeling of problem solving and student dialog in which students analyze real-world
problems. Dialog can involve discussing or debating a problem in instructor-led whole-
class or small groups, (p. 362).” The authors also stress upon the need of using
authentic work-related problems in the training program.

There was no surprise that the authors picked Option C that thinking skill training
should be explicit and job-specific; no one general thinking course will translate into
improved work performance to resolve the dilemma of creating a workforce that is
adaptive to new changes.

Reference

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction : proven
guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com