Cognitive load theory and multimedia learning, task characteristics, and learning engagement: The current state of the art

Kirschner, F., Kester, L., & Corbalan, G. (2011). Cognitive load theory and multimedia learning, task characteristics, and learner engagement: The current state of the art. Computers in Human Behavior, 27, 1-4. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.003This special issue consists of 16 empirical papers, as well as a discussion based on the Third International Cognitive Load Theory Conference held at the Open Universiteit (Heerlen, The Netherlands) in 2009. All papers focus on improving instructional design from a cognitive load theory (CLT: Sweller, 1988; Sweller, Van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998; Van Merriënboer & Sweller, 2005) perspective. They cover a wide variety of topics in which learner characteristics, tasks characteristics, and the interaction between both are studied in, new, innovative, but also traditional ways, thereby providing an overview of the current state of the art on CLT research. The overarching goal of all studies is to gain more understanding and insight into the optimal conditions under which learning can be successful, and students will be able to apply their acquired knowledge and skills in new or familiar problem solving situations. Together, the papers comprise three ways in which this overarching goal is reached: (1) by studying multimedia learning environments, (2) by studying different characteristics of a learning task and, (3) by studying how learners can be actively engaged in the learning process. Although, the research focus of most papers fit nicely within these research topics, some overlap is inevitable. The categorization has been made on the basis of the most prominent research focus and findings of each study

BALANCING RESOURCES AND VALUE IN DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSE REVIEWS: A CASE STUDY AT A MID-SIZED PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

This study examines the development and implementation of a distance education course review process at a mid-sized public university. Four primary goals were set for the process:  to provide substantive feedback, to cultivate engagement between DE faculty and staff, to provide support to course developers and reviewers, and to establish an effective balance between faculty resources and the value of feedback generated through the process. Feedback was collected through a survey of participating developers and reviewers (n=52). Responses broadly supported achievement of the four primary goals. Those who participated in multiple roles gave stronger ratings on all survey questions than those who participated through a single role. Based on qualitative and quantitative feedback, strengths, weaknesses, and possible adjustments to the process are discussed

Timing and Frequency of Mental Effort Measurement: Evidence in Favour of Repeated Measures

Van Gog, T., Kirschner, F., Kester, L., & Paas, F. (2012). Timing and frequency of mental effort measurement: Evidence in favor of repeated measures. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26, 833-839. doi:10.1002/acp.2883Subjective mental effort rating scales are widely used in research on learning, instruction, and training. However, the timing and frequency of application of those rating scales differs between studies. Some apply a rating scale repeatedly after every task in a learning or test phase, others only once at the end of a phase. Four experiments are presented that investigated how timing and frequency of mental effort measurements affect the results obtained. The findings from Experiment 1 (between-subjects) and 2 (within-subjects), using different arrangements of simple and complex tasks, showed that a single rating after a series of tasks resulted in a higher mental effort score than the average of ratings provided immediately after every task. A similar result was obtained in Experiment 3 with series of complex tasks, but not with simple tasks. Experiment 4 showed that knowing beforehand that mental effort rating will be required after completing all tasks results in lower scores, but average retrospective ratings per task still differed from a single retrospective rating. Taken together, these experiments suggest that timing and frequency of effort ratings do affect the results obtained and that repeatedly measuring mental effort after each task in the series seems to be preferable.During the realization of this work, Tamara van Gog was supported by a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO; # 451-08-003)

Contemporary cognitive load theory research: The good, the bad and the ugly

Kirschner, P. A., Ayres, P., & Chandler, P. (2011). Contemporary cognitive load theory research: The good, the bad and the ugly. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), 99-105. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.06.025This paper reviews the 16 contributions of the special issue entitled Current Research in Cognitive Load Theory. Each paper is briefly summarized and some critical comments made. The overall collection is then discussed in terms of the positive contributions they make to the field of learning and instruction, and cognitive load theory in particular (the good), as well as problematical issues such as unresolved explanations and conflicting results (the bad) and the special case of measuring cognitive load (the ugly)

Pushing the button: Why do learners pause online videos?

With the recent surge in digitalization across all levels of education, online video platforms gained educational relevance. Therefore, optimizing such platforms in line with learners’ actual needs should be considered a priority for scientists and educators alike. In this project, we triangulate logfiles of a large German online video platform for educational videos with behavioral data from a laboratory study and the objective characteristics of the selected videos. We aim to understand the potential motives for why participants pause educational videos while watching such videos online. Our analyses revealed that perceived difficulties in comprehension and meaningful structural breakpoints in the videos were associated with increased pausing behavior. In contrast, pausing behavior was not associated with the videos’ formal structural features highlighted in the video platform. Implications of these findings and the potentials of our methodological approach for theory and practice are discussed. © 2021 The Author

Learner expertise and mathematics different order thinking skills in multimedia learning

This experimental study used an instructional visual aid for algebra to investigate whether different order thinking skills – remembering, understanding and analyzing – affect the expertise reversal effect. One hundred and twenty-three secondary school students were assigned to an experimental condition, either with or without the aid. In the experiment, an aid that was designed for novice learners, and the materials were developed using multimedia learning principles to maximize the use of learner cognitive capacity. The results showed that the expertise reversal effect occurred in understanding (retention, more-structured), but not in remembering (transfer, more-structured) and analyzing skills (transfer, less-structured). A plausible explanation is less-structured environments that require heavier process of searching and/or selecting increased demand of cognitive load imposed. We suggest that designing adaptive environments should take order thinking skill, instructional format and learner expertise into account

Cognitive-based methods to facilitate learning of software applications via E-learning systems

E-learning systems, which are used for teaching complex software, can facilitate learning if they provide an appropriate teaching approach that decreases learners’ cognitive load in addition to providing practical knowledge. We believe there is lack of cognitively guided educational recommendations on how to effectively and efficiently design such learning platforms. We thus provide an integrative review paper that overviews relevant literature to cognitive load theory to provide practical solutions and an empirically validated framework to decrease learners’ cognitive load and improve the learning of complex software through E-learning systems. The solutions (which contain practical examples) are proposed based on different concepts of cognitive load theory including using analogies, worked examples and infographics to facilitate schema acquisition; keeping learners’ concentration on the target tools by preventing split-attention and redundancy effects and applying the training wheel method; using interactive videos based on embodied cognition theory and finally considering the modality and transient information effects in designing E-learning systems. These solutions are related to adapting the learning platform to human cognitive structures and can lead to increased learning performance by preventing working memory from being overwhelmed, thus facilitating the formation of schemas and resulting in more efficient and reliable learning with less effort

Example-based learning: Integrating cognitive and social-cognitive research perspectives

Example-based learning has been studied from different perspectives. Cognitive research has mainly focused on worked examples, which typically provide students with a written worked-out didactical solution to a problem to study. Social-cognitive research has mostly focused on modeling examples, which provide students the opportunity to observe an adult or a peer model performing the task. The model can behave didactically or naturally, and the observation can take place face to face, on video, as a screen recording of the model's computer screen, or as an animation. This article reviews the contributions of the research on both types of example-based learning on questions such as why example-based learning is effective, for what kinds of tasks and learners it is effective, and how examples should be designed and delivered to students to optimize learning. This will show both the commonalities and the differences in research on example-based learning conducted from both perspectives and might inspire the identification of new research questions

Implications of Designing Instructional Video Using Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

This study explored the implications of designing instructional video using an integrated model includes segmenting, signaling, and weeding. Two intact sections (n=226) participated in the study, treatment group learned from a video designed with SSW model and the control group learned from the original video. The SSW design has several implications: the SSW model is an effective way to design instructional video, improves students’ learning outcomes, reduces their perceived learning difficulty, assists and promotes their higher-level learning. Each design principle has its unique effect on the leaning goals and facilitates certain learning outcomes and loses its potency for others. Finally, SSW model may better be used with long video to adjust students’ metacognitive process to the new video design

Kesan Pelbagai Strategi Kawalan Pengguna Animasi Bersegmen Terhadap Prestasi Pelajar

Tujuan - Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menilai kesan animasi bersegmen dengan pelbagai strategi kawalan pengguna terhadap prestasi pelajar. Lima strategi kawalan tersebut ialah strategi Kawalan Pengguna Linear (KPL), Kawalan Pengguna Rawak (KPR), Kawalan Program (KP), Kawalan Berterusan (KB) dan Tanpa Kawalan (TK). Metodologi - Reka bentuk kajian berbentuk kuasi eksperimen dan data kajian dianalisis melalui pendekatan kuantitatif. Seramai 265 orang pelajar semester 2 kursus Diploma Sistem Rangkaian dari lima buah Politeknik dipilih sebagai sampel kajian. Penilaian dilakukan melalui ujian pos. Dapatan - Secara keseluruhan, ujian statistik ANCOVA digunakan untuk menjawab persoalan kajian. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan dari sudut prestasi ujian pos antara kumpulan pelajar yang menerima strategi kawalan paparan animasi bersegmen yang berbeza. Kepentingan - Dapatan kajian menunjukkan faktor reka bentuk paparan animasi bersegmen yang disertakan dengan strategi kawalan pengguna yang bersesuaian berkemampuan mengatasi masalah keciciran maklumat. Strategi KPR dan KPL didapati membantu dalam memperuntukkan masa yang bersesuaian bagi memori sensori pelajar untuk mengekstrak maklumat bermakna daripada animasi untuk diproses di dalam memori jangka pendek yang agak terbatas sebelum didaftarkan ke dalam memori jangka panjang. Kedua-dua strategi ini juga didapati berupaya meningkatkan prestasi pencapaian pelajar