TEAC860 Production of Instructional Materials
7 Recommendations
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/3/1/11314727/9641823.jpg?410)
I took 7 recommendations from the "Efficiency in Learning (Clark, Nguyen & Sweller)" handout that we had been given in class. They represent my recommendations very closely. I could have reworded them differently with my own words, but I left them as they were so that you could easily tell where I had taken them from.
1. Use Diagrams to Optimize Performance on Tasks Requiring Spatial Manipulation.
Since it takes a mental imagery to grasp and understand spatial and temporal phenomena or representations, relationships, structures, etc., providing an appropriate imagery will help your audience free up their working memory by reducing the processing need for the mental imagery for deeper and further processing such as integration or construction of new knowledge, etc.
2. Use Diagrams to Promote Learning of Rules Involving Spatial Relationship.
This is also part of mental manipulation like the recommendation #1.
5. Use Cues and Signals to Focus Attention to Improve Visual and Textual Content.
Using imagery and speech is not often enough to help the audience attend to the items they are supposed to be attending to. Without them attending to the right pieces of information, there's no effective, meaningful learning. Signaling and cuing are how we can make it really clear what the audience should be attending to. I use this technique frequently in my own instructional videos (Pic 1) and, even if they are my videos, it does make it easier for me to see what points I am trying to make.
6. Integrate Explanatory Text Close to Related Visuals on Pages and Screens to Avoid Split Attention.
Imagery and text can be processed together if they are complementary to each other and are placed in close proximity. If both visual and texts are necessary, they definitely should be in close proximity so that they can be processed together. If placed far apart, as imagery and text processed through a single channel (visual channel), it either 1) causes split attention (which reduces processing efficiency) or 2) causes the audience to do the mental holding (which causes extra cognitive load).
7. Integrate Words and Visuals for Teaching Computer Applications in One Delivery Medium to Avoid Split Attention.
This is basically the same as #6.
9. Eliminate Extraneous Visuals, Texts and Audio.
Very important. What's more important is knowing what is extraneous and what is germane. To know that, you must know the task -- what's involved in mastering the knowledge or skills AND the learner's prior knowledge. It ties into the recommendation for experts -- removing things that are matter-of-facts to them (redundancy effect).
27. Eliminate Redundant Content For More Experienced Learners. It's basically the same thing as #9.
10. Eliminate Redundancy in Content Delivery Mode.
Audio and text describing the same thing is okay when text is used to reinforce your speech, but using both modes -- visual and auditory channels -- to convey the exactly the same verbal content for the presentation of an entire slide may not be the most efficient way to present the information (structure, relationship, etc.). Audio alone may well be good enough and if so, eliminating the text can free up the working memory for other processing needs.
11. Provide Performance Aides as External Memory Supplements
This will allow the audience to focus all their working memory to understanding the logic and the message -- content manipulation (content organization, integration, and generation) -- rather than trying also retain the factual information, which leads to more meaningful learning. Also, knowing that the all the information will be provided later, the audience may not spend as much time for note-taking of mere dictation of what the presenter is presenting -- they may use their note-taking for other purposes such as content organization, making connections, finding relationship, and creating new knowledge <-- content manipulation, which leads to more meaningful learning.
13. Teach System Components Before Teaching the Full Process.
This doesn't always work. When the whole process consists of many smaller processes that also consist of smaller processes, starting with parts will make it hard for the audience to orient themselves in the topic -- what exactly they are doing and what for (why they are doing it). So, explaining the whole view -- a bigger picture -- first may help create a blueprint or framework into which (according to which) they can plug and organize pieces.
This, however is a good idea to actually acquire the complex skills and knowledge. Such tasks may exceed our processing capacity of working memory. The solution to that problem is either 1) chunking the tasks into smaller steps or 2) pre-training. By transferring some of the knowledge into long-term memory, it frees up the working memory capacity.
1. Use Diagrams to Optimize Performance on Tasks Requiring Spatial Manipulation.
Since it takes a mental imagery to grasp and understand spatial and temporal phenomena or representations, relationships, structures, etc., providing an appropriate imagery will help your audience free up their working memory by reducing the processing need for the mental imagery for deeper and further processing such as integration or construction of new knowledge, etc.
2. Use Diagrams to Promote Learning of Rules Involving Spatial Relationship.
This is also part of mental manipulation like the recommendation #1.
5. Use Cues and Signals to Focus Attention to Improve Visual and Textual Content.
Using imagery and speech is not often enough to help the audience attend to the items they are supposed to be attending to. Without them attending to the right pieces of information, there's no effective, meaningful learning. Signaling and cuing are how we can make it really clear what the audience should be attending to. I use this technique frequently in my own instructional videos (Pic 1) and, even if they are my videos, it does make it easier for me to see what points I am trying to make.
6. Integrate Explanatory Text Close to Related Visuals on Pages and Screens to Avoid Split Attention.
Imagery and text can be processed together if they are complementary to each other and are placed in close proximity. If both visual and texts are necessary, they definitely should be in close proximity so that they can be processed together. If placed far apart, as imagery and text processed through a single channel (visual channel), it either 1) causes split attention (which reduces processing efficiency) or 2) causes the audience to do the mental holding (which causes extra cognitive load).
7. Integrate Words and Visuals for Teaching Computer Applications in One Delivery Medium to Avoid Split Attention.
This is basically the same as #6.
9. Eliminate Extraneous Visuals, Texts and Audio.
Very important. What's more important is knowing what is extraneous and what is germane. To know that, you must know the task -- what's involved in mastering the knowledge or skills AND the learner's prior knowledge. It ties into the recommendation for experts -- removing things that are matter-of-facts to them (redundancy effect).
27. Eliminate Redundant Content For More Experienced Learners. It's basically the same thing as #9.
10. Eliminate Redundancy in Content Delivery Mode.
Audio and text describing the same thing is okay when text is used to reinforce your speech, but using both modes -- visual and auditory channels -- to convey the exactly the same verbal content for the presentation of an entire slide may not be the most efficient way to present the information (structure, relationship, etc.). Audio alone may well be good enough and if so, eliminating the text can free up the working memory for other processing needs.
11. Provide Performance Aides as External Memory Supplements
This will allow the audience to focus all their working memory to understanding the logic and the message -- content manipulation (content organization, integration, and generation) -- rather than trying also retain the factual information, which leads to more meaningful learning. Also, knowing that the all the information will be provided later, the audience may not spend as much time for note-taking of mere dictation of what the presenter is presenting -- they may use their note-taking for other purposes such as content organization, making connections, finding relationship, and creating new knowledge <-- content manipulation, which leads to more meaningful learning.
13. Teach System Components Before Teaching the Full Process.
This doesn't always work. When the whole process consists of many smaller processes that also consist of smaller processes, starting with parts will make it hard for the audience to orient themselves in the topic -- what exactly they are doing and what for (why they are doing it). So, explaining the whole view -- a bigger picture -- first may help create a blueprint or framework into which (according to which) they can plug and organize pieces.
This, however is a good idea to actually acquire the complex skills and knowledge. Such tasks may exceed our processing capacity of working memory. The solution to that problem is either 1) chunking the tasks into smaller steps or 2) pre-training. By transferring some of the knowledge into long-term memory, it frees up the working memory capacity.
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efficiencyinlearning-guidelines.doc | |
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Audio Assignments
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/3/1/11314727/2193055.jpg?296)
Poscast:
- URL: https://sites.google.com/site/foreignlanguagepod/
- Technical Info:
- Used Google Sites (Renamed "Announcements" to "Blog")
- Used HTML4 approach to embed audio (b/c the editor in Google sites didn't take the HTML5 audio tags). I used two different players. Which one do you like better?
- Google Sites automatically generates an XML file, but it doesn't work with iTunes, so I created another XML file which is compatible with both generic RSS aggregators and iTunes. (It lets iTunes automatically download the audio podcast episodes).
- I stored the audio files and the XML file in my Dropbox.com account.
- Microsoft LifeCam Cinema
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/lifecam-cinema - Since my desktop computer generates a loud fan noise, I had to do the following things not to capture the fan noise:
- wrapped the webcam with a towel;
- reduced the recording level; and
- spoke loud with the webcam very close to my mouth.
- Adobe Audition CS5.5
- I didn't really have to adjust the audio quality because of how I recorded the sound in the first place.
- Instead, I used the software to create a mixdown.
Case Study: Good & Bad
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/3/1/11314727/7801884_orig.jpg)
You can find many slide presentations on these sites:
GOOD
Global Warning
by Leonardo diCaprio & Tree Media Group
URL: http://www.treemedia.com/treemedia.com/Leonardo_diCaprio_Global_Warning.html
Water Planet
by Leonardo diCaprio & Tree Media Group
URL: http://www.treemedia.com/treemedia.com/Leonardo_diCaprio_Water_Planet.html
Multimedia principles found in these presentations:
These presentations are fast tempo and have a lot of element interactivity -- multiple verbal and visual representations are presented simultaneously. However, they are well coordinated and the right representation formats are used that it is hardly a burden.
Case 1
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/372884/Japanese-Americans-PPOINT
Slides are not doing much job in this presentation. The presenter's narration itself is easy enough to understand and follow. It's just that the slides are not complementing or supporting the narration, thus not adding much instructional value to the presentation. Paying attention to the slides may actually reduce the effectiveness of presentation. Below are some of the media principles that the developer of this presentation could incorporate into this presentation to make it better.
1. Synchronization with Cue and Signal
The words the narration uses and the words put on the slides tend to be different; the on-screen texts used in this presentation tend to be restatements of the narration and different words are used than used in the narration. This discrepancy can be a problem. The audience tends to look at the slides and try to tie the narration with the on-screen texts, but it wasn't easy to do with this presentation since no deliberate effort is made to signal the audience about which items on the slide she is talking about. When I finally found it, it was just a summary of the narration and didn't complement or support the narration. If they are simply summaries or keywords, they can be better used to cue and signal the audience about topic changes.
2. Redundancy
Usually, redundancy is to be avoided, but since the images are not used on most slides, it would be helpful to deliberately create redundancy between the narration and the texts on the slides.
Note: Since the texts are restatements of the narration by using different words and sentence structures, it forces the audience to use more of their working memory resources to match the on-screen texts with the narration than if the texts mirrored the narration closely to the words.
Alternatively, the presenter could have read the key terms and summaries on the slides first and continued to talk about more details, which could have worked as cuing for the audience.
3. Multimedia principle
Rather than using text alone for most of the slides, more picture (photographic) images could have been used to depict what the presenter is talking about. That would be a better idea than deliberately using redundancy (present words both as text and as narration).
Case 2
http://www.slideshare.net/drpattiz/new-foundations-of-parenting-an-orphaned-child-9112070?src=related_normal&rel=undefined
1. Multimedia principle
Like the other presentation, this one doesn't take advantage of the slides in delivering the content. The presenter goes over multiple key concepts on each slide, but they are not supplemented with visual representations. More use of imagery and text is strongly recommended.
2. Cue and Signal or Chunking
The second slide in this presentation talks about a diagram. It's okay to have the diagram on the slide, but since the narration is a little over 3 minutes and covers 5 key elements/components of the diagram, she could have cued and signaled the transition from one key element to another by highlighting it (using circles/boxes, for example).
Alternatively, since the presenter makes several important points for each element of the diagram, going over each key element of the diagram on separate slide would give the presenter more chances to use the slides to support her narration.
GOOD, but COULD'VE BEEN REALLY GOOD
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/ursocalmediacompany-1160368-what-is-google-plus-and-why-you-should-care/
1. Narration (Modality & Redundancy)
I wish he did narration with this presentation. Even without narration, this presentation was already very easy to follow and understand mostly due to good use of some of the media principles. Very concise texts convey all the verbal information needed for this presentation, but turning these texts into narration could have made it even easier for the audience to follow and process more effectively.
- slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net
- myPlick: http://www.myplick.com
- authorSTREAM: http://www.authorstream.com
- slideboom: http://www.slideboom.com
GOOD
Global Warning
by Leonardo diCaprio & Tree Media Group
URL: http://www.treemedia.com/treemedia.com/Leonardo_diCaprio_Global_Warning.html
Water Planet
by Leonardo diCaprio & Tree Media Group
URL: http://www.treemedia.com/treemedia.com/Leonardo_diCaprio_Water_Planet.html
Multimedia principles found in these presentations:
These presentations are fast tempo and have a lot of element interactivity -- multiple verbal and visual representations are presented simultaneously. However, they are well coordinated and the right representation formats are used that it is hardly a burden.
- Cuing and Signaling: Texts are used mostly for cuing and signaling rather than as a primary method of presenting information. The texts used as cuing and signaling play a vital role in his presentations. Leonardo moves from slide to slide pretty fast while going over many key concepts and terms. There is a high level of element interactivity in these presentations and could potentially be high on the intrinsic cognitive load and could demand a lot of incidental processing on our working memory. Without his use of text as cuing and signaling, the viewer might fail to attend to the key points that Leonardo is making.
- Dual-coding, Redundancy and Modality: You hardly see the same verbal information being presented both as text and as speech. The verbal information is almost entirely presented as narration (auditory channel) and the supplemental/related information is presented as imagery such related photos and often even as text keywords. The way the presentations are designed takes advantage of dual-coding system and follow the modality principle. Instead of avoiding redundancy totally, some texts are used as deliberate redundancy (some words are presented as both text and narration on purpose), but as they are short words and phrases, appear for a very short period, and are well-synced with the narration, so they either work as singaling (visual cue), image-like items, or exceptions to redundancy effects (when images are not present, presenting the information both as narration and as text may increase germane cognitive load).
- Temporal and Spatial Contiguity: The images and keyword texts are placed and appear in a well-calculated manner that it's hardly a burden for the viewer to attend to them and follow along the presentation.
- Personalization: Leonard uses a conversational style as if he's talking to the audience (e.g., He begins with "Picture this."). It really helps stick to our heads after having watched the presentation even just once.
Case 1
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/372884/Japanese-Americans-PPOINT
Slides are not doing much job in this presentation. The presenter's narration itself is easy enough to understand and follow. It's just that the slides are not complementing or supporting the narration, thus not adding much instructional value to the presentation. Paying attention to the slides may actually reduce the effectiveness of presentation. Below are some of the media principles that the developer of this presentation could incorporate into this presentation to make it better.
1. Synchronization with Cue and Signal
The words the narration uses and the words put on the slides tend to be different; the on-screen texts used in this presentation tend to be restatements of the narration and different words are used than used in the narration. This discrepancy can be a problem. The audience tends to look at the slides and try to tie the narration with the on-screen texts, but it wasn't easy to do with this presentation since no deliberate effort is made to signal the audience about which items on the slide she is talking about. When I finally found it, it was just a summary of the narration and didn't complement or support the narration. If they are simply summaries or keywords, they can be better used to cue and signal the audience about topic changes.
2. Redundancy
Usually, redundancy is to be avoided, but since the images are not used on most slides, it would be helpful to deliberately create redundancy between the narration and the texts on the slides.
Note: Since the texts are restatements of the narration by using different words and sentence structures, it forces the audience to use more of their working memory resources to match the on-screen texts with the narration than if the texts mirrored the narration closely to the words.
Alternatively, the presenter could have read the key terms and summaries on the slides first and continued to talk about more details, which could have worked as cuing for the audience.
3. Multimedia principle
Rather than using text alone for most of the slides, more picture (photographic) images could have been used to depict what the presenter is talking about. That would be a better idea than deliberately using redundancy (present words both as text and as narration).
Case 2
http://www.slideshare.net/drpattiz/new-foundations-of-parenting-an-orphaned-child-9112070?src=related_normal&rel=undefined
1. Multimedia principle
Like the other presentation, this one doesn't take advantage of the slides in delivering the content. The presenter goes over multiple key concepts on each slide, but they are not supplemented with visual representations. More use of imagery and text is strongly recommended.
2. Cue and Signal or Chunking
The second slide in this presentation talks about a diagram. It's okay to have the diagram on the slide, but since the narration is a little over 3 minutes and covers 5 key elements/components of the diagram, she could have cued and signaled the transition from one key element to another by highlighting it (using circles/boxes, for example).
Alternatively, since the presenter makes several important points for each element of the diagram, going over each key element of the diagram on separate slide would give the presenter more chances to use the slides to support her narration.
GOOD, but COULD'VE BEEN REALLY GOOD
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/ursocalmediacompany-1160368-what-is-google-plus-and-why-you-should-care/
1. Narration (Modality & Redundancy)
I wish he did narration with this presentation. Even without narration, this presentation was already very easy to follow and understand mostly due to good use of some of the media principles. Very concise texts convey all the verbal information needed for this presentation, but turning these texts into narration could have made it even easier for the audience to follow and process more effectively.