Work It...

This week we learned about worked example. In short, according to Clark and Mayer, worked examples are step-by-step demonstrations of how to perform a task or solve a problem (pg. 241). This method is most beneficial when learning complex task as it reduces the cognitive load (pg. 239). My intended audience this week were those seeking to utilize this method for teaching purposes as it gives an example of how a worked example can be accomplished.

I have found that as we add more principles and methods to our repertoire, the more challenging it is for me to incorporate one without violating any of the others that we have learned during this course. For example, incorporating the multimedia principle and worked example method without violating the coherence and redundancy principles was challenging for me. Because a worked example for a math problem requires you to demonstrate how to solve a problem, I am almost certain that I violated the redundancy principle (at least) with my illustration(s) and narration. I'm also uncertain as to how to incorporate the personalization principle without violating the coherence principle. Therefore, this week, I mainly focused on the multimedia (graphics and text) and contiguity (placed on-screen text near graphics) principles (pg. 70 & 90-91). Is there a way to co-mingle several of these principles without violating others? I'd love to hear your thoughts and best practices for this.

Reference:

Clark, R., & Mayer, R. (2016). e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidance for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning (4 edition). Wiley.

Trying Not to Overdo It!

This week we learned about the personalization principle. It is the concept that we learn better with an informal style of writing rather than a formal style of writing. Using this principle, we completed a digital story.

I completed my digital story on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King. My intended audience is mankind as a whole as we are the only ones that can make an effectual change in our surrounding communities. This digital story demonstrates the personalization principle by incorporating the "use a conversational style of writing or speaking (including using first- and second-person language), polite wording for feedback and advice, and a friendly human voice.” Although I used more of an informal style of writing, I attempted to "be careful not to overdo the personalization style because it is important not to distract the learner” (pg. 197). However, it was challenging to incorporate the personalization principle without violating the coherence principle (using only clear and concise wording). I'd love to here your feedback.

Reference:

Clark, R., & Mayer, R. (2016). e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidance for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning (4 edition). Wiley.

Don't Over Do It!

This week's text was both beneficial and challenging at the same time. We learned about the coherence principle - only providing learners with information (text, graphics, and audio) central to the lesson goals/objectives. Here is this week's project. My hope is that you would provide feedback that would assist me in processing this week's material.

Limited Capacity

As we dove into this week's module, we learned about the Modality and Redundancy Principles. My hope this week was to: 1) properly apply this principles to my narrated presentation and 2) provide information that may be beneficial to e-Learning instructors on creating multimedia tools.

In my narrated presentation, I accompanied my graphics with narrations rather than printed words for my fast-paced lesson overview. According to Clark and Mayer, "Presenting words in spoken form rather than printed form allows us to off‐load processing of words from the visual channel to the auditory channel, thereby freeing more capacity for processing graphics in the visual channel" (pg. 114). This principle applies "especially when the graphic is complex, the words are familiar, and the lesson is fast‐paced" (pg. 115).

According to Clark and Mayer, redundant on‐screen text refers to "graphics using words in both on‐screen text and audio narration in which the audio repeats the text" (pg. 131). Because we have a limited cognitive capacity for each channel, redundant on-screen text may cause overloading. Clark and Mayer explains that "learners may experience an overload of their visual/pictorial channel when they must simultaneously process graphics and the printed words that refer to them...especially when the words and pictures are presented concurrently at a rapid pace, the words are familiar, and the graphic" (pg. 116 & 119). 

My goal this week was to present an engaging lesson overview without overloading the visual processing channel of the learner's memory system by minimizing my on screen text. Please leave a comment and/or suggestion on whether or not you believe I accomplished this goal. I can't wait to hear back from you as we embark on this journey together.

Static Multimedia Tutorial

This week we began learning about the effectiveness of multimedia presentations, as well as the violations and demonstrations of the contiguity principle. It is my hope that I accurately applied these principles to this week's project: a Static Multimedia Tutorial.

As we dive deeper into this course, I thought it would be good if we were all capable of creating our own multimedia graphics. With that in mind, I decided to complete my Static Multimedia Tutorial on how to create an account with Canva: a leading graphic platform. My intended audience would be my colleagues, those with a basic working knowledge of computer operations.

With this week's project, I integrated both graphics (screenshots) and words to demonstrate the multimedia principle - according to Clark and Mayer on page 70. I also chose my words based on the screenshots. The authors continued by stating, "When learners mentally connect words and pictures, they are engaged in meaningful learning that is more likely to support understanding, as measured by transfer tests" (pg. 70).

To take that quote a little further, Clark and Mayer also stated "the contiguity principle involves the need to coordinate printed words and graphics" (pg. 91). In this week's project, I also intentionally purposed to place my words and graphics near one another. According to page 90, this technique should reduce the "need to search for which parts of a graphic correspond to which words, thereby allowing the user to devote limited cognitive resources to understanding the materials. Applying this principle, should result in an ease of learner understanding and comprehension of material. 

Although I believe I incorporated both principles (multimedia and contiguity) into my project, I am curious to know if I went a little overboard with my graphics and wording. I would love to see what you think. Please leave your comments and/or suggestions.

Multimedia Expertise Uploading...

As I embark on this journey of learning about multimedia tools and incorporating them into instructional designs within this course (ELRC 7505), I would like to invite you along me. 

In the coming weeks, I expect to gain a greater understanding of multimedia tools, how to effectively create them for educational purposes, and how to strategically choose the best multimedia tool based on lesson objectives. I also expect to gain knowledge on how to implement multimedia tools to effectively increase student engagement.

As I gain knowledge, I will provide artifacts from this course here so that you can partake in this journey with me. Please feel free to comment and share your own experiences as well.

Copyright & Fair Use

 

In the field of education, there is always a constant flow of information. Therefore, it is imperative for both educators and students to know and understand what copyright and fair use is and how it applies to our flow of information. 

Copyright protects an individual's rights as it relates to their work/creation, whether the work is published or non-published (beginning at the moment of creation). Although this law protects the artist's work, it does not protect intangible items such as systematic procedures, ideas and facts. Therefore, in order to be protected under the copyright law, a piece of work must be considered fixed/established, original and can not contain a substantial amount of material from another person's work.

Once a work is completed and copyright is established, the author or creator of the work has the right to transfer their rights to another individual or entity, this is called an assignment. Once transferred, the original author will no longer be the copyright owner. The author also has the option to grant someone else permission to use their work. This permission is called a license. Unless transferred, copyright extends 70 years pass an author/creator's life. 

In order to avoid copyright infringement, individuals normally seek work that falls under the Creative Commons license. A Creative Common license allows users to more freely use work without having to pay or negotiate terms of usage. Furthermore, fair use promotes the unlicensed usage of copyrighted work as long as it falls within certain guidelines. These guidelines are as follow: 1) non-commercial, educational, and transformative, 2) Elements of Creativity, 3) Level of Originality (less than 10% of original work), and 4) Minimum to no market impact on the original work. These are the factors that a court takes into consideration when judging whether or not a work was fairly used according to the license. Therefore, these are definitely key points in which we should keep in mind and monitor as we contribute to the flow of information.