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.