Investigating Multimedia Learning with Web Lectures

Naturalistic research has shown that a web lecture intervention that includes multimedia lectures studied before class, short homework assignments, and in-class application activities can increase students’ grades and satisfaction. The multimedia lectures, called web lectures, are a combination of video, audio, and PowerPoint streamed over the web. This experimental study was motivated by a desire to understand the contribution of web lectures themselves to the web lecture intervention’s success. Educational multimedia design guidelines from Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) were used to evaluate and hypothesize about the learning efficacy of three information-equivalent—Video+Audio+PPT (web lecture), Audio+PPT, PPT+Transcript—and one information-nonequivalent—PPT-Only—educational presentation conditions. 60 randomly assigned participants studied the educational materials and completed a posttest and exit survey. Participants in the web lecture condition performed statistically significantly better on the posttest than all other conditions, and survey responses indicated that participants perceived the combination of modalities used by web lectures as more educationally effective than those used in the other conditions. This study verifies the educational contribution of web lectures to the web lecture intervention, web lectures’ educational effectiveness as standalone learning objects, and the value-added of video for educational multimedia. These results were not completely in line with our hypothesis based on CLT and CTML, suggesting these theories’ limited applicability for multimedia presentations with characteristics of those used in this study. Several possible factors that might account for the results inconsistent with CLT and CTML are identified, including the visibility of gesture in the video and the length and subject matter of the presentations.

[1]  D. Leutner,et al.  Direct Measurement of Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning , 2003 .

[2]  S. Goldin-Meadow.  Gesture's Role in the Learning Process , 2004 .

[3]  R. Mayer,et al.  Engaging students in active learning: The case for personalized multimedia messages. , 2000 .

[4]  James C. Lester,et al.  Life-Like Pedagogical Agents in Constructivist Multimedia Environments: Cognitive Consequences of their Interaction , 2000 .

[5]  Scotty D. Craig,et al.  Animated Pedagogical Agents in Multimedia Educational Environments: Effects of Agent Properties, Picture Features, and Redundancy , 2002 .

[6]  Wolfgang Schnotz,et al.  Commentary: Towards an Integrated View of Learning from Text and Visual Displays , 2002 .

[7]  Abbie Brown,et al.  Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in c , 1992 .

[8]  R. Klatzky,et al.  Teachers’ gestures facilitate students’ learning: A lesson in symmetry , 2003 .

[9]  Charles van der Mast,et al.  Enhancing the Classroom Learning Experience with Web Lectures , 2005, ICCE.

[10]  F. Paas,et al.  Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design , 1998 .

[11]  James D. Foley,et al.  Evaluating a Web Lecture Intervention in a Human–Computer Interaction Course , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Education.

[12]  James D. Foley,et al.  Evaluating web lectures: a case study from HCI , 2006, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[13]  R. Mayer,et al.  Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning , 2003 .

[14]  K. Squire,et al.  Design-Based Research: Putting a Stake in the Ground , 2004 .

[15]  F. Paas,et al.  Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design: Recent Developments , 2003 .

[16]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[17]  R. Atkinson.  Optimizing learning from examples using animated pedagogical agents. , 2002 .

[18]  J. Sweller,et al.  Reducing cognitive load by mixing auditory and visual presentation modes , 1995 .

[19]  Shahrzad Mahootian,et al.  The Role of Gesture in Bilingual Education: Does Gesture Enhance Learning? , 2004 .

[20]  P. Chandler,et al.  Cognitive Load Theory and the Format of Instruction , 1991 .

[21]  Alfred Bork,et al.  Multimedia in Learning , 2001 .

[22]  A. Parkin,et al.  Human memory , 1999, Current Biology.