Multimedia Learning: Emotions, Interactivity, And Design

The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

Multimedia learning generally refers to the form of learning which is generally assisted by a numerous information sources and this are handled jointly so as to understand aw well as memorizing the contents that are provided (Clark & Mayer, 2016). According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning it can be stated that whenever a student is presented with words and graphics, then they are capable of retaining the information at a higher level when a well-designed format is used.

Um, E., Plass, J. L., Hayward, E. O., & Homer, B. D. (2012). Emotional design in multimedia learning. Journal of educational psychology, 104(2), 485.

This paper mainly discusses the roles that are played by emotions in the process of multimedia learning. According to the authors, the cognitive load theory in which the emotion is considered to be an extraneous variable runs counter to this proposition. Due to the fact that this variables interfere with the learning process so they should be controlled. The article disagrees with the premises and along with this it also states in the hypothesis that “the use of design features to induce positive emotions in learners will result in increased learning…and higher satisfaction with the learning experience”. A research conducted amongst 118 undergraduate students, helps in understanding the fact that if aspects related to emotion are added then the experiences are much more positive when compared to the non-emotion design. The authors concluded to the fact when positive interactions are added by the designers to the multimedia presentation then the learning process can have a much more positive influence. This positive integration might include providing of encouraging feedbacks and coaching for success.
 

Muller, D. A., Bewes, J., Sharma, M. D., & Reimann, P. (2008). Saying the wrong thing:improving learning with multimedia by including misconceptions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24(2), 144–155.

The article mainly consists of the summarization of the results of the six studies of the eye-tracking behavior of the learners and what are the possible ways of applying those behaviors on the design and the application of multimedia presentations so as to favor the process of learning. The main variables studied in this paper were “signaling effect”, “prior knowledge effect”, and “modality effect”. The results of the study included the correlation between the “signaling effect”, “prior knowledge”, “modality variables” and “eye fixation time measurements”. More time is spent by the learners on focusing on certain areas having maximum interest. Learning environments which is associated with the utilization of contents related to multimedia should base their design principles of how people would learn and what would be required materials for their learning. A way of verifying the learning and design process have been provide by the reviews of the eye tracking studies. This articles and the studies which has been used as references in this paper can provide valuable new research evidence which are related to the use of multimedia learning techniques in online learning environments.
 

Emotional Design in Multimedia Learning

Low, A. L. Y., Low, K. L. T., & Koo, V. C. (2003). Multimedia learning systems: a future interactive educational tool. The internet and higher education, 6(1), 25-40.

The planning, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the multimedia learning are discussed in this report. According to the author if the system is considered to be pedagogically sound then it “requires well-planned and skillfully written content, attractive and functional graphic design and rapid implementation at a reasonable and affordable cost”. The paper also consists of the discussion about the instructional design process for the construction of multimedia products. The main things included in the descriptions are “needed analysis, learner analysis, content analysis, formative evaluation, course framework design, and lastly the implementation”. The main focus of the pedagogic aspect is the satisfaction obtained from the learning objectives and along with this it also discusses how to “set the criteria for measuring the learning outcomes.” According to the authors an exemplary micro design is something which is “easy to use, interactive, stimulating, inspiring, and serves some practical purpose” and is considered to be the overall aesthetics, interactivity, and functionality of the product.

Evans, C., & Gibbons, N. J. (2007). The interactivity effect in multimedia learning. Computers & Education, 49(4), 1147-1160.

This is a study of the 33 university level students of the UK which is mainly associated with the testing for the presence of an interactivity effect present within a multimedia presentation. This interactivity effect main takes place when the multimedia products get added up to the interactive element and this is followed by the engagement of the learners in the process. Due to this reason, the learning experience tends to be much more successful. In the experiment discussed in this paper, the participants were divided into two groups one of which was the control group and another one was the tested group. Followed by the division of the groups the researcher administrated a program which was computer-based and consisted of either an interactive or non-interactive element. When the experiment was completed it was concluded that the “test scores suggest that adding interactivity to a computer-based lesson increase[s] the depth of learning or understanding”.
 

Domagk, S., Schwartz, R. N., & Plass, J. L. (2010). Interactivity in multimedia learning: An integrated model. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 1024-1033.

According to the authors of this paper the term interactivity has been considered to be “reciprocal activity between a learner and a multimedia learning system, in which the [re]action of the learner is dependent upon the [re]action of the systems and vice versa”. The paper also presents the INTERACT or “the integrated model of multimedia interactivity”. The authors also stated that this holistic model is a “new model…which integrates the affordances of the medium and the activities of the learner”. Along with this the model also consists of the six important elements which plays a very important role in the designing process of an interactive multimedia environment and they are“learning environment, behavioral activities, cognitive and metacognitive activities, motivation and emotion, learner variables, and the learner’s mental model”. The conclusion part of the paper consists of the statement of the author which states that the “model provides educators and educational designers with a process approach that allows them to design and evaluate specific interactive components for their multimedia applications”.

Improving Learning with Multimedia by Including Misconceptions

Cairncross, S., & Mannion, M. (2001). Interactive multimedia and learning: Realizing the benefits. Innovations in education and teaching international, 38(2), 156-164.

The main constituents of this paper are the potential benefits obtained by the use of interactive multimedia so as to create a learning environment of high quality. The main premises of the paper states that in the educational system multimedia has not been used properly. This is due to the fact that some of the important elements like the elements of design, “such as delivery control, access routes, individual differences, and interactivity” have been overlooked. After the completion of the final analysis, the author stated that “interactivity in learning applications merits more detailed investigation and the issue of how best to design learning activities that engage the user needs to be addressed”.
 

McNamara, D. S., & Shapiro, A. M. (2005). Multimedia and hypermedia solutions for promoting metacognitive engagement, coherence, and learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 33(1), 1-29.

This paper consists of the solutions of the coherence and the metacognition of the hypermedia which has been introduced in this paper. The main reason lying behind the interventions is due to the fact that many of the learners get confused when they are not organized in a coherent way. Proper metacognition of the elements is prevented by this incoherence which initially affects the learning process. One is to “provide well-defined, goal appropriate global structure for domain novices”. Another valuable tip is to “highlight links that denote very important inter-document relationships”. The conclusion of this article has enlightened due to the reason that it illustrated the importance of coherence and metacognition in the design of hypermedia documents and offered some solutions. As the author’s summarized, “in an ideal world, all learners would have enough metacognitive skill to create coherence between documents, but that simply is not reality for a vast majority of learners”. 

References:

Cairncross, S. & Mannion, M. (2001). Interactive multimedia and learning: Realizing the benefits. Innovation in Education and Teaching International, 38(2), 156-164.

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Domagk, S., Schwartz, R. N., & Plass, J. L. (2010). Interactivity in multimedia learning: An integrated model. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 1024-1033.

Evans, C. & Gibbons, N. J. (2007). The interactivity effect in multimedia learning. Computers & Education, 49, 1147-1160.

Low, A. L., Low, K. L., Koo, V. C. (2003). Multimedia learning systems: A future interactive educational tool. Internet and Higher Education, 6, 25-30.

McNamara, D. S. & Shapiro, A. M. (2005). Multimedia and hypermedia solutions for promoting metacognitive engagement, coherence, and learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 33(1), 1-29.

Reed, S. K. (2006). Cognitive architectures for multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 87-98.