E-learning: The Science of Instruction Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E Mayer

1. E-learning: The Science of InstructionRuth Colvin Clark and Richard E Mayer Today we’ll cover: Chapter 1: e-learning: promise and pitfalls Chapter 2: How people learn from e-courses Chapter 3: Multimedia principle Chapter 4: Contiguity principle Plus digressions for additional related materials on instructional methods

2. The e-Learning Bandwagon • 90% of universities have distance learning • Does this include Lehigh? • U of Phoenix, Athabasca U, etc., entirely online • Verizon’s Virtual University hosts most technical training • U.S. Army partners with PricewaterhouseCoopers • Companies are spending $50-60 billion/year on e-learning. Are you impressed? • What is a “knowledge-based” economy? • Is e-learning a key to knowledge-based economy?

3. What is e-learning? • Instruction delivered via computer • Content relevant to learning objectives • Uses instructional methods such as examples and practice • Builds new knowledge and skills

4. Media + instructional methods • Media elements present and illustrate content • Text, audio narration, music, graphics, animation and video • E.g., Dreamweaver course uses audio narration and animated graphics • Instructional techniques support learning • Examples, practice exercises, feedback • E.g., Dreamweaver lesson uses simulation practice • Why might simulating an actual work environment be particularly effective?

5. When to use e-Learning (from Margaret Driscoll, Web-Based Training) • Cognitive skills: solving problems, applying rules, distinguishing items • E.g., how to complete tax forms • Psychomotor skills: coordination physical movement and thought • E.g., driving a golf ball or driving a crane • Require coaching and detailed feedback • Attitudinal skills: opinions and behaviors • E.g., whether to recycle • Which is hardest to teach with multimedia?

6. Which skills are most suitable for e-learning? • CPR training? • Developing a sort algorithm? • Supporting a political party? • Driving a stick shift? • Finding and using Photoshop plug-ins? • Trouble-shooting printer problems? • Discuss in small groups….

7. Three theories of learning(see check boxes on page 33) • Response strengthening • Strengthen stimulus-response associations • Drill-and-practice with reinforcing feedback • Information acquisition • Learning adds information to memory • Instruction delivers information efficiently • Knowledge construction • Learner builds a mental representation • Guide learner in the context of solving problems • Is one theory right? Or a combination?

8. The Art of Changing the Brain(James E. Zull) • The Learning Cycle: Sense → Integrate → Act • Learning originates with concrete sensory experience • Reflective observation integrates inputs in patterns and develops generalizations or abstract hypotheses • Active learning tests the results of motor output

9. Types of e-Learning goals • Inform: build awareness, e.g., about a company’s organization • Perform: build skills, e.g., how to use software or how to evaluate bank loans • Procedural: step-by step tasks • Near transfer from training to application • Learning Dreamweaver may involve near transfer? Why?Give an example. • Principle-based: guidelines and problem-solving skills • Far transfer from training to application • Why does learning how to evaluate bank loans far transfer?

10. How do people learn? • Two information processing channels: • visual and auditory, each with limited capacity (attention) • Working memory has limited capacity: • 7 chunks plus or minus 2 • Learning occurs by active processing • From working to long-term memory • Rehearsal encodes knowledge • Knowledge must be retrieved from memory • Retrieval brings knowledge back into working memory

11. One minute paper • How might understanding the way people process information and learn affect the way you design multimedia e-learning activities?

12. Pitfalls of e-Learning • Failure to do job or skill analysis • Presenting skills and knowledge out of job context risks transfer failure • How could this pitfall affect your project? • Failure to accommodate human learning • Multimedia can actually depress learning if it overwhelms limits of human processing • Attrition: e-Learning dropouts at least 35% • Games and stories may detract from learning Why?

13. Do these techniques aid or hinder human learning? Why? • Using an arrow or color to draw the eye to important information? • Listing learning objectives up front? • Including background music?

14. e-Learning Research • Informal studies: observing people as they learn or asking them about it • Formative evaluation makes changes from learner feedback • Summative evaluation reports results to sponsors & others • Formal studies use experimental research design, with subjects randomly assigned to test and control groups • Controlled: compare outcomes of 2 or more groups of learners • Clinical trials: evaluate e-learning in real world contexts • Should show statistical significance (p<.05) • Effect size: mean difference / standard deviation • Book uses results of controlled studies that suggest basic design principles for e-learning • Why are experimental studies useful to designers?