One of the challenges that comes with online learning is that it is either text-heavy or video-heavy in terms of content delivery. Finding the balance is not the solution.

Media characteristics need to match with the requirements of the learning outcome. In some cases, circumstances (time, expense) may not allow the selection of the most desirable format, but a clear understanding of learning outcomes and media traits can still ensure quality learning.

Effective learning is linked more to media characteristics and learning context. Sometimes, text is still the best way to learn. No tool is perfect for every situation. Siemens (2003)

One of the themes explored in ETEC565A has been on the selection, design and application of digital technologies. There is a process in which selecting media to achieve the learning outcomes as argued by Siemens (2003): determine the outcome; rate the outcome; determine media characteristics; and, select media. However, in our digital story, it was not only selecting the media but about designing and applying it. I will divide each of the steps as outlined by Siemens and extend by discussing the designing and applying process as well.

Determining the Outcome

Rating the Outcome

From the Ontario Curriculum, we assess based on four different categories: Knowledge/Understanding, Communication, Application, and Thinking/Inquiry. Based on the category, our instruction and assessment needs to be changed. Within the Ontario Curriculum, it would be considered a Knowledge/Understanding type of lesson. The required pedagogy requires some explanation, demostration, and opportunities for practice with feedback.

Determining media characteristics

Since the learning outcome requires for the students to be able to solve problems, as described by Siemens (2003), a video whiteboard lesson would be ideal.

Selecting Media

Initially I was going to apply Bates’ SECTIONS model here, but it is a bit too extensive. Siemens (2003) proposes quick and easy general considerations based on availability, expense, time, expertise, bandwith, technology, and other general considerations based on the context. Though, I see the overlap with Bates’ model and suspect it will remain in the back of my mind moving forward.

Notability – It is about $3 to download from the app store; once installed it is easy user interface as it resembles a notepad; allows for embedding other images and for writing with different brushes in different colours, but also being able to type up text.

AirServer – It is about $13 to download from the app store; there is not much to do with it as it just acts a way to mirror the iPad screen into your laptop. From your laptop, it then allows you to record whatever you are doing on the screen of the iPad.

Final Cut Pro – It is about $299 to download from the app store; though there are ways to get a free trial. I strongly recommend iMovie instead for simply video editing. Both programs do require expertise and time, as you get caught up with the smallest of details. I kept the editing to simple voice over and speed changes. I could see how someone could use other features such as fades, animations, and so on.

YouTube – Free to upload your video, and does require bandwidth for streaming purposes.

EdPuzzle – Free to edit an uploaded YouTube video with places to introduce comments, and quizzes to break the video into sections. I can see how this is where most of the flipped classroom learning will go in the future, and best part is that it is free and already linked up to Google Classroom.

Designing with the selected Media

In my digital story, I wanted to be able to create video lessons for my students. While YouTube has seen an explosion of video lessons, I needed to be sure that I was not simply doing what is already being done online. Simply put, if it is available, why should I waste my time and make more of the same. After analyzing the video selections, I used as a framework the twelve principles that shape the design and organization of multimedia presentations as described by Richard E. Mayer (2002).

1. Coherence Principle – People learn better when extraneous words, pictures and sounds are excluded rather than included.

There are videos that include background music, I wanted to be sure to eliminate this as I want to keep the focus on the content. There are students who report learning better with music, and it will be up to them if they want to listen to their own background music.

There are videos that includes a full transcript of everything that is being said within the video, while I support the idea of providing a transcript for English Language Learners, it should not be written out in the video lesson. I compare this to PowerPoint presentations that have the readers read off their slides, this doesn’t add anything to the actual presentation, and people would just rather read the slides.

2. Signaling Principle – People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.

I made sure that I used different colours to highlight the connected parts in reading the chemical equations with the mathematical formula. This helps bridge the connection that students have difficulty with when dealing with stoichiometry related problems. Also, I switched the colour of my writing when I introduced equations which they should know and were not immediately clear to them where they are coming from. I do this in my face-to-face classroom, and the students respond well to it, hence, me taking this strategy into the video lesson itself.

3. Redundancy Principle – People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text.

The graphic that I used was the part related to a car (catalytic converter), which students may not know what it was originally referring to. I chose to let the user take a moment and pause the video to read the question and refer to the image at their own pace. As I did not want to give all three of graphics, narration and on-screen text at the same time.

4. Spatial Contiguity Principle – People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

This was one of the criterion used to select the technology in the digital story. Many of the apps that were experimented with did not allow for a Canvas like experience. Later in the discussion forum, my peers introduced me to another technology ExplainEverything, which would have worked equally as well. Given my own technology, I wanted an app that did not limit my writing ability and I was able to continuously scroll without page breaks. Notability is great for this feature, and I am able to easily scroll up and down for the student to follow my explanation.

5. Temporal Contiguity Principle – People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

Instead of making the reader read the question, then present the image, I wanted to keep both available from the start. This way they could refer to it, by within the question, guiding the reader to refer to Figure 1. Then the reader can go back and continue reading the question with a clearer idea of what is being described in the question.

6. Segmenting Principle – People learn better from a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.

This was critical in my digital story. I wanted to allow opportunities for the learner to pause the video, then practice immediately after one example with some feedback, then show the next example with further practice. This was possible by taking my video and uploading it into EdPuzzle. Inside the app, it lets me create quizzes, which break the video down into segments. The quiz is able to give feedback for learning in the next steps, and gives the learner another opportunity to try the question before moving on.

7. Pre-training Principle – People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.

This would be within the organization of the course, and before leading the learner to the video, there should be some description of what they will be doing.

8. Modality Principle – People learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.

This is something I am still trying to figure out. Since I have removed my hand from the writing process, by hand, I am referring to videos that use this technique on YouTube. Does this imply that my writing would be consider animation, as the text appears to be written by a magic pen. (In my case, I used a finger on the screen of my iPad).

9. Multimedia Principle – People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.

10. Personalization Principle – People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.

Given that I want my students to have a high teaching presence due to the low peer presence, they should be able to connect to me, and one of the ways, should be through the words that are used. This is usually a challenge as in Science, there is its own way of communicating and by sometimes using too much of conversational style, it may develop alternative conceptions. As with most problems, a balance is usually needed, and I tried to do that within my video.

11. Voice Principle – People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.

Although, I have a bit of an accent, a human voice that is consistent throughout a student’s learning experience is preferred then selecting multiple videos by different authors throughout a course of study. Student need to be able to connect to a human voice, and this is part of the teaching presence. I enjoyed using Final Cut Pro to edit my voice-over, because I was able to have multiple tries and even re-record only smaller pieces and chunk it together at the end. I am quite proud of my work as it flows like as if it was a single recording.

12. Image Principle – People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.

This is quite interesting principle, as I have seen some videos that the authors place their talking head on the side of the video. I find that the content is quite good, but I always got distracted by the talking head on the side of the video. Applying this principle actually makes me feel more comfortable in leaving my digital footprint, especially given that the videos in YouTube would be made public.

Applying the selected media

Once the video was completed, I wanted to apply the cognitive theory of learning and limit the video length within the attention span of chunking items, the magic number 7 ± 2. This would mean that I wanted to keep my video shorter and one of the ways to do this is to make the video at 2x, 3x, or even 4x the original writing speed. I found that this helped the flow of the video, and will allow for multiple viewings if necessary.

Then to bring back the pedagogy, I didn’t want to release a video with multiple examples only, instead as stated above, the video should be broken where there are opportunities for practice with guided feedback. EdPuzzle was the best way of achieving this. And I welcome you to visit my post Digital Story for an opportunity to experience the final product.

This final product will then be one of the lessons of my online course, and be meeting the curriculum expectation as described initially. In the future, I will develop my writing skills by perhaps upgrading to the new iPads that use Apple Pencil for clearer writing. Also, I want to learn more about video editing to create smoother transitions.

References

Mayer, R. E. (2002). Multimedia learning. Psychology of learning and motivation, 41, 85-139.

Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating media characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes.Elearnspace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm