This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Popular instructional videos have such different styles, and there is no consensus in research about how to make the most effective instructional videos (Renkl, 2021). Videos can differ in whether or not we can see the instructor, presenting text as spoken and/or printed, and the…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Natural Versus Synthesized Voice Instructors have the option of lecturing with the human voice or a computer-generated voice. In a study involving a lecture on lightning formation, students learned better from the recorded human voice than the Microsoft text-to-speech software (Atkinson et al., 2005). This…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Cognitive capacity is the amount of processing through audio and visual channels of working memory (Mayer & Fiorella, 2021). Essential overload (information overload) occurs when too much necessary information is presented too quickly. Dynamic media, such as animations (Castro-Alonso & Sweller, 2021) and podcasts that…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Use Animations to Convey Motion Let’s define “animation” as a medium that changes over time (i.e. dynamic) and appeals to the visual channel. Thus, animations can include cartoons depicting abstract topics or a video recording of the instructor demonstrating a procedure. Animations are suitable for…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Whether or not students can see the instructor, or on-screen pedagogical agent, alongside the course material does not affect the effectiveness of the video lesson (Fiorella & Mayer, 2021). In fact, students may find the instructor’s image distracting (Kizilcec et al., 2015) because their attention…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. The availability of multiple forms of media allows us to communicate through distinct sensory channels. A dilemma is, which sensory channel do we choose to present a piece of information? When to Use Spoken or Written Words In the case of presenting textual information, it…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. The style of language refers to the manner of speaking of the instructor or on-screen agent as well as the manner of written instructions. Formal tone speaks from the third-person perspective, while a conversational tone speaks from the first- or second-person perspective to reference the…
Popular instructional videos have such different styles, and there is no consensus in research about how to make the most effective instructional videos [§18]. Videos can differ in whether or not we can see the instructor [PRODUCTION: Please link to post “Presence — Seeing the Instructor”.], presenting text as spoken and/or printed [PRODUCTION: Please link…