This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Images can be effective for explaining concepts that cannot be described adequately in words alone (Ainsworth & Loizou, 2003). The terms “image,” “picture,” and “graphic” in this post refer to static visual representations that include, but are not limited to, drawings, photographs, microscope images, and…
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. The use of interactive media in education may depend largely on the subject matter. A casual search of interactive, educational media on the internet seems to yield mostly applications about topics in STEM, especially math. These applications are designed for: The examples of interactive media…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. When incorporating an image into educational material, the first step is to evaluate whether the image is relevant to the learning objectives and has non-redundant information. Having decided to use an image, there are additional details to think about to improve communication through the image….
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Incorporating drawing as a learning activity to accompany textual information can be helpful for meeting learning outcomes compared to no drawing (Leutner & Schmeck, 2021). According to the drawing principle, the exercise of drawing allows students to engage in generative processing (Leutner & Schmeck, 2021)…
This guide is available as a Word document or PDF. Feedback is a signal to learners to let them know whether they are on the right track in meeting the course objectives and to correct faulty knowledge. In Open Learning, students have the opportunity to obtain feedback from the instructor as well as from interactive…
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 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…