Is spoken text always better? Investigating the modality and redundancy effect with longer text presentation

Perceptions of the 2D short animated videos for literacy against chronic diseases among adults with diabetes and/or hypertension: a qualitative study in primary care clinics

BACKGROUND

Animation has promise for teaching complex health content through smartphone applications. However, smartphones have had limited use in Thailand for health literacy improvement among adults with chronic diseases. This study aims to explore the perceptions of adults with diabetes and/or hypertension resulting from 2D short animated videos for literacy against chronic disease that are available via smartphones.

METHODS

Four animated videos were initially developed based on clinical practice guidelines and nursing experience. Physicians, an expert in health education, and an animation team developed and revised scripts and storyboards of the animated videos. Lastly, videos were validated by physicians and health educators for content breadth and depth and by media experts for motion graphics and illustration. Each video presents a different situation in diabetes, hypertension, missing appointments, and obesity, ranging from 2.18 to 4.14 min in duration. The inclusion criteria were adults 35-70 years old with diabetes or hypertension who received care from primary care units. Thematic analysis was performed on the extracted data.

RESULTS

Twenty participants with a mean age of 58.4 years (SD 6.7; ranged 41-68) were focus-group interviewed. Three animation elements were assessed, including presentation, impacts, and suggestions. Participants had positive responses regarding the presentation (suitability of images and smooth motion graphics, short length of videos, simple language, understandable content, and clear sound) and impacts (recalling information, enhancing engagement, and motivating health awareness and behavior change). Suggested improvements were for a bigger font size for subtitles and considering the use of spoken text instead of on-screen text for recommendations at the end of the animations.

CONCLUSIONS

Animated videos are acceptable for delivering health information. Pilot testing animated videos for promoting literacy against chronic diseases in adults with diabetes and hypertension is needed for optimal utility.

The effects of segmentation on cognitive load, vocabulary learning and retention, and reading comprehension in a multimedia learning environment

BACKGROUND

Segmentation is a common pedagogical approach in multimedia learning, but its effects on cognitive processes and learning outcomes have yet to be comprehensively explored. Understanding the role of segmentation is crucial, as it has the potential to influence the way instructional materials are designed and delivered in digital learning environments.

OBJECTIVES

This research aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of segmentation on cognitive load, vocabulary acquisition, retention, and reading comprehension in a multimedia learning context.

METHODOLOGY

Participants were selected from two language schools in Zhengzhou through a multi-stage random sampling method. Ninety teenage students were randomly assigned to six experimental groups. The study utilized a 2 × 3 factorial design to examine segmentation and textual augmentation effects. Four assessment instruments were employed: a Reading Comprehension Test, a Vocabulary Assessment Test, a Cognitive Load Assessment Scale, and a Prior Knowledge Test. The experiment comprised four stages: pre-test, Instruction, post-test, and follow-up. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 22 software, involving descriptive statistics, one-way, and multi-way analysis of variance.

RESULTS

Results indicated that high segmentation significantly impacts cognitive load, vocabulary learning, retention, and reading comprehension across various aspects of multimedia learning. In essence, segmentation reduces cognitive load, supports learning efficiency, and facilitates more profound understanding, vocabulary learning, and retention.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

High segmentation in multimedia learning significantly impacts cognitive load, vocabulary learning, comprehension, and retention. Educators should prioritize segmentation for more effective and engaging e-learning experiences.

Different types of redundancy and their effect on learning and cognitive load

BACKGROUND

What is redundancy? While most studies confirm that redundancy is harmful to learning, there are two theoretical approaches to redundancy. The first understands redundancy as a contentual overlap that puts demand on the limited cognitive capacities of the learner. The second understands redundancy as an ineffective combination of sources leading to an overload of the limited working memory modalities.

AIMS

Since these theoretical differences are rarely acknowledged in operation, this study proposes a classification of two distinct types of redundancy to compare these experimentally to investigate their possible main and interaction effects. The first type, content redundancy, is concerned with the contentual overlap of information. The second type, modal redundancy, is concerned with the modalities in which the information is displayed.

METHODS

We used these two types of redundancy as factors in a 2 × 2 within-subject design, in which we experimentally compared their effects.

SAMPLE

University students (N = 46) learned from specifically designed domain-general material which aimed to observe redundancy effects without interference from confounding variables.

RESULTS

The results show that content redundancy increases learning outcomes and decreases cognitive load, while modal redundancy decreases learning outcomes and increases cognitive load.

CONCLUSION

On the theoretical level, these findings confirm the usefulness to distinguish content redundancy from modal redundancy. On the practical level, the empirical findings of the different effects of the two types of redundancy provide educators with important insights that can improve the design of multimedia learning materials.

Two types of redundancy in multimedia learning: a literature review

Regarding the redundancy effect in multimedia learning environments, more consistency is needed in the theoretical assumptions and investigation of this effect. Current research lacks a comprehensive account of different redundant scenarios in which materials facilitate or inhibit learning and provides little conceptual guidance on how learning processes are affected by different types of redundancy. Theoretical assumptions refer to redundancy as a contentual overlap of information provided by the learning material; in this case, processing duplicated information strains the learners' limited cognitive capacities. Other assumptions refer to the role of processing limitations in working memory channels, including separate processing for visual and verbal information. In this case, an ineffective combination of sources leads to an overload of the limited working memory capacity. This paper reviews empirical research on the redundancy effect (63 studies) and classifies two types of redundancy: (1) content redundancy, and (2) working memory channel redundancy. From an instructional psychology perspective, the analyses reveal four different implementations of redundant scenarios: (1) adding narration to visualizations, (2) adding written text to visualizations, (3) adding written text to narration, and (4) adding written text to narrated visualizations. Regarding the effects of the two redundancy types within these scenarios, analyses indicate positive effects of content redundancy (affected by learners' prior knowledge), negative effects of working memory channel redundancy (regarding visualizations and written text), and positive effects of working memory channel redundancy (regarding narration and written text). Moreover, results point to factors that might moderate the effect of redundancy and illustrate interactions with existing multimedia effects. Overall, this review provides an overview of the state of empirical research and reveals that the consideration of both redundancy types provides further explanations in this field of research.

The intention was good: How promoting strategy use does not improve multimedia learning for secondary students

BACKGROUND

It is well established that successful learning with multimedia is challenging, especially for younger learners.

AIMS

It was investigated whether students would profit from instructional support regarding the use of multimedia learning strategies.

SAMPLE

Participants were high school students in 8^th , 9^th , and 10^th grade (N = 168).

METHODS

Participants were assigned to a no-support control group or one of four experimental groups. In the experimental groups, students received either only a multimedia strategy training before learning (training group) or the training was enriched by prompts (prompts before or during learning) or if-then plans (implementation intentions). In the training, multimedia learning strategies were introduced (e.g., linking information from text and picture). The prompts and implementation intentions were aimed at enhancing the application of the multimedia strategies conveyed through the training. Students learned about the process of mitosis by studying multimedia instructions and were tested regarding the acquired knowledge. It was expected that solely training students to use adequate multimedia learning strategies would not promote learning compared with the control group, rather, that additional support like prompts or implementation intentions would be necessary to enhance learning.

RESULTS

Although in the experimental groups, multimedia learning strategies were used more frequently especially in the beginning of the instructional unit, there were no effects on learning outcome.

CONCLUSIONS

Promoting multimedia strategy use did not improve learning. The quality of the different instructional support measures and their suitability for the target groups are discussed as possible explanations for these findings.

Cross-Representational Signaling and Cohesion Support Inferential Comprehension of Text-Picture Documents

Learning from a text–picture multimedia document is particularly effective if learners can link information within the text and across the verbal and the pictorial representations. The ability to create a mental model successfully and include those implicit links is related to the ability to generate inferences. Text processing research has found that text cohesion facilitates the generation of inferences, and thus text comprehension for learners with poor prior knowledge or reading abilities, but is detrimental for learners with good prior knowledge or reading abilities. Moreover, multimedia research has found a positive effect from adding visual representations to text information, particularly when implementing signaling, which consists of verbal or visual cues designed to guide attention to the pictorial representation of relevant information. We expected that, as with text-only documents, struggling readers would benefit from high text cohesion (Hypothesis 1) and that signaling would foster inference generation as well (Hypothesis 2). Further, we hypothesized that better learning outcomes would be observed when text cohesion was low and signaling was present (Hypothesis 3). Our first experimental study investigated the effect of those two factors (cohesion and signaling) on three levels of comprehension (text based, local inferences, global inferences). Participants were adolescents in prevocational schools (n = 95), where some of the students are struggling readers. The results showed a trend in favor of high cohesion, but with no significant effect, a significant positive effect of cross-representational signaling (CRS) on comprehension from local inferences, and no interaction effect. A second experiment focused on signaling only and attention toward the picture, with collection of eye-tracking data in addition to measures of offline comprehension. As this study was conducted with university students (n = 47), who are expected to have higher reading abilities and thus are less likely to benefit from high cohesion, the material was presented in its low cohesive version. The results showed no effect of conditions on comprehension performances but confirmed differences in processing behaviors. Participants allocated more attention to the pictorial representation in the CRS condition than in the no signaling condition.

Aprendizaje Multimedia y el efecto de las modalidades instruccionales

El aprendizaje multimedia es un fenómeno estrechamente vinculado con el uso de tecnologías de la información y comunicación en entornos educativos. Diferentes posturas han surgido para abordar sus características, siendo la de Mayer la más destacada. Se realizó una investigación de tipo documentalconocida como meta-análisis, la cual consiste en una revisión sistemática cualitativa o cuantitativa de un conjunto de informes o artículos de investigación, realizados con el ánimo de estudiar el efecto de una variable en particular; El presente estudio se realizó de forma cuantitativa mediante un estadístico conocido como el coeficiente de Cohen (d) a través del cual se puede determinar cuál es la magnitud del efecto de una variable (Nulo, Bajo, moderado, alto). Como resultado de este proceso se encuentra que la modalidadinstruccional tiene un efecto alto (44% de las mediciones consultadas en las diferentes publicaciones), así como que la investigación en esta área ha ido disminuyendo en los últimos cinco años. Finalmente se encuentra un dato muy interesante, según el cual dentro de las publicaciones analizadas, solamente una se realizó en tareas de memoria implícita.