Welcome back! As I am jumping into week 2 of LSU's Design and Development of Multimedia Instructional Units our course has begun to look at the principles of contiguity and multimedia to get the best learning outcomes for students in instructional applications. We were tasked this week with creating a static multimedia tutorial that would be applicable to our colleagues and/or students. You can access this tutorial through the PDF file linked at the top of this blog post. In my case, I frequently use an ed tech website and resource called EdPuzzle. The beauty of EdPuzzle is it takes your average YouTube videos (both your own creation or public videos) and gives a platform to integrate multiple choice and short answer questions, teacher notes, and even voiceovers seamlessly. This allows for the teachers to check for comprehension and even take a quick grade with little to no grading work on the instructor's side. My tutorial is intended for teachers and course instructors who have a basic competence in using Google applications and learning management systems.
Learning Outcomes:
The learner will be able to create an EdPuzzle account.
The learner will be able to add multiple choice questions to a YouTube video of their choice.
The learner will be able to publish their EdPuzzle video .
Contiguity and Multimedia Principles Connection
At the very beginning of chapter 4 of e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, the authors, Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer state: "People learn better from words and pictures than from pictures alone." In my tutorial this is demonstrated by using screenshots with integrated texts that point out and circle steps along the process.
In chapter 5 we take the multimedia principle a step further to work with the principle of contiguity which is outlines the "...learning gains resulting from presenting text and graphics in an integrated fashion (that is, placing printed words next to the part of the graphic they describe or presenting spoken words at the same time as a corresponding graphic), rather than from presenting the same information separately," (pages 89-90, Clark & Mayer). Per the guidelines within the contiguity principle 1, my main focus was ensuring that I placed printed words near corresponding graphics to avoid splitting the learner's attention and adding extraneous loads on the learning's cognitive intake of information. As instructors we aim to get the most return on our learning outcomes investment for our students without losing their engagement due to overstimulating them. This task was quite honestly more difficult than I anticipated. I wanted to leave adequate space for the directions, but also be conscious of the text being in close proximity to the part of the screenshot that was needed.
Thanks for reading as I continue through this journey. Geaux Tigers!
Reference:
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Wiley.
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