Metaphors for Learning
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Learning involves strengthening correct responses
and weakening incorrect responses.
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Learning involves adding new information to your
memory.
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Learning involves making sense of the presented
material by attending to relevant information,
mentally reorganizing it, and connecting it with
what you already know.
The knowledge construction view is
based on three principles
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Dual channels—people have separate channels for
processing visual/pictorial material and auditory/verbal
material;
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Limited capacity —people can actively process only a few
pieces of information in each channel at one time; and
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Active processing —learning occurs when people engage
in appropriate cognitive processing during learning, such
as attending to relevant material, organizing the material
into a coherent structure, and integrating it with what
they already know.
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia
Learning.
Managing Limited Cognitive Resources
During Learning
1. Selection of the important information in the lesson.
2. Management of the limited capacity in working memory to
allow the rehearsal needed for learning.
3. Integration of auditory and visual sensory information in
working memory with existing knowledge in long-term
memory by way of rehearsal in working memory.
4. Retrieval of new knowledge and skills from long-term
memory into working memory when needed later.
e-lessons relies on four key processes.
1.
the learner must focus on key graphics and words in the lesson
to select what will be processed.
2.
the learner must rehearse this information in working memory
to organize and integrate it with existing knowledge in longterm memory.
3.
in order to do the integration work, limited working memory
capacity must not be overloaded. Lessons should apply
cognitive load reduction techniques, especially when learners
are novices to the new knowledge and skills.
4.
Fourth, new knowledge stored in long-term memory must be
retrieved back on the job. We call this process transfer of
learning. To support transfer, e-lessons must provide a job
context during learning that will create new memories
containing job-relevant retrieval hooks.
People learn more deeply from words
and graphics than from words alone.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN e-LEARNING
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Graphics and text are used to present instructional content.
Graphics are relevant to the instructional purpose rather than
decorative.
Representative graphics are used to illustrate concrete facts,
concepts, and their parts.
Animations are used primarily to illustrate hands-on procedures.
Organizational graphics are used to show relationships among ideas or
lesson topics or where the parts are located within a whole structure.
Relational graphics are used to show quantitative relationships among
variables.
Transformational graphics, such as a video showing how to operate
equipment, are used to show changes over time.
Interpretive graphics, such as a series of static frames, are used to
explain how a system works or to make invisible phenomena visible.
Graphics are used as a lesson interface for case studies.
Contiguity Principle
Avoid Separation of Text and Graphics on Scrolling Screens
 Avoid Separation of Feedback from Questions or Responses
 Avoid Separating Lesson Screens with Linked Windows
 Avoid Presenting Exercise Directions Separate from the
Exercise
 Avoid Displaying Captions at the Bottom of Screens
 Avoid Simultaneous Display of Animations and Related Text
 Avoid Using a Legend to Indicate the Parts of a Graphic
 Avoid Separation of Graphics and Narration Through Icons
 Avoid Separation of Graphics and Narration in a Continuous
Presentation
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