Myths of Educational Multimedia User Interface Design Larry Najjar gt4708d@prism.gatech.edu.

Myths of Educational Multimedia User Interface

Design

Larry Najjar

gt4708d@prism.gatech.edu

Educational Multimedia

• Use of text, graphics, sound, photographs, and video to help people learn

Outline

• Larry presents myth.

• You decide whether myth generally true or false.

• Larry describes what research suggests.

• At end, we summarize scores.

Myth 1

• “People generally remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, [and] 50% of what they hear and see...” (Treichler, 1967, p. 15).

Myth 1

• False.

• Although widely used, this quote is completely unsupported.

Myth 2

• People prefer multimedia user interfaces.

Myth 2

• Generally true.

Myth 3

• People learn better from traditional classroom lectures than from computer-based multimedia tutorials.

Myth 3

• Generally false.

• People can learn better and faster with computer-based multimedia tutorials.

Myth 4

• The medium used to communicate the information affects learning.

Myth 4

• Generally true.

• Some media better than others for learning specific info.– pictures for spatial info– auditory narration for short info for short time– text for longer verbal info for longer time

Myth 5

• Multimedia improves learning better than “monomedia.”

Myth 5

• Generally true.

• Redundant verbal and pictorial multimedia (e.g., text with picture) generally more effective than text alone or picture alone.

• Redundant verbal multimedia (e.g., text with audio narration) generally not more effective than text alone or audio narration alone

Myth 6

• Due to novelty and learner stimulation, learning improves when there are many different media in the educational application.

Myth 6

• Generally false.

• Media improve learning only when used in highly-related, supportive way.– unrelated illustrations do not improve learning;

related illustrations do

Myth 7

• Interactive user interfaces improve learning.

Myth 7

• Generally true.

• But interactivity must encourage learner to process the info.

Myth 8

• Humor helps people to learn.

Myth 8

• Generally false.

• Humor can distract learners.

Myth 9

• Providing external rewards improves learning.

Myth 9

• Generally false.

• External motivation does not improve learning, but internal motivation does.

Myth 10

• Multimedia helps all learners to learn.

Myth 10

• Generally false.

• Multimedia most effective for naive learners and learners with lower aptitude.

Myth 11

• For recognition, text is better than pictures.

Myth 11

• Generally false.

• Picture recognition is much better than text recognition.

Myth 12

• The kind of info (e.g., verbal, pictorial) required to complete a test should match the kind of info used to present the original info.

Myth 12

• Generally true.

• Due to transfer-appropriate processing, people do better on verbal tests when they study verbal info.

Conclusion

• Multimedia can help people to learn -- sometimes.

For More Info

• http://mime1.marc.gatech.edu/imb/people/larry_pubs.html

• Larry Najjar’s e-mail address: gt4708d@prism.gatech.edu