Liberating the Learner: Enhancing and Individualising the Learning Experience of undergraduate Financial Accounting students using Interactive Screencasts and Online Activities

Liberating the learner: enhancing and individualising the Learning Experience of undergraduate Financial Accounting students using Interactive Screencasts and Online Activities

Huw Morgan, Salford Business School1

Effective use of TEL: BSc in Accounting and Finance

Advanced Financial Accounting module (L6):

74% of final year students achieved a score over 70% [2013]

79% achieved over 70%, and three quarters achieved over 90% [2015]

Business Finance module (L6) January exam:

“5-minute revisits”: introduced 2013.

Average mark: 57% [2012]; 64% [2014]

Scoring over 70%: 22% [2012]; 42% [2014]

Effective use of TEL: BSc in Accounting and Finance

Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988)

•Generated by the manner by which information is presented to learners

Extraneous

•Based on the inherent difficulty

Intrinsic

•Processing and construction of schemas:

•The “effective” load required for learning

Germane

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Types of Learning Outcomes

Learning Cognitive processing during learning

Retention performance

Transfer performance

None None Poor Poor

Rote Selecting Good Poor

Meaningful Selecting, organizing, integrating Good Good

Reference: http://hilt.harvard.edu/event/richard-e-mayer-uc-santa-barbara

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Two Goals of Multimedia Learning

Goal Ability to: Example test item

Remembering (Retention)

Reproduce or recognize presented

material

“Write down all you can remember from the passage

you just read”.

Understanding(Transfer)

Use presented material in novel

situations

“List some ways to improve the reliability of the device

you just read about”.

Reference: http://hilt.harvard.edu/event/richard-e-mayer-uc-santa-barbara

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Example of Mayer’s Research: How a Tire Pump Works

Presentation: Spoken words Animated graphics

Mayer Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3fYg6OuTIAMayer Presentation: http://hilt.harvard.edu/event/richard-e-mayer-uc-santa-barbara

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Mayer’s Research into Multimedia: Methodology

• Evidence-based: which instructional methods are effective for teaching which kinds of material to which kinds of learners.

• Laboratory-based, Experimental: two groups– Control group learns with standard training.– Treatment group learns with instructional technique added. – Both groups take a transfer test.

• Effect size = mean score of treatment group minus mean score of control group divided by pooled standard deviation

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Mayer’s Research into Multimedia

Transfer Test Questions (examples): What could be done to make a pump more reliable; that is, to

make sure it would not fail? What could be done to make a pump more effect; that is, to make

it move more air more rapidly? Suppose you push down and pull up the handle of a pump

several times but no air comes out. What could have gone wrong? Why does air enter a pump? Why does air exit from a pump?

Multimedia Learning Principles

CoherenceRedundancyModality (Dual coding)Split-attentionSignalling

SequencingFidelity (novices)Variability (complex)Training wheels (novices)Completion-strategy

Self-explanation, Self-pacing, Individualisation

van Merriënboer, J. J. G. and L. Kester (2005). The Four-Component Instructional Design Model. The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. R. E. Mayer: 71-96.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN-RELEVANT VIDEO-RELEVANT [SCREENCASTS]

TAILORING TO THE LEARNER

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Instructional Design: Sequencing

Basic Consolidation at date of acquisition

Post-Acquisition Consolidation

Consolidation Adjustments

It is recommended to Sequence tasks from basic to complex

Eg: In Financial Accounting: Group Consolidations:

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Instructional Design: Training Wheels

Support is provided for novice learners: E.g.:

Process worksheets asking leading questions: to guide through the process (risk of “split attention” - distraction)

Constrain performance (only allow access to tools when required for the task)

Decrease guidance until none (as expertise increases)

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Instructional Design: Completion-strategy

It is recommended that novice learners move from worked examples to partial solutions and then conventional tasks as their expertise develops

Fully worked examples

Partial Solutions

Conventional Tasks (no scaffolding)

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Screencast Design: Coherence

• People learn more deeply from a multimedia message when extraneous material is excluded

• E.g.: “seductive details”: music, factoids, photos

Ref: Harp, S. F., & Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage: A theory of cognitive interest in science learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(3), 414.

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Screencast Design: Redundancy

The Redundancy principle means keeping the information to a minimum. Presenting the same information in a different way can harm learning because of demands on cognitive load.

“As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud”.

AUDIO:

“As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud”.

VISUAL:

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Screencast Design: Modality (Dual coding)

The Modality principle recommends a combination of narration and visual animation: each is processed through the separate audio and visual channels thus reducing cognitive load.

WORKING MEMORY

Pictorial Model

Verbal Model

Pictures

Words

integrating

LONG-TERM MEMORY

selecting images

selecting words

organizing images

organizing words

SENSORY MEMORY

Ears

Eyes

Prior Knowledge

Prior Knowledge

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION

Images

SoundsRedundant

Ref: “Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning”. The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. R. E. Mayer: p43.

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Screencast Design: Split-attention (Contiguity)

The Split-attention principle suggests presenting mutually-referring information:

“As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud”.

Close to each other on the screen (Spatial Contiguity)

Simultaneously not successively (Temporal Contiguity)

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Screencast Design: Signalling

The Signalling principle uses highlighting methods to focus attention on critical aspects of a task. People learn more deeply when cues are added highlighting the main ideas.

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Tailored to Learner: Segmenting Principle

People learn more deeply when a narrated animation is presented in learner-paced segments than as a continuous unit.

“As the air in this updraft cools, water vapor condenses into water droplets and forms a cloud”.

Continue

Ref: The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. R. E. Mayer: Ch 11

Tailored to Learner: Pre-Training Principle

People learn more deeply from a narrated animation when they have had training in the names and characteristics of the main concepts.

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Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) Model

Ref: Van Merriënboer, J. J. and P. A. Kirschner (2012). Ten steps to complex learning: A systematic approach to four-component instructional design, Routledge.

Component 1: Task Classes

Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) Model

Ref: Van Merriënboer, J. J. and P. A. Kirschner (2012). Ten steps to complex learning: A systematic approach to four-component instructional design, Routledge.

Component 1: Task ClassesComponent 2: Supportive Information

Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) Model

Ref: Van Merriënboer, J. J. and P. A. Kirschner (2012). Ten steps to complex learning: A systematic approach to four-component instructional design, Routledge.

Component 1: Task ClassesComponent 2: Supportive InformationComponent 3: Procedural information

“PreView” Videos: Supportive (screenshot)

“ReView” Videos: Procedural (screenshot)

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Pilot Research: “PreViews” and “ReViews”

• 2013-14 and 2014-15 (two cohorts, with tweaks in 2014-15)

• Material available for 3 weeks (active period)...

...then available for subsequent revision

• Statistics tracking: record of “hits” on videos and tests.

• Data from Student Records, test results, exam result

• Focus Groups (2013-14)

“I think it makes the lecture a bit more easy to understand, rather than just falling into the deep end ...”

“.. with the videos, you could go watch it all over again until you get it, and its quite helpful 'cause like, the first time I watched the videos, before I went to the lectures, I kind of understood what groups were about. So it was like, straightforward when I went to the lectures.”

Focus Groups

...On use before lectures (“PreView”):

“Yeah, having the videos there, it's like, if you forget something, or you need to go over something again then you have that there for you - so you can do it in your own time. You're not pressured, you can fit it round your schedule and it's really helpful because it acts as a - like a revision tip as well.”

“Yeah because in lecture if we miss one idea, there is no way to go back but in this video there is opportunity to go again on something, so it’s very, very advantageous.”

...On use after lectures (“ReView”):

Focus Groups

“It would encourage people to do more work as they go along. Rather than leaving it ‘til the last minute.”

“The tasks build up on each other, so its like, you do a little bit, then carry on, then carry on, until your last one, which is a big question. It's very good.”

Focus Groups

Encouraging self-study

IndividualisationM5: ... in the video, you can stop him, make some

notes, play him again...F3: Make some notes, listen over it...M5: ... in the lecture, you cannot stop him and play him

again, stop him and play him again.... laughter ...

M5: Sorry Huw.

Focus Groups

“For some of the video I've noticed I can skip parts of the video, because I already have an understanding of it, or I've read about it.” [M1, G2]

“I just went straight onto the worked examples then. I didn't watch any of the theory videos because for me, doing the question, it sticks in more. It makes more sense. [F1, G2]

Focus Groups

Individualisation:

“I'd definitely recommend it to people. I think it’s good because you can go into the lecture with like a rough idea of what to do, and then you can learn from the lecture, and then if there's something you don't do, you can go back and watch the videos, then because there's tasks, it’s always great revision 'cause you can ... watch the videos for revision and (do) the tasks to see what you've learnt. And 'cause it's sort of instant you know whether you've got it right.”

Focus Groups

SUMMARY

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Findings from 2013-14

• Financial Accounting cohort: 135 students

• 64 students gave consent to participate (47%)

• Only five students viewed all within the timeframe(!)

• 31 short videos, over three weeks, and four weekly tasks. Too much!

• By the exam, 116 (86%) had accessed the material, if only partially.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

A

LECT 1

LECT 2

LECT 3 Rev Lec 1

Rev Lect 2

EXAM

Total Views (all Videos) 2013-14

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Changes for 2014-15

• Pre-lecture videos and activities in 2014-15 limited to one hour• The videos not used in pre-lecture sessions were offered as

procedural information to aid students with their seminar activities.

• Encouraged access of videos in seminars: active learning sessions using Peer Instruction in addition to Tutor support

Peer Instruction

"Learning is a two-step process. First, you must have some transfer of information; second, you must make sense of that information by connecting it to your own experiences and organizing the information in your brain.

About 22 years ago, I realized that we professors were focusing on the easy part - the transfer of information - rather than on the harder part, on helping students make sense of that information.” Eric Mazur, professor of Physics at Harvard University (MA).

Source: Jan 2013 digital edition of Campus Technology

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Peer Instruction

Begin with a student-sourced question. If 30-70% are correct: Peer Instruction:

Students find a neighbour with a different answer and each tries to convince the other.

Mazur circulates, listening out especially for incorrect reasoning, so “I can re-sensitize myself to the difficulties beginning learners face.” Twilight of the Lecture Published on Harvard Magazine (http://harvardmagazine.com/node/34321)[2012]

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The Blackboard Provision 2014-15

• PreView videos, with in-video tests

• Lecture Captures (new 2015, using Screencast-O-Matic)

• ReViews: before or during Seminars

• Online Test of final Seminar activity (without scaffolding), for immediate detailed feedback

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Tentative Results (pending statistical analysis!)

• 21st Nov 2014 to 20th Jan 2015. Cohort: 109 students

• By the exam, 91 (83%) had accessed elements of the online PreView material and lecture captures, if only partially.

• Significant increase in the number of times that material was accessed

• New Lecture Captures further enhanced learning experience

Financial Accounting “PreViews”

Seminar

Tasks

“PreViews” Theory

Lecture Captures (new 2015)

“ReViews”Work

ed Examples

Individualisation

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

Access of Online Videos: FA 2014-15

Cohort Size: 109RV LEC PV

Lec 1

Lec2Lec 3

Sem1 Sem2

Sem3

Lec 4

Sem4

EXAM20th Jan

Total Views (all Videos) 2014-15

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Usage by proportion (with relevant Q exam result)

Number % Av Exam STD DevALL RESOURCES (76%) 62 57% 76% 12.84LECTURES AND REVIEWS (68%) 9 8% 68% 18.46REVIEWS ONLY (64%) 5 5% 64% 18.43LECTURE CAPTURES ONLY (63%) 5 5% 63% 17.40STARTED, THEN QUIT (63%) 6 6% 63% 16.23PREVIEWS AND LECTURES (62%) 4 4% 62% 20.45NO USE AT ALL (55%) 18 17% 55% 19.61

109 100% 70%

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Usage by proportion (with relevant Q exam result %)

ALL RESOURCES (Result: 76%)

LECTURES AND REVIEWS (Result: 68%)

REVIEWS ONLY (Result: 64%)

LECTURE CAPTURES ONLY (Result: 63%)

STARTED, THEN QUIT (Result: 63%)

PREVIEWS AND LECTURES (Result: 62%)

NO USE AT ALL (Result: 55%)

All 3 aspects of learning are not competing, but are stages in a cycle

Associative

Cognitive Situative

Ref: Mayes, T. and de Freitas, S. (2004) ‘Review of e-learning theories, frameworks and models. Stage 2 of the e-learning models desk study’, Bristol: JISC.

Learning Perspectives (also relevant for TEL)

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Future Developments

• To encourage participation, aim to alter the mode of assessment to allow a proportion of the final grade for the online tests.

• Use Student Response Systems (Peer Instruction Activities)• Consider broadening provision to other task-based areas• More use of Hyperlinks: references for procedural information• Learning Analytics: rich data for analysis! Question non-users!

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"I like the idea of online tests forming a small part of my final grade in this module"

31%

23%

31%

8%

8%Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

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Online Tests: “Security” Issues over originality

• Use Question Pools

• Randomize Questions

• Limit Feedback

• Set Timer

• Display Questions One At A Time

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What about YOU!?

• Plan: what topic to put on video? How to explain?• Allow for preparation time!• Script it; keep it short: 5 minutes. • Screencasting software: Eg: – Screencast-O-Matic (basic); Camtasia (advanced)– Digital Pen: Bamboo (basic), Smart podium

• Tests: to motivate, monitor and adapt learning sessions

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Camtasia – benefits of advanced Screencasts

• Closed Captions

• “Hotspots”– Highlighting– Hyperlinks– Pause and click to continue, or jump to another section– In-video Quizzing (via Scorm)

• Zoom

• Table of Contents

Liberating the learner: enhancing and individualising the Learning Experience of undergraduate Financial Accounting students using Interactive Screencasts and Online Activities

Huw Morgan, Salford Business School50