ELRC 7505: Module 3—Modality and Redundancy Principles

 Hello again, everyone!

Welcome to another weekly learning log update! In this week’s blog I will share my experience with a narrated presentation project and link it at the end of the post for you to see.  Since I have already shared a handful of resources and tips on what applications I personally use for language learning on this blog site as well as my main website—for this assignment, I decided to explore something on the other end of the spectrum and share a resource I use to teach.  This led me to elaborate on an e-learning textbook application that my school currently uses.  My goal for the narrated presentation project was to include the recommendations that Clark and Mayer (2016) provided in this week’s assigned readings and apply them in the PowerPoint design, as well as, analyzing the actual e-learning component (image below).

The multimedia from the e-learning content I refer to in the project are: 

·      Narration

·      Printed Words

·      Static Pictures

·      Animation

The narrated presentation project demonstrates modality by “reducing the load on the visual channel by presenting the verbal explanation as speech” (p. 119).  I believe the first slide supports that in an easy fashion.  I introduce a static image and have a description of simple topic questions beside it rather than under it to align with recommendations from Clark and Mayer in previous chapters.  Regardless of if the viewer has continued from my discussion in the forum, this design gives the viewer an outline of what to expect on the slide and sets them up for the remainder of the presentation, by not being overwhelming with lengthy descriptions but reasonable enough to read the questions and listen along.  

To improve flow, which is a concept we addressed in previous assignments, perhaps next time I could give a prompt such as “look at the image, read the following questions, then listen.”   To reinforce why the questions were present, Clark and Mayer mentioned the concept that “printed words should be used when the learner may not be able to hold the entire verbal message in working memory while viewing the graphic” (p. 126).  The questions were visual cues to enhance the auditory experience.  

My project demonstrates compliance in redundancy principles by “printing few key words next to corresponding parts of graphics to aid cognitive processing by directing the learner’s attention” (p. 141).  Other than the first slide, the remaining three slides have few on-screen text and simply rely on graphics and narration.  I enjoyed this week’s project because I favor making videos in my discussion posts.  Every time I create a recording response, I am reminded of experiences in undergraduate classes where my mind wandered because lecture slides would be drowned in text and lecturers would read verbatim what was on the screen.  Clark and Mayer mention that “adding redundant on-screen text to narrated graphics tends to hurt learning” (p. 139). So, I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester and I hope to develop these education technology skills to enhance learning experiences for others!

Narrated Presentation Project Link:  Learning Styles