Some
comments with respect to the instructional design strategies
embedded within Aussie Kids Spelling Tools
13 January 2004
Multimedia based learning
resources are becoming increasingly available for both CD-ROM and
web based delivery.
Some of the most salient
features of this technology include:
user-driven selection
of media types (images, sounds, videos)
interactivity between
the to-be-learnt content and the user (menu selection, multiple
choice questions, simulations)
item specific feedback
(indicating a status of correct, hints to guide selection to correct
alternatives, remedial instructions), and
automatic collection
and generation of user performance data (time on task, number
of attempts, items correct, items incorrect).
Another prominent evolution
in educational multimedia has been the convergence of products as
sources of simultaneous entertainment and learning. Modern computer
technology enables users to acquire greater levels of immersion
and autonomy over their experiences with learning materials, and
thus higher levels of focus, engagement, pleasure and satisfaction.
In many teaching situations
these are important factors to be engineered and managed, especially
for younger students who are typically motivated to "play games"
and "avoid home work". The result has been a rapid increase
in the quantity and range of educational multimedia resources, especially
those which are available for Infants and Primary based content
that incorporate high levels of "bells and whistles" to
increase the appeal of playing. This holds some analogies to the
strategies employed in modern day Poker Machines, where the high
level of gadgetry, flashing, and sounds is designed to acquire and
maintain the users' focus of attention.
A critical problem arises,
however, for areas that are typically considered "difficult"
to learn which require students to systematically acquire rules
and principles that build upon one another to form increasingly
complex hierarchical knowledge structures (called "schemas").
Prominent examples include the realms of arithmetic, mathematics,
spelling and grammar. In these areas students often have their cognitive
resources (working memory) challenged due to the relatively high
levels of interrelatedness of the to-be-learnt information. In such
situations high levels of user autonomy and "bells and whistles"
actively operate to impede learning because the students' cognitive
resources are effectively fully allocated in attempting to understand
and learn the to-be-learnt information. Adding further tasks, options,
interactivity and screen activity (such as animations) overloads
cognitive resources and blocks learning … even though the student
may experience the activity as entertaining and enjoyable. This
effect is amplified significantly for the less able students, who,
ironically, are the primary target group for many educational multimedia
resources.
When presenting content
that falls into the broad category of difficult well-defined problems
(such as mathematics and spelling) there is an absolute need to
ensure that periods of content-acquisition (learning) are designed
to minimise the levels of extraneous cognitive load imposed (ie;
the level of distractive interactions, sounds, animations, highlights,
screen refreshes and so on) because the level of intrinsic cognitive
load is already high (ie; the content is by it's own nature, already
highly demanding of cognitive resources).
The use of interactions,
animations, audio files and other forms of multimedia "eye-candy"
are appropriate to use in periods of feedback and/or game-like activities
that may exist within the product … because in such situations
users are not required to bring their cognitive resources to bear
on learning specified materials, but rather, are the periods of
"relax" between learning activities.
The instructional design
strategies embedded within Aussie Kids Spelling Tools have focussed
on the need to distinguish between periods of entertainment and
learning, and to modify the levels and nature of user activities
and screen activities accordingly. Learning to spell words is a
cognitively demanding task and as such, there needs to be minimal
levels of unnecessary interactivity during learning phases. Benefits
accrue, however, in providing interactivity and screen activities
as feedback, rewards, and entertainment in periods of "gaming"
that may be defined by levels and "lives".
The principles of cognitive
load theory where first formalised in the late 1980's. Since then
many separate instructional design effects based upon this model
have been identified and documented (including; goal -free problem
effect, worked example effect, problem completion effect, split
attention effect, redundancy effect, modality effect, expertise
reversal effect, and the imagination effect). The benefits of adhering
to instructional design strategies based upon cognitive load theory
consistently deliver key performance measures of learning, namely:
reduced learning times
higher levels of retention
higher levels of transfer
(correct use of the newly acquired knowledge
and skills in similar, though different, contexts).
The primary challenge
for educational multimedia products is to achieve an appropriate
range of instructional design strategies and tactics to simultaneously
meet required levels of entertainment and learning for the user.
Aussie Kids Spelling Tools explicitly incorporates aspects of instructional
design based upon human cognitive architecture and cognitive load
theory to meet these two objectives.
Finally, I would also like to make two brief comments on the usability
of Aussie Kids Spelling Tools from a teachers and/or parents perspective
with respect to flexibility and scalability.
Flexibility is demonstrated
by the capacity for a teacher and/or parent to generate their own
set of spelling words together with associated audio files for pronunciation
of the words together with a sentence or definition demonstrating
usage. Sets of words may be based around specialised topics such
as geology or anatomy, personalised spelling list that a particular
child has difficulty with, or even words from other languages based
upon Arabic script such as Indonesian and German. Aussie Kids Spelling
Tools automatically manages the interactions required for users
to input the spelling of the words and associated feedback!
Scalability is demonstrated
by the ability of the product to handle effectively unlimited sizes
of spelling lists as the data (words and associated audio files)
are handled outside of the actual application (the engine that presents
the words to users and assess performance).
While Aussie Kids Spelling
Tools is still in a stage of prototyping and development, its instructional
design, software design, goals and user-interaction strategies are
of a highly efficient and effective nature. I have no doubt that
the product promises to fulfil a gap in commercially available products;
one that is entertaining and educational and flexible and scalable.
Should you wish to find
out more on cognitive load theory, a good starting point is this
brief web
paper
For more detailed information,
see:
Sweller, J. (1999). Instructional design in technical areas. Australian
Education Review, 43. ACER press.
If you have further queries
please contact me directly.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Graham Cooper
Lecturer and Course Coordinator
Bachelor of Multimedia
School of Multimedia and Information Technology
Southern Cross University
Ph: 02 6659 3327
email: Dr Graham Cooper
