Designing multimedia messages for classroom settings

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Gerjets
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning ; Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2006 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 22134855

Recent findings from multimedia laboratory studies suggest that spoken text in multimedia messages yields superior learning outcomes than written text for delivering instructional explanations accompanying dynamic visualizations (animations). Research on text comprehension, on the other hand, demonstrates distinct processing advantages of written over spoken forms of communication, which should be particularly observable whenever learners can determine their speed of reading, have to deal with complex texts, vary with regard to the amount of prior knowledge they possess, and whenever sustainability of knowledge is the main learning objective. Under these conditions adaptive reading strategies, which are not available with transient spoken text, are most helpful to foster understanding. These conditions are often given in the classroom, but are usually absent in multimedia laboratory studies. We thus aim at investigating possible interactions between the presentation mode for verbal information in multimedia messages, individual learning prerequisites, and instructional conditions in classroom settings. We expect that this research will help to refine multimedia design recommendations regarding the combination of dynamic visualizations and verbal information in a way that allows for developing effective materials to be used in classrooms.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 738: Orchestrating Computer-supported Processes of Learning and Instruction
• Participating Persons: Dr. Thomas Huk; Professorin Dr. Katharina Scheiter