Worked Example

In our final assignment, we were tasked with bringing together all we had learned in the course from Clark & Mayer's various principles on multimedia learning to create a worked example video that demonstrated our learning. The culmination of all the principles working together in the design and creation of this video illustrate how the use of research on psychology and e-learning impact the young learner, such as a middle school student. For this project I created a worked example lesson on multiplying fractions that is part of the curriculum for a group of students I currently teach in a virtual (online) course at the school district I work in. I chose this topic because it is a new mathematical concept for sixth grade students and can sometimes be confusing or difficult to understand when the instructor is physically separated from the learner, as in a virtual learning environment. I used Clark & Mayer's principles to design this lesson in a way that assisted students in the visualization of mathematics with the conceptualization of the process that is occurring as they calculate their results. I also wanted this lesson to not be too taxing on my students learning it on their own at home.

The first of Clark and Mayer's principles I wanted to address in this assignment was the coherence principle. I wanted to strip away all the excess and have students focus in on the key elements of the lesson. In the videos I created for my students, there is minimal text on the screen and the eye naturally follows the mathematical equations and occasional vocabulary that appears on the screen as to draw the learner into that information. The next principle I focused on in my design was the signaling principle. With young learners who are being exposed to this topic for the first time, I wanted to use signals that indicate key words or steps in the process for multiplying fractions. I did this by highlighting vocabulary, circling important terms, and animating arrows in the direction the process follows. I also utilize color to separate different sections of the graphic so students accurately connected vocabulary with the terms in the equation. By placing the key information in the center of the screen, the spatial contiguity principle was also addressed so as the allow the learner to immediately see the necessary part of the screen.

In the videos for my students, I also utilized spoken words for the directions and explanation of the steps of the process to pair with the visual of the equation on the screen instead of having the steps in written form. This was done to follow the modality principle which asserts that humans learn better from visuals and audio than from visuals and written text. This is based off the dual channels theory, allowing the student to use both their auditory and visual channels to process the information at the same time versus the overloading of the visual channel with graphics and written words on screen together. Finally, the audio that I use throughout the tutorial videos for my students is an informal, guiding voice to meet the needs of the personalization and voice principles. Learners, and especially young students, perform better with a human voice over a computerized voice as well as the use of less formal language to make the content more accessible.

Throughout this project, I found myself going back and editing different bits and pieces as various principles came to mind over the days I was working on the assignment. I first created a powerpoint to make the animated graphics for solving the multiplying fractions problems. I then made adjustments to the placement of the graphics, the colors of the background and the signaled vocabulary words, and the inclusion of the colored question marks versus blank spaces on the second and third examples. I also thought about how I would actually present this lesson to my students and then chose to do the segmented clips embedded within a Schoology assignment so that students had the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge acquisition throughout the lesson. I really enjoyed this project and how it pushed me to analyze the lessons I have previously created for my students and how I will adapt others in the future.