Donald Clark Plan B: Brilliant 35 studies in media and learning
Great summary of research points on our perceptions of media with implications for using media effectively for learning. For example, audio quality matters a lot, but video quality can be low and still effective. Large, wide screens are preferred over higher quality images on smaller screens.
35 psychological studies into the human reaction to media all point towards the simple proposition that people react towards media socially even though, at a conscious level, they believe it is not reasonable to do so. They can't help it. In short, people think that computers are people, which makes e-learning work.
As long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules, we will accept it. Read that last part again, 'as long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules'. If the media technology fails to conform to these human expectations - we will very much not accept it.
In edX courses, about 6 minutes is the maximum length students will watch. In traditional online graduate courses for credit, the length could be longer, but this is a good reminder to keep things short.
The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter -- students watched most of the way through these short videos. In fact, the average engagement time of any video maxes out at 6 minutes, regardless of its length. And engagement times decrease as videos lengthen: For instance, on average students spent around 3 minutes on videos that are longer than 12 minutes, which means that they engaged with less than a quarter of the content.
Abstract of Study Related to Storytelling « Karl Kapp
In a comparison of narrative and expository format for video instruction, learners retained more information with the narrative format.
In a controlled experiment, participants listened to videotaped instruction presented in either narrative or expository form and presented at<br>
either a normal or a moderately compressed rate. Results indicate a relationship between organization<br>
and retention such that audience members retain more information when it is presented in a<br>
narrative style and when it is presented at a normal presentation rate. Practically, the results suggest advantages for narrative form in the everyday practice of instructional communication.
Should Instructional Videos Include a Talking Head?
The research on the value of a talking head with instructional videos is mixed. It can improve the sense of teacher presence and learner satisfaction, but it may also increase cognitive load and interfere with remembering.
Results revealed detrimental effects of talking heads on the recall of factual knowledge covered in the videos. Interestingly, participants rated their perceived learning as being higher for videos with talking head. Furthermore, participants assigned higher satisfaction scores to videos with talking heads and selected them more frequently when choosing between different formats.
<span>Higher levels of teacher presence have been positively associated with student satisfaction and student </span><em>perceptions</em><span> of learning.</span>
Findings suggest that combining talking heads and annotations in asynchronous video lectures yielded the longest watch time, and highest satisfaction, engagement, and attitude scores.
