Three teaching things: week of October 18
It's all things multimedia: a paper on improving learning from pictures and video; an article on 4-research informed practises to improve online teaching and; a source of free images.
Issue #22
1. The paper
Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning.
In this work, multimedia learning is defined as “learning from words and pictures” (p. 43). I’ve found Mayer (and his various collaborators’) theory of multimedia learning as a helpful, evidence-based framework to consider the relationship between the visualizations I create to support my instructional practice and student learning itself.
While this week’s resource (below) provides a high-level overview of the application of Mayer’s work, this paper offers more depth to that introduction. At the heart of the theory is the articulation of a series scenarios that can create unnecessary cognitive load, and the research-informed techniques that can be used to reduce or avoid that overload.
Applied to practice, the paper outlines five types of overload experienced by learners and offers strategies that can be applied to practice. The table on p. 46 summarizes the findings.
Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3801_6
2. The resource
Richard Mayer Has Spent Decades On Educational Research. Here are His Pandemic Teaching Tips.
Based on a recent interview with Mayer, this short article distills his broad research findings to provide four suggestions for instructors teaching online to enhance learning: 1) use graphics; 2) don’t repeat, word-for-word labels or text in graphics (in other words, avoid PowerPoint Karaoke); 3) model your own problem-solving for students; and 4) stay positive. Mayer also notes an important equity angle to his work: he has found that often “his interventions have the greatest impact for students performing really poorly.”
3. The tool
Unsplash for Education
Unsplash is self-described as “the internet’s source of freely-usable images.” Freely-usable means that photos are provided under a license that only restricts use in two ways, both of which are unlikely to be a barrier for educators’ use. It’s a go-to source of images when I’m creating a slide-deck.
Three Teaching Things is a weekly newsletter compiled by Gavan Watson, which shares three different teaching and learning resources (papers, resources or tools) worth your attention.
Thanks for reading!