Transcript A Tutorial on Tutorials

Tutorials
Presenting Information for
Meaningful Learning
December 1, 2007
NSF ITEST GRANT
Copyright 2007
Goals & Objectives
 Goal:
– Create a tutorial using PowerPoint
 Objectives:
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Explain reasons for using tutorials
Describe research on tutorials
Describe basic structure of tutorial
Describe types of tutorials
Use PowerPoint to build a tutorial
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Why tutorials?
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Tutorials have two activities in common
with successful instruction:
1. Information is presented or skills are modeled
2. Learners are guided through initial use of the
information or skills
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Why tutorials?
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Tutorials are appropriate:
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for presenting facts
for learning rules and principles
for learning problem-solving strategies
Tutorials are useful in almost every subject
area
– Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences
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Research says…
 Tutorials are a type of multimedia learning.
 A decade of research on multimedia learning
by Richard E. Mayer yields the following
findings.
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Research: 7 Principles
1. Multimedia
– Students learn better from words and pictures than
words alone.
What is multimedia to you?
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Research: 7 Principles
2. Spatial Contiguity
– Students learn better when corresponding words and
pictures are presented near rather than far from each
other on the page or screen
The Sydney Opera House
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Research: 7 Principles
3. Temporal Contiguity
– Students learn better when corresponding words and
pictures are presented simultaneously rather than
successively.
Click to show example:
Steve! Quick, take
a picture of the
seagulls!
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Research: 7 Principles
4. Coherence
– Students learn better when extraneous words,
pictures,sounds are excluded rather than included
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Research: 7 Principles
5. Modality
– Students learn better from animation and narration
than from animation and on-screen text.
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Research: 7 Principles
6. Redundancy
– Students learn better from animation and narration
than from animation, narration, and on-screen text.
Theoretical Rationale: When pictures and
words are both presented visually, (as
animation and text), the visual channel can
become overloaded.
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Research: 7 Principles
7. Individual Differences
– Design effects are stronger for low-knowledge
learners than for high-knowledge learners and for
high-spatial learners rather than for low-spatial
learners.
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7 Principles Summary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Multimedia
Spatial Contiguity
Temporal Contiguity
Coherence
Modality
Redundancy
Individual Differences
 Can you remember the
seven principles of
multimedia design?
 Take a guess, then click
to reveal the answers.
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Research: Personalization
 Research indicates multimedia messages
result in better transfer performance when
the verbal material is presented in a
conversational style – first and second
person – rather than third person.
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Research: Interactivity Effect
 Multimedia messages result in better transfer
performance when learners are able to
control the pace of the presentation.
– For example, “click here to continue…”
See, you’re in charge of the pacing!
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Research: Cognitive Theory
1. People have separate visual and auditory
channels.
2. These channels have limited capacity.
3. Meaningful learning involves actively
selecting, organizing, and integrating
incoming visual and auditory information.
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Making Effective Multimedia

Mayer suggests these characteristics make
effective computer-based multimedia
presentations.
1. Presentation has both words and pictures
2. Present corresponding words and pictures
simultaneously
3. Present only the core cause-and-effect explanation
– nothing extraneous
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Making Effective Multimedia
4. Words should be presented as speech (narration)
rather than as text or as speech and text
5. The material itself should have a potentially
meaningful structure.
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Structure of a Tutorial
Introductory
Section
Present
Information
Question &
Response
Closing
Feedback or
Remediation
Judge
Response
General structure and flow of a tutorial (Alessi & Trollip, 1991)
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Structure of a Tutorial
Introductory
Section
Present
Information
Question &
Response
Closing
Feedback or
Remediation
Judge
Response
Using the PowerPoint Pen Tool (right-click, select Pointer Options>Pen)
Circle the structural elements in the diagram above that are included in
this tutorial. Click on the slide when you are done.
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Structure of a Tutorial
How does your response match this answer?
Introductory
Section
Present
Information
Question &
Response
Closing
Feedback or
Remediation
Judge
Response
As for iteration, PowerPoint is not able to make a sequencing
decision to determine which information should be presented
next. PowerPoint can hyperlink or branch to other slides and
even external documents, but it is clunky to implement.
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PowerPoint is not
sophisticated enough
to allow for judging
and assessing learner
responses.
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Types of Tutorials
 What do you want your learner to be able to
do with the information in the tutorial?
 Remember it
– Ability to reproduce or recognize presented material
– Test = retention
 Understand it
– Ability to use presented material in novel situations
– Test = transfer
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Types of Tutorials
 In which medium do you want your learners
to interact with the tutorial?
 Paper-based
– Workbook, booklet (writing tools)
 Computer-based
– Web, computer software (keyboard, input devices)
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What next?
 Review what you’ve just learned:
– Tutorials should be based on principles of multimedia
learning to leverage the learner’s cognitive
functions…effectively, for meaningful learning.
• Who wants “unmeaningful” learning?
 Make a tutorial!
– What topic do you teach that could benefit from a
tutorial?
• Think about the topics that your learners really struggle with
and need more one-to-one type of remediation.
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Tutorials with PowerPoint
 Microsoft PowerPoint is commonly used to
create presentation materials using
multimedia.
 Moving beyond the common, PowerPoint can
be the software “engine” for developing
interactive tutorials using multimedia.
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References & Resources
Alessi, S.M., & Trollip, S.R. (1991). Computerbased Instruction, 2e. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Mayer, R.E. (2001). Multimedia Learning.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
http://office.microsoft.com/training/
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/
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Questions
Discussion
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