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Background: Recent research on the influence of presentation format on the effectiveness of multimedia instructions has yielded some interesting results. According to cognitive load theory (Sweller, Van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998) and Mayer's theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001), replacing visual text with spoken text (the modality effect) and adding visual cues relating elements of a picture to the text (the cueing effect) both increase the effectiveness of multimedia instructions in terms of better learning results or less mental effort spent. Aims: The aim of this study was to test the generalisability of the modality and cueing effect in a classroom setting. Sample: The participants were 111 second‐year students from the Department of Education at the University of Gent in Belgium (age between 19 and 25 years). Method: The participants studied a web‐based multimedia lesson on instructional design for about one hour. Afterwards they completed a retention and a transfer test. During both the instruction and the tests, self‐report measures of mental effort were administered. Results: Adding visual cues to the pictures resulted in higher retention scores, while replacing visual text with spoken text resulted in lower retention and transfer scores. Conclusions: Only a weak cueing effect and even a reverse modality effect have been found, indicating that both effects do not easily generalise to non‐laboratory settings. A possible explanation for the reversed modality effect is that the multimedia instructions in this study were learner‐paced, as opposed to the system‐paced instructions used in earlier research.

Students with high intrinsic motivation often outperform students with low intrinsic motivation. However, little is known about the processes that lead to these differences. In education based on simulations or authentic electronic learning environments, this lack of insight is even more clear. The present study investigated what students actually did in an electronic learning environment that was designed as a game-like realistic simulation in which students had to play the role of a junior consultant. The results show that students with high intrinsic motivation did not do more, rather they tended to do different things. Analysis of log files showed that the increased curiosity that students with high intrinsic motivation have, resulted in proportionally more explorative study behaviour. However, the learning outcomes of students with high intrinsic motivation were not better.

Although competence is an important concept in human resource development and education, there is no theoretical framework for competence. This article focuses on the development of such a theoretical framework. It proposes the boundary approach of competence, an aid to support human resource managers and educationalists in thinking about the concept of competence and in defining it properly. Here, the concept of competence is being explored by focusing on its dimensions and by identifying differences with related terms. The boundary approach of competence heavily depends on a constructivist point of view. This holds that the quest for one absolute meaning of competence is being abandoned and that instead competence definitions are being valued against their degree of viability. This article proposes three variables for enhancing viability: people, goal and context.

At present, the design of computer-supported group-based learning (CS)GBL) is often based on subjective decisions regarding tasks, pedagogy and technology, or concepts such as 'cooperative learning' and 'collaborative learning'. Critical review reveals these concepts as insufficiently substantial to serve as a basis for (CS)GBL design. Furthermore, the relationship between outcome and group interaction is rarely specified a priori. Thus, there is a need for a more systematic approach to designing (CS)GBL that focuses on the elicitation of expected interaction processes. A framework for such a process-oriented methodology is proposed. Critical elements that affect interaction are identified: learning objectives, tasktype, level of pre-structuring, group size and computer support. The proposed process-oriented method aims to stimulate designers to adopt a more systematic approach to (CS)GBL design according to the interaction expected, while paying attention to critical elements that affect interaction. This approach may bridge the gap between observed quality of interaction and learning outcomes and foster (CS)GBL design that focuses on the heart of the matter: interaction.