A review of learning demands in instructional animations: The educational effectiveness of animations unfolds if the features of change need to be learned

Abstract

In a systematic review, 194 studies on learning from animation were analysed. The analysis covers the learning domains, the representational characteristics of the animations, the assessed perceptual and cognitive achievements, and the assessment formats. Research on learning from animation focuses on assessing conceptual at the neglect of kinematic mental models. This is in contrast to an important rationale for making use of animations: that it needs to be learned what animations can specifically display, namely, how change in space and time occurs. This might explain why meta-analyses which compared the effectiveness of animations and static pictures found merely small overall effect sizes in favour of animations. To confirm this hypothesis, one meta-analysis was re-analysed with a new moderator. It encodes whether the features of the displayed changes were relevant to learning. Learning from animations was significantly more successful than learning from static pictures, if the features of the displayed changes had to be learned.

When learning from animations is more successful than learning from static pictures: learning the specifics of change

“…The distinction between perceptual and cognitive processes drawn in the APM emphasizes that learning at the perceptual level and learning at the cognitive level can make up educational objectives in their own rights. Although education very often strives for the acquisition of conceptual models, the meta-analyses by Höffler and Leutner (2007), Bétrancourt (2016), and, together with the meta-analysis by Ploetzner et al (2020) indicate that the teaching of conceptual models is not a specific strength of animations. Instead, the meta-analysis by Ploetzner et al (2020) suggests that animations can be more successfully employed if kinematic models need to be learned, i.e.…”

“…Although education very often strives for the acquisition of conceptual models, the meta-analyses by Höffler and Leutner (2007), Bétrancourt (2016), and, together with the meta-analysis by Ploetzner et al (2020) indicate that the teaching of conceptual models is not a specific strength of animations. Instead, the meta-analysis by Ploetzner et al (2020) suggests that animations can be more successfully employed if kinematic models need to be learned, i.e. if the learners need to construct mental representations of the displayed changes and how they unfold in time (cf.…”

“…Due to the different representational characteristics of animations and static pictures, the educational effectiveness of animations and static pictures might depend on the learning tasks that have to be accomplished. The meta-analysis conducted by Ploetzner et al (2020) gives raise to the assumption that learning from animations is more successful than learning from static pictures if the specifics of the displayed changes have to be learned. It is hypothesized that this result is due to the fact that animations display spatiotemporal information completely and explicitly.…”

“…More recently, Ploetzner et al (2020) re-analyzed the meta-analysis originally published by Berney and Bétrancourt (2016). They investigated a new moderator that encodes whether the specific features of the displayed changes were irrelevant or relevant to learning.…”

“…In this paper, we present an experimental study that compares learning from an animation with learning from static pictures. It aims to experimentally challenge the findings reported by Ploetzner et al (2020) as well as to investigate the potential and limitations of animations for learning in relation to static pictures. The study is therefore not only based on the representational characteristics of animations and static pictures, but also on a model of how animations are perceptually and cognitively processed.…”