Learner control of the pacing of an online slideshow lesson: Does segmenting help?

Abstract

How can we improve the instructional effectiveness of an online slideshow lesson?In the present study, college students received a 12-slide multimedia slideshow lesson on how a geographic information system works. In a 2 × 2 design, the lesson was presented one complete slide at a time (large segment) or added one section of the slide at a time (small segment) when the student pressed the CONTINUE key, and the words were presented in printed form (text) or spoken form (voice). Students performed significantly better on a transfer posttest when the lesson was paced in small segments rather than large segments (d = 0.34); there was no effect or interaction involving modality. The small-segment version was rated as less difficult than the large-segment version (d = 0.43). The segmenting principle was supported in the context of online slideshows.

Evidence-based principles for how to design effective instructional videos.

“…To reduce the load on the learner's information processing, we could allow the learner to click an arrow key to progressively add to the slide as the instructor speaks. This type of segmenting improved transfer test performance across two experiments (Mayer et al, 2018(Mayer et al, , 2019, and overall across 7 out of 7 experiments, various forms of segmenting of slideshows resulted in better transfer test performance as compared to a continuous presentation, yielding a median effect size of d = 0.67 (Mautone & Mayer, 2007;Mayer & Chandler, 2001;Mayer, Dow, & Mayer, 2003;Sung & Mayer, 2013). Segmenting allows the learner to build a mental representation of one part of the material before moving on to the next.…”

“…The third technique for managing essential processing is to present words in an animation or video in spoken form rather than as onscreen text, which I call the modality principle. Across 7 of 7 lessons involving learning in one's first language, students performed better on a transfer test from a multimedia lesson involving spoken text rather than printed text, with a median effect size of d = 1.02 (Harskamp et al, 2007; Mayer et al, 2019; Mayer & Moreno, 1998; Moreno & Mayer, 1999). However, in learning in one's second language, students learned better with printed words rather than spoken words from a video lesson on Antarctica, reflecting an important boundary condition for the modality principle (Lee & Mayer, 2018).…”

Self-pacing and multiple-attempt assessment to address student anxiety in pharmacy calculations

“…Greater control of destiny was a common theme identi ed in student comments (Table 4). Control of factors such as time, environment and grade determination are deemed advantages to self-pacing and multiple attempt assessments in multiple contexts [40][41][42][43]. Several students commented that self-pacing assisted in their comprehension of concepts).…”

How to Train Novices in Bayesian Reasoning

“…Thus, we implement the segmenting principle by allowing users to complete the different steps at their own pace. Based on findings that small segments produce greater learning results than larger ones [69], the segments are very short, mostly one sentence or less. Thus, the user always reads, in one small (coherent) segment, the next step for creating the visualization, and can instantly observe in the next segment how this is produced in the visualization.…”