Multimedia Learning: Testing & Assessment According to

Multimedia learning: Testing & Assessment According to the authors Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno, the advantage of multimedia learning is that the learner is engages in three mutually reinforcing cognitive processes when learning something new. The first cognitive process is selecting, which "must be applied to incoming verbal information to yield a text base and then be applied to incoming visual information to yield an image base." In other words, the teacher matches the word with the image.

(Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p.1) The second cognitive process, "organizing," must apply the image to the word base to "create a verbally-based model of the system." (Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p.1) In other words, the student matches the word to the image. Then, "finally, integrating occurs when the learner builds connections between corresponding parts of verbal and visual." (Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p.1) The student is finally able to apply the learned verbal and visual knowledge in other context.

When testing a specific multimedia learning module, such as teaching pre-kindergarten students the names of colors, one must first ask, does it serve the designated functions of the module, of separating, organizing, and integrating word names for colors with the colors themselves? At the end of the module, the students should not simply know the color words, but be able to match them to their appropriate physical representations in isolation, and also in the real world of images.

To assess the 'separation' function, namely the ability to separate color words from other words, in such a module of multimedia learning, it is often more effective few rather than many extraneous words and pictures? (Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p. 4) For example, when showing a picture of a blue ocean to illustrate the blueness of the water, the blue picture should not have many potentially distracting colors. Words must be aurally and visually paired with text in a mutually reinforcing fashion.

For example, one study cited by Mayer and Moreno found that students who read a text about bicycle repair containing captioned illustrations placed near the corresponding words generated about 65% more useful solutions about repairing a bicycle in a subsequent problem-solving transfer test than did students who simply read a text about bicycles without such paired visual reinforcement. The experimental group thus demonstrated more functional understanding of the learning process.

They were more able to mentally separate the visual components of the bike, organize them in an effective fashion, and then use the information in a holistic and constructive fashion. Thus, one way to assess functionality and the module's ability to assess the different components of the multimedia learning process might be to first isolate proposed module improvements in the conventional learning process, then test the experimental group against children who are not engaged in a program with such improvements designed for multimedia learning.

For example, can children who engage in the multimedia learning of the colors find all the 'blue' objects in a room, after the learning module, even if the blue objects are not the same objects shown in the model? Did the experimental group do so at a greater percentile than those not in the test case? When assessing the module as well, one must ask if it makes effective use of the multimedia aspects of the module.

Does it adhere to the contiguity principle, namely that when giving a multimedia explanation, it should present corresponding words and pictures contiguously rather than separately and make use of auditory as well as textually-based verbal learning strategies? Mayer & Moreno suggest that auditory reinforcement in a 'split' cognitive effect increases retention, and one could, especially in pre-literate students compare the test group's ability to identify colors who were engaged in paired auditory and visual models with those who did not (Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p.

3-4) For example, one potential alternative but common non-multimedia strategy, found in a lesson plan on a teacher website, suggests teaching the students "their eight basic colors by calling out a color" as "they go around the room and find that color," after the color has been read by the teacher. But this displaces the heard word before the color reinforcement and also, besides the chaos and cognitive dissonance generated by the 'running around the room' could cause students to grab objects and see objects not identified with the color.

(Teaching Ideas for PK and Kindergarten Classes, Tulso Primary School, 2001) By comparing this strategy with multimedia strategies, by determining student's color recognition in different contexts the multimedia advantage could be assessed. Another cognitive theory critical in multimedia learning is that a shorter presentation primes the learner to select relevant information and organize it productively. (Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p. 5) To determine if the speed is adequate, one could also measure, within the testing group, the most effective lesson breakdown and duration.

Regardless, when assessing the module, it is important to keep in mind individual student differences, and thus employ adequate sized test and control groups. "According to a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, students with high spatial ability are able to hold the visual image in visual working memory." (Mayer & Moreno, 2000, p. 4) Furthermore, "the foregoing principles are more important for low-knowledge than high-knowledge learners, and thus the pre-kindergarten group would be more, rather than less affected by factors such as auditory reinforcement and duration of lesson time.

Differences in student's abilities, due to innate cognitive and environmental.