The most memorable online learning experience for me is an online course called Interactive Multimedia Learning which I am taking this semester. In this course, 1~3 students make a group to create our own interactive and multimedia learning projects such as comics, screencast and whiteboard animation. For every challenge, we are asked to upload our project to CourseSpaces three days before the final version due. During the 3 days, we look through other groups’ works and provide feedback. Based on the feedback we make final adjustments. For students who are struggling with their project and seeking for help, we have “Help Please! Forum”. Students can ask for help or provide help to others from there. Also, we have “Sharing Cool Finds Forum” for us to share our discoveries related to multimedia and interactive learning technologies.
This course changes my opinion about online class. I used to think online courses are lack of communication because I cannot meet my professors and classmates face to face. Compared with lectures, it is difficult for teachers and students to communicate at the same time and space. However, in this online course, I communicate even more than lectures. We have the opportunities the view our peers’ works and get comments and suggestions from them. In order to ensure the efficiency and quality of teaching and learning, an interactive learning environment is more important for online courses. I think this class satisfies that requirement.
What is more, I learned a lot about interactive multimedia learning tools. For example, for our third challenge, we were asked to create a whiteboard animation. I used an application called Explain Everything. It is easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets users annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Blow is the video of our group whiteboard animation. Education technological tools like Explain Everything make the learning objects more attractive and intuitive. Instructors can create their own teaching materials depend on their needs. This video introduce 5 useful Whiteboard Animation software.
Recently, online learning has become a big trend. There are also a lot of online learning materials come out. We should consider whether it is helpful for learners to learn when we create these learning materials. No matter which kind of media was used in the educational area, media richness is an important impact that should be taken into consideration. Media Richness Theory proposes that information is conveyed to reduce uncertainty and reduce equivocality. Uncertainty is the result of the absence of complete information; equivocality is the result of multiple interpretations of the same information. (John, 2014) The criteria for classifying media “richness” include the availability of immediate feedback, the number of channels utilized, personalization, and language variety (John, 2014) In education area, rich media allows teachers and students to do more and improve teaching and learning quality. It would be boring for students if the learning material only contains text and audio. Also, for teachers, rich media can help them explain things in an easier understand way. (Bates, 2019) The video below briefly explains the meaning of media richness.
However, how rich should media be for teaching and learning? Although rich media have lots of advantages, from a learner’s perspective, it should be cautious to use rich media. There are two important concepts: cognitive overload and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Cognitive overload means if learners face too much information with a complex level and high speed, it will be difficult for them to absorb. (Bates, 2019) The difference between what a learner can do without help and what can be done with help called Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. (Bates, 2019) Over rich media may hinder learners from learning. For example, some YouTube videos compress a lot of information in a short video. However, its value depends on different learners who have different levels of preparation for interpreting it. (Bates, 2019)
In the real life, people always prefer seeking the simplest media first, and then choose the more complex or richer media when the simple media cannot fully achieve the learning goals. However, the richness of the media needs to be taken into consideration when choosing a medium or technology. Because rich media may enable to help learners achieve the learning goals which are difficult for the simple media. (Bates, 2019)
References
Bates, T. (2019). Understanding technology in education. Retrieved from https://via.hypothes.is/https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/part/chapter-8-understanding-technology/
Best Whiteboard Animation Software Review 2020. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQxIiEQ6ajg
Image. Retrieved from https://miro.medium.com/max/868/1*j29tDGrOQgKLb3XnEwJkcw.png
Newman John H. (2014). Enhanced Teaching and Learning in Media Richness and Media Synchronicity Environments. Computer Science and Information Technology. DOI: 10.13189/csit.2014.020401. Retrieved from http://www.hrpub.org/
What is MEDIA RICHNESS THEORY? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OJbusoyt4E
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