Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2022)

The Author competition for the visual attention of the learner - rendering the combination less effective.

Goldberg

Murray Goldberg is CEO of Marine Learning Systems. “Redundancy Principle: Students

Email: [email protected] learn better when [the same] informa- tion is not represented in more than one modality – redundancy interferes with learning.”

This one is a bit of a surprise to me as I would have expected redundancy of this kind to reinforce learning. But the research says that when we combine media types, the information that each media presents should reinforce the information from the other media, not duplicate it. This ? nding speaks against the use of text with an audio over- lay of someone reading the text to the learner - a common practice. Of course, this may still be a useful technique for some learners - especially if their ? rst language is other than the language of instruction.

“Direct Manipulation Principle: As the complexity of the materials increase, the impact of direct manipulation of the learning materials (animation, pacing) on transfer also increases”

To me the take-away from this ? nding is that learning outcomes are improved when the learner has some control over the learning experience. For example, allowing the learner to go more slowly, review materials, or interact with simu- lations all contribute to improved learn- ing outcomes for complex subjects.

This is consistent with the web-based learning research I conducted in 1995 as a faculty member at UBC.

The above principles are a great set of rules to live by when designing learn- ing content. Although I am primarily a technology provider, I am also an edu- cator and have built many eLearning modules. It is not hard, and I ? nd it ex- tremely satisfying. I hope that you will too. Until next time, keep well and sail safely!

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