A major part of the instructional design process you need to do is select the appropriate media mix to effectively teach the learning outcome(s). Selecting the best media mix will enable you to increase learning. The different media categories are: text, audio, visuals, video, animations, and real objects.
The media you use can influence the amount of learning that occurs. If you combine the media’s strengths with instructional methods that take advantage of these strengths, you can positively influence learning. Learning from course content made with more than one medium is usually more effective than content comprised of only one medium. In many situations, you can and should use more than one medium to teach the skill. However, remember that if you use too many media at one time, you can impede learning. Base your media mix decision on the learning outcomes, how they are being taught, and how testing will be done. To be successful, students must also have the skills to extract information and learn from the media. You may also need to motivate your students to learn from the media selected.
You can effectively use text to teach many skills (most verbal information, intellectual skills, and cognitive strategies and some psychomotor skills and attitudes) unless the target audience has a poor reading ability or low motivation. You will often need to combine text with other media.
Text often forms the foundation of online courses. Write text well by making text understandable, minimizing reading, developing a good writing style, and following the basic rules of writing. In general for text, use lots of white space, left-justify text, use a font that is easy to read and has variable spacing, use font sizes to organize information, and avoid the requirement for scrolling.
Hypertext is text that is linked to other information. Hypertext allows learners to quickly get more information by activating highlighted parts of the screen. Hypertext is useful for Internet-based research projects and simple information retrieval. Remember that hypertext can be weak from an instructional perspective unless you specifically plan and guide the learning.
You can use audio when real sounds are an integral part of the learning outcome and to teach skills such as attitudes and intellectual skills. You can also use audio to gain attention, give feedback, give directions, personalize computers, provide realism, make annotations, teach the pronunciation of new words, provide multilingual support, provide meaning for images, and accommodate non-readers and learners with poor reading abilities. Remember that audio narration can be problematic when played at a different speed than the student is able to read. You can use speech in the form of a narration or dialogue, especially when done by professionals that the audience can identify with, to teach effectively.
Audio is more effective when the topic is simple, concrete, and has little structure. For many skills, audio should be supplemented with other media such as text. You should also supplement audio with effective preparatory and follow-up activities. Also, for audio to be effective for learning, you need to ensure that the students pay attention. Keep students involved through posing questions that make students think and keeping the audio clips short.
Visuals can be considered to be “real” as in photographs and slides. Visuals can also be pictorial or diagrammatical representations of “real” objects. For instructional purposes, you can use visuals to make abstract concepts concrete, illustrate objects and ideas, identify objects, show relationships between objects and ideas, classify objects, show spatial relationships, teach psychomotor skills that do not need to be recognized or copied, and help teach attitudes. You should consider combining visuals with text to provide practice and feedback as well as testing. Remember that visuals can help many learners.
Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Differences between data storage and retrieval options
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DVD-ROM
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CD-ROM
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Intranet
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Internet
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Amount of data
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Up to 4.7 gigabytes, enough for most applications
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Up to 700 megabytes, enough for many applications
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Limited by space on the host server. If needed, servers can be upgraded.
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Limited by space on the host server. If needed, servers can be upgraded.
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Learner access
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Not found on old computers
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Found on all but the oldest computers
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Many organizations provide employees and/or students limited access to their intranet
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Many learners are not connected but this number is decreasing yearly
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Reliability
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Very high
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Very high
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High but there are occasional system crashes
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High but there are occasional system crashes
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Bandwidth
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Enough for most applications, faster than CD-ROMs
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Enough for most applications, although high-quality video can push the limits
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Enough for most applications although there can be problems with programs that are video intensive when there are numerous concurrent users
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A high-bandwidth connection is preferred for most online courses, especially when quality video needs to be seen
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Updating information
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In general, this cannot be done unless combined with an intranet or Internet connection
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In general, this cannot be done unless combined with an intranet or Internet connection
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Can be done
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Can be done
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Developer costs
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Copying and distribution costs
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Copying and distribution costs
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Need a server that can meet the demand
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Need a server that can meet the demand
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Student costs
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One-time relatively low cost of the drive that is usually included when the computer is purchased
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One-time relatively low cost of the drive. Most computers are sold with a DVD drive. DVD drives can read CD-ROM disks
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Usually none
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Monthly fee that can increase with the amount of bandwidth
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Compared to only using text, visuals combined with text reduce the learning time and help students acquire and retain information. Visuals are particularly valuable when you direct learners to focus their attention on specific details. To keep the message clear, your visuals should be self-explanatory, have labels, and only include relevant information.
With respect to teaching, you can use video, which is usually combined with audio, effectively for demonstrating procedures, changes, and processes, depict events, teaching attitudes and values, making abstract concepts concrete, and classifying and comparing information. Video can also be useful for gaining and holding attention as well as motivating learners, introducing topics or procedures, presenting visually rich material that would otherwise be hard to explain, and testing. Since video tends to be weak at teaching detailed information, provide video control and text-based summaries to help with this problem. Consider combining video with text to provide practice and feedback.
The strengths of video are more evident if you tell the students what they are going to learn and what they should focus upon before they view the video. A video’s effectiveness also relates to how well the material attracts and directs the learner’s attention. Do this with short clips. Plan activities to help learners retain the material and also keep the video available to students for studying.
Remember that professional quality video usually requires a large amount of storage space when digitized and significant costs, time, and expertise to develop. Before you go to the effort of recording any video, determine whether any suitable materials exist.
Animation means “to give life to” something. Animations, which are a series of visuals that change over time, are like video sequences except that animations are created with a computer, other tools, or manually rather than by filming real objects in motion. For this reason, a video can be easier to make than an animation. Consider using animations as a part of the instructional strategy since animations can significantly enhance learning, motivation, and attitudes as well as reduce the time needed for learning. You can effectively use animations for showing relationships between objects and ideas, simulating the results of actions, showing sequential steps in a procedural task, explaining difficult concepts, and making abstract concepts concrete. With respect to learning, you can use animations to enhance performance and retention, reduce the time needed for learning, gain attention, and improve student attitudes.
Like visuals, animations should be self-explanatory. Animations must match the learning outcomes and should be set up to allow learners to control when they see the animation. In general, animations appear more realistic if the object’s speed, size, and relative motion are accurate.
Real objects are excellent when teaching psychomotor skills and when the skill must be practised and mastered. There is no guarantee that the skill learned on a simulator or other format will be transferred to the work place.
The media mix you choose must be able to meet the requirements of the instructional strategy and address all of the instructional events. In particular, the media mix must effectively teach all of the learning outcomes and should allow for practice and feedback. For verbal information, you should use text and visuals. For intellectual skills, use each medium depending on the skill being taught. For psychomotor skills, you should use real equipment although for practical reasons you may need to create a simulation that incorporates a variety of media. Video with audio or text support can be superb for teaching psychomotor skills. Similarly, a series of images with text can also be very effective. Although you can use video and audio to effectively teach attitudes, your complete instructional strategy should consider other methods such as role-playing.
If you simply transfer material, especially video, from one storage format to another, the second’s advantages may not be exploited and the first’s limitations may be kept.
You will need to consider whether the students should access the media data from a DVD-ROM, a CD-ROM, an intranet, or the Internet. Each has different advantages and disadvantages.