Reflecting on Instructional Videos

Reflecting on Instructional Videos

            This semester has taken us on a journey through the complex set of principles that have been outlined by Swisher. As we have moved from using still images to represent our thoughts and ideas to animations, and finally to videos, the difficulty level has increased in regards to applying Swisher’s theories. Video differs from using still images or digital storytelling in several different ways. The first idea taken from the temporal contiguity principle discusses how students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively. In order to achieve this goal in digital storytelling, the images on the screen needed to be directly correlated to the animation that was being spoken. With the ability to overlay your voice on top of the images, this was achieved quite easily. In the creation of the instructional video, it was much more difficult to be constantly showing a demonstration while providing narration at the same time. The use of still images along with the video and narration would have made it easier to fulfill the requirements of this principle; however it would not have properly addressed the parameters of the assignment.

            The modality principle also plays a role in the difference between still images and video use. In this circumstance, both processing channels, visual and auditory are being utilized to present information. The research supports the mixed use of both channels as opposed to just one. The difference lies in that students retained more information when given a narration and an animation, but in this instance we are actually using video instead of animation. Ideally, creating a situation where students could actually do hands on practice with whatever it is that you are teaching would be the best practice.

            Another principle that I see that applies across the projects is the split-attention principle. Integrating both the explanation and the demonstration together in one source effectively increases learning. In this video, I tried to give an explanation of how a wind generator works, and then followed by an additional explanation with the demonstration. (I ended up editing out the first slide in my final video due to size restrictions) It is very difficult to truly adhere to this principle in the strictest sense. This brings me to my next topic of discussion. When searching the internet for a variety of instructional videos, I noticed that the videos that followed any of Swisher’s principles are few and far between. In fact, it seemed like most of the videos I searched for went directly against Swisher’s rationale. Specifically, I saw a lot of the redundancy principle in various videos where the text on the screen was being read by the narrator. In addition, I saw a lot of videos that went against the temporal contiguity principle in the sense that words were presented on one slide and then pictures representing the words were on the next slide. Overall, I have found that as our project difficulty increases, so does the ability to properly follow Swisher’s theories. My conclusion is that it is much easier to just create something that looks nice and is fun, than it is to create something that adheres to the multimedia principles.