Research Based Guidelines

The principles discussed in my last post are from research-based guidelines, of which there are more than fifty. That is too many to discuss at once, so right now I'm just going to talk about the ones relevant to my storyboard that I had to create. Table 17.2, on page 404 of E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, divides them like this:

1-23 apply to all forms of e-learning.
24-34 apply to e-learning designed to teach job tasks.
35-40 apply to e-learning with collaborative facilities.
41-44 apply to design of asynchronous e-learning navigation.
45-56 apply to e-learning to build problem-solving skills and simulations and games.

Since the storyboard I created was not meant teach job tasks, this eliminated guidelines 23-34. Guidelines 45-56 can also be eliminated because I did not create it to build problem-solving skills with simulations and games. This leaves me with a little over 30 guidelines.

Guidelines 1-23 are guided into two sections. The first is for those who are using only visual aspects, just text and graphics. They don't apply to my storyboard because I also use audio. The first of these is using relevant graphics with the audio narration, which is part of the multimedia and modality principles. The next guideline that applies is an exception to the modality princple: maintain information that the learner needs time to process as text on the screen, which is something else that I've done with my storyboard.

My visuals and audio are always linked, as are my visuals and text. That's number 16. Number 17 is also followed because I don't present words as both text and narration As per guideline 18, everything is relevant, and as per 19, I keep a conversational tone using first and second person for my audio.

I skipped 20 and went to 21, which is all about the segmentation principle, ensuring that the learner can use a continue or next button and that the lesson is in manageable chunks. Also, as per guideline 22, my one animation does have a replay button. It's a movie, so the learner can stop, restart, and replay all he or she wishes. Finally, I adhere to guideline 23 by using the pretraining principle.

My storyboard includes a collaborative project as a part of the lesson. It definitely requires asynchronous communication, with synchronous communication optional. Because it is a collaborative assignment, it is a group assignment by definition, and I have ensured social interdependence by making it clear that this is a group grade, thus covering guidelines 35-38 and 40.

I've skipped guideline 41 and gone straight to 42, having limited learner choices on topics as the lesson is designed for learners who are novice to the content. I've skipped 43, but I've utilized 44, allowing them to work at their own pace in a reasonable manner.

The guidelines are redundant, I know, but these are what the principles are based off of, and it's important to understand the base before reaching for the top.