Does animation enhance learning? A meta-analysis

The effects of augmented reality on students' academic achievement and motivation in a biology course

“…The results suggest that 3D visualization of content does not affect students' academic achievement (Huk, ). Also, Berney and Betrancourt () report that most studies that employ animations and graphs do not find a significant effect on learning gains.…”

The effects of visualizations on linguistically diverse students’ understanding of energy and matter in life science

“…When carefully scaffolded, visualization technologies can also provide students with opportunities to engage in collaborative scientific discourse, encouraging them to communicate their ideas using visual evidence and develop a shared understanding with their partners (Rosebery, Ogonowski, DiSchino, & Warren, ; Thomas, ; van Joolingen, de Jong, & Dimitrakopoulou, ). While extensive research has shown the effects of different forms of visualizations on students’ science learning in general (e.g., Berney & Bétrancourt, ; Höffler & Leutner, ; McElhaney, Chang, Chiu, & Linn, ; Tversky, Morrison, & Bétrancourt, ), how such technologies can contribute to ELs’ understanding of complex scientific concepts has not been sufficiently explored to date.…”

Comparing apples and oranges? A critical look at research on learning from statics versus animations

“…Our review indicates that researchers are still designing experiments that contain them, and thus to some extent ignoring the messages inherent in the review by Tversky and colleagues. For example, we reported two meta-analyses (Berney & Bétrancourt, 2016;Höffler & Leutner, 2007) that included several of the studies included here (e.g., Lewalter, 2003;Mayer et al, 2005;Ryoo & Linn, 2012;Wu & Chiang, 2013;Yang et al, 2003) that did not control these bias factors, which suggests some loss of validity. Clearly much greater attention to biases is needed into future meta-analyses as well as individual studies to take the field forward.…”

“…There are studies supporting: (a) static pictures over animation (e.g., Chanlin, 2001;Koroghlanian & Klein, 2004;Scheiter, Gerjets, & Catrambone, 2006); (b) animation over statics (e.g., Lin & Atkinson, 2011;Marbach-Ad, Rotbain, & Stavy, 2008;Ryoo & Linn, 2012;Yarden & Yarden, 2010); neither as better than the other (e.g., Höffler & Schwartz, 2011;Kühl, Scheiter, Gerjets, & Gemballa, 2011;Lewalter, 2003). Recently, Berney and Bétrancourt (2016) conducted a metaanalysis (including many of these mentioned studies, in a total of 140 pair-wise comparisons), concerning expository visualizations mostly in STEM domains, and found an overall significant advantage (Hedge's g = 0.23) for animations over statics. In this update of the previous metaanalysis by Höffler and Leutner (2007), it was observed that only 31% of the studies showed animation dominance, whereas 10% of the comparisons supported statics, and 59% demonstrated no significant differences between the visualizations.…”

“…6 methodological problem also affected the meta-analyses described above (Berney & Bétrancourt, 2016;Höffler & Leutner, 2007). In the next section, we describe several of the unmatched comparisons contained within statics and animations research.…”