Engaging students in active learning: The case for personalized multimedia messages.

Abstract

The authors tested the hypothesis that personalized messages in a multimedia science lesson can promote deep learning by actively engaging students in the elaboration of the materials and reducing processing load. Students received a multimedia explanation of lightning formation (Experiments 1 and 2) or played an agent-based computer game about environmental science (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). Instructional messages were presented in either a personalized style, where students received spoken or written explanations in the 1st-and 2nd-person points of view, or a neutral style, where students received spoken or written explanations in the 3rd-person point of view. Personalized rather than neutral messages produced better problem-solving transfer performance across all experiments and better retention performance on the computer game. The theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.Classic research in psychology has shown that people react differently to situations that involve personal reference. This is the case of the well-known cocktail party effect, in which a person who is attending to one conversation is able to detect his or her own name in a separate conversation that is taking place simultaneously in the same room (Cherry, 1953). Another robust phenomenon is the self-referential effect, in which retention is facilitated by having people process information by relating it to aspects of themselves (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977).As with other factors in human learning and memory, the question arises as to whether personal reference effects can be extended and used in the area of multimedia learning. For example, it is possible to teach a computer-based science lesson with higher or lower levels of self-referencing by varying the communication style used in the explanations (Turco, 1996). In the studies reported in the literature, high self-referencing has been created by

A Personalization Effect in Multimedia Learning: Students Learn Better When Words Are in Conversational Style Rather Than Formal Style.

“…In a previous set of studies, Moreno and Mayer (2000) found that personalization improved transfer performance on an environmental science educational game and on learning from a multimedia lesson on lightning formation. Do the present experiments add anything new to the field?…”

“…In a previous set of studies, Moreno and Mayer (2000) found that students scored higher on a transfer test after receiving a narrated animation about lightning formation in which the words were in conversational style (i.e., using first and second person as well as comments directed at the learner) rather than in formal style (i.e., using third person and no comments directed at the learner). Moreno and Mayer (2000) also found that students scored higher on a transfer test after playing an educational science game containing narrated animation in which the words were in conversational style than when the words were in formal style. However, the treatment was somewhat heavy-handed, so the present studies examine whether personalization effects can be obtained with a more modest and focused personalization procedure-that is, changing "the" to Figure 1.…”

A kind of expertise reversal effect: Personalisation effect can depend on domain-specific prior knowledge

“…The superiority of personalised over formal texts was demonstrated in multiple studies and mainly observed in measures of retention and transfer (Moreno & Mayer, 2000Mayer et al, 2004). Table 1 provides an overview about experiments on personalisation effect, also showing the effect sizes d and the statistical significance of group comparisons.…”

Elements of a Science of E-Learning

“…In five separate experiments involving multimedia explanations of lighting (Moreno & Mayer, 2000a, Experiments 1 and 2), or an educational game involving plant growth (Moreno & Mayer, 2000a, Experiments 3, 4, and 5), students who received conversational narration performed better on transfer tests than did students who received formal narration. We refer to this pattern as the personalization effect.…”