Learning from Online Lectures in STEM: Using Multimedia Principles and Fostering Social Agency with Transparent Whiteboards

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A team of investigators from the University of California - Santa Barbara, together with researchers from the University of Georgia, will conduct research on how to improve the design of online undergraduate instruction in biology and chemistry that involves video. The researchers will test the hypothesis based on a leading theory of multimedia learning that when instructors face students throughout the lesson (by using a transparent whiteboard), students should learn more than when instructors turn their backs on the camera and face the board while drawing, as is the case with conventional whiteboards. They should be better able to integrate what the instructor is saying with visualizations such as diagrams and graphs in real time. They should also be able to take advantage of social cues and feel more of a connection with the instructor, increasing motivation. Transparent whiteboards may be particularly beneficial for learning in STEM disciplines where there is a heavy demand on connecting verbal explanations with complex spatial and analytical representations. This project will extend existing theories of how students learn from social cues incorporated within multimedia lessons, and provide research-based principles for improving the design of video-based instruction in STEM fields. The project will also support best teaching practices for promoting STEM learning in the burgeoning arena of online classrooms such as through MOOCs (massively open online courses) for students learning outside of traditional courses and flipped classrooms (presenting lectures via online lectures and using class time for learning activities and discussion) for traditional courses. The project is funded by the EHR Core Research program, which supports fundamental research that advances the research literature on STEM learning, and has implications for education in both formal and informal settings.Four studies will examine how two different whiteboard technologies affect students learning in STEM domains. Students will learn about concepts in organic chemistry or genetics with the aid of either transparent whiteboards (in which the instructor faces the students while drawing and explaining) or conventional whiteboards (in which the instructor does not). Dependent measures include student accuracy of interpreting representations, solving spatial problems, and learning transfer at immediate and delayed testing. In addition, eye-tracking analytics (fixations and saccades), physiological measures (electrodermal activity and heart rate), and individual difference measures (spatial and reasoning ability) will be collected. This project will yield research-based (a) practices for the development and delivery of video-based lessons that are grounded in empirical research and that address limitations of conventional practice, (b) guidelines for the design of instruction in STEM domains that promotes learning transfer that are based on educational theory, and (c) principles for the elimination of unnecessary barriers to learning and the mitigation of difficulties in spatial learning and reasoning required for a productive STEM workforce. The project expands research and theory related to principles of multimedia learning and learning from social cues in multimedia learning environments. Specifically, the efficacy of a potentially useful system for delivering online lectures will be systematically evaluated.