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

来自加州-圣巴巴拉大学的一组调查人员与来自格鲁吉亚大学的研究人员一起，将就如何改进涉及视频的生物和化学在线本科教学的设计进行研究。研究人员将基于多媒体学习的领先理论来测试这一假设，即当教师在整个课程中面对学生时（通过使用透明白板），学生应该比教师在绘画时背对摄像机并面对白板时学到更多，就像传统白板一样。他们应该能够更好地将讲师所说的内容与真实的图表和图形等可视化内容结合起来。他们还应该能够利用社会线索，感觉与教练有更多的联系，增加动力。透明白板可能特别有利于STEM学科的学习，因为这些学科需要将口头解释与复杂的空间和分析表示联系起来。该项目将扩展学生如何从多媒体课程中融入的社会线索中学习的现有理论，并为改进STEM领域基于视频的教学设计提供基于研究的原则。 该项目还将支持最佳教学实践，以促进在新兴的在线课堂竞技场中进行STEM学习，例如通过MOOC（大规模开放在线课程）为学生提供传统课程之外的学习，以及通过翻转课堂（通过在线讲座进行讲座，并利用课堂时间进行学习活动和讨论）为传统课程提供学习。该项目由EHR核心研究计划资助，该计划支持基础研究，促进STEM学习的研究文献，并对正式和非正式环境中的教育产生影响。四项研究将研究两种不同的白板技术如何影响学生在STEM领域的学习。学生将学习有机化学或遗传学中的概念，无论是透明白板（其中教师面对学生，而绘图和解释）或传统白板（其中教师不）的帮助。相关的措施包括学生的准确性解释表示，解决空间问题，并在即时和延迟测试的学习迁移。此外，还将收集眼动跟踪分析（注视和扫视）、生理测量（皮肤电活动和心率）和个体差异测量（空间和推理能力）。该项目将产生基于研究的成果：（a）基于实证研究并解决传统做法局限性的视频课程开发和交付实践;（B）基于教育理论的促进学习迁移的STEM领域教学设计指南;以及（c）消除不必要的学习障碍和减轻空间学习和推理困难的原则，这是生产性STEM劳动力所需的。该项目扩展了与多媒体学习和多媒体学习环境中的社会线索学习原理相关的研究和理论。具体而言，一个潜在的有用的系统提供在线讲座的功效将进行系统的评估。

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.