draft+report

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=A case study of WileyPlus: The affordances of multimedia in digital text books and the student experience=

Group assignment submission 1 for EDU11100 IBOE

Authors: Stephen Bruce, Angela Inglis, Cathy Lewin, Roseann MacDonald

Edinburgh Napier University 2011/12 Trimester 1

toc

1.0 Introduction
This report presents a case study of //WileyPlus: Tortura, Principles of Anatomy and Physiology//. WileyPlus offers 'online courses' primarily designed to support blended learning and to replace traditional printed text books. It is suggested that 'electronic books are moving closer to mainstream adoption for educational institutions' (Johnson et al., 2011: 5), highlighting potential benefits including visualisation through multimedia, interactive learning experiences and social interaction. WileyPlus provides an example of one publisher's approach to this growing international market. The underlying aims (Wiley, 2009) include engaging students through multimodal material and addressing lack of preparation for face-to-face learning through learner-controlled, individualised, active learning experiences. Features to support learner self-assessment and instructors' 'efficient' management of assessment are also promoted.

1.1 Overview of course
The //Tortura, Principles of Anatomy and Physiology// course, aimed at higher education students, presents highly structured content. Each chapter contains a comprehensive //Reading Content// section, combining text with high quality images. Questions are posed throughout and students can check the answers. Audio narration is a prominent feature throughout the //Reading Content// and is used to describe some of the static images, and to aid pronunciation of medical terms. In addition, a range of sections provide interactive activities, and animated presentations of the content accompanied by audio narration.

1.2 Explanation and justification of chosen key issue and core issue
The core issue explored here is the application of educational technology, with a particular focus on the implementation of multimedia. As described above, WileyPlus courses are multimedia learning resources. The multimedia features of WileyPlus are reviewed in relation to the five forms of media noted by Laurillard (2001): narrative, interactive, communicative, adaptive, and productive. In addition, Mayer's theories of multimedia learning are also considered (2003, 2010).

The key issue is the student experience from the perspective of learning theories, as summarised by Selwyn (2011). This report explores approaches to learning supported within WileyPlus, including social aspects of learning. As the online courses are designed to prepare students for classroom activities and be used independently, focussing on the student experience will highlight strengths and limitations of the current system from a student perspective. In addition, the key issue complements the focus on the implementation of multimedia, enabling this aspect to be considered from an alternative perspective.

2.1 Critical review in relation to the implementation of multimedia
The multimedia features of WileyPlus are vast. Therefore a selection are reviewed in relation to five forms of media (Laurillard, 2001), together with the verbal and visual presentation modes enabled by multimedia as described by Mayer (2003). Laurillard (2001: 91-172) suggests that learning is best supported by five different media types:
 * //Narrative media//are linear, structured, and non-interactive. Examples include books, lecture, audio, video, which afford the transmission of knowledge.
 * //Interactive media//are structured and permit learners to have some control over navigation, which potentially affords organised thinking through following and creating links between content. The content remains unchanged by the learner’s actions and so interactivity is limited.
 * //Adaptive media//are interactive and change in response to user actions to provide tailored feedback. Examples include simulations, educational games, and also objective testing although this can be limited to affording the transmission of knowledge.
 * //Communicative media//support discussion, feedback and collaboration activities. Examples include email, discussion groups, and video conferencing, often combined with text and animations. Such iterative dialogue between students and tutors affords the construction of knowledge.
 * //Productive media// permit learners to demonstrate their understanding. Examples range from simple word processors and presentation tools, to microworlds where the learner can manipulate objects.

The //Interactions: Complete Program// section provides a range of narrated, animated, non-interactive content that is presented in a linear format. For example, the //Homeostasis section; Communication, Regulation and Homeostasis// allows the learner to pause and replay the animation, but lacks an audio track to indicate the duration, or to allow the student to skip forward to specific points in the animation. However this and other such animations tend to focus solely on the subject matter without including extraneous information. Mayer (2003: 132) writes of a ‘coherence effect’ whereby students ‘learn more deeply from a multimedia explanation when extraneous material is excluded’. The design of this, and other animations in WileyPlus are effective in avoiding ‘disrupting how learners organize words or pictures into a causal chain’ (ibid: 133).
 * Narrative Media**



Figure 1. An example of narrative media: an animation presenting Homeostasis

The //Reading Content// section of WileyPlus presents text and static images in a structured, table of contents format, affording the learner some control over the navigation. In addition, the learner can listen to audio clips such as pronunciations, view answers to self-assessment questions, or launch a relevant animation as described above. The images are of high quality but often there is superfluous white space surrounding the images so that the text description is not visible. Images can be opened in pop-up windows, and while this affords the repositioning of the image near the text, the images are enlarged versions requiring the learner to either scroll or to maximise the window. The lack of text-to-image proximity in WileyPlus is a detriment to the ‘spatial contiguity effect’ (Mayer, 2003: 133-134), which allows learners to ‘hold corresponding words and pictures in working memory’ which in turn ‘enables the process of integrating visual and verbal models, a key step in active learning’.
 * Interactive Media**

Figure 2. An example of interactive media: //Reading Content// on Homeostasis

The //Powerphys// section of Wiley Plus simulates the laboratory experiences, and a clear narrative (Laurillard et al., 2000) is evident when analysing the //Enzyme Activity// as an example (see the menu bar in Figure 3). The objectives of the experiment are presented, and the student reviews and is assessed on prior learning; a synopsis of experiment method is presented and the student predicts the expected outcome, and determines experimental variables; the student engages with a simulation of the experimental procedure, and performs data set calculations where graphical and tabulated data is presented; students review previous predictions and variables, and complete reflective questions. An additional benefit of this activity is personal language used throughout, as Mayer (2003: 134) describes the ‘personalization effect’ whereby ‘students learn more deeply from a multimedia explanation when the words are presented in a conversational style’.
 * Adaptive media**



Figure 3. An example of adaptive media: assessing prior knowledge in the //Powerphys// section

A drawback of the activities in WileyPlus is the lack of communicative media to support discussion, feedback and collaboration activities. It is likely that WileyPlus would be used in a blended learning context, and that either face-to-face dialogue or other online tools will facilitate this important aspect of learning.
 * Communicative media**

A range of user responses throughout the //Enzyme Activity// are saved to a laboratory book which can be printed out after the concluding activity. Students demonstrate their understanding by completing free text areas in response to reflective and observational questions that relate to the experiment objectives, and to real life applications of the experiment's conclusions. The structure of the final printout models an ideal laboratory report that details the key stages of scientific enquiry. Wiley offers another good example of productive media within its //Interactive Section//. It provides the student, from the menu bar, a selection of interactive tools to record notes using a 'note pad' which can be emailed, a 'show' function which offers point and click addition of screens to build a customised presentation and a 'links' function which provides a cascading menu of direct linkage to other areas of Wiley content similar subject. These tools have similar functionality to Laurillard's editable 'notepad' (2001: 114).
 * Productive media**

2.2 Critical review in relation to the student expereience
Table 1. Key features of Learning Theories summarised by Selwyn (2011: 65-83)
 * ** Theoretical Perspectives ** || ** Key features ** ||
 * ** Behaviourist ** || Learner as passive recipient; Immediate feedback; Tutor-led, step-by-step; Focus on learning outcome; Presented in contained units. ||
 * ** Cognitivist ** || Focus on the mental processes that underpin the act of learning; Modelling student ‘ideal’ performance; Comprehensive feedback; Some learner control. ||
 * ** Constructivist ** || Learner-driven; Learner-structured and reflective; Activity-based; Individual learning based on previous experience and prior knowledge. ||
 * ** Sociocultural ** || Emphasis on social interaction; Collaboration with peers and tutors; Authentic; Collaborative construction of knowledge; Supportive, social and dynamic. ||

With no online connection to a tutor or other students, the emphasis of the WileyPlus site is on interaction with various types of multimedia. Initially, it seems that WileyPlus favours a constructivist approach. However, this is not always the case. For example, the // PowerPhys // function guides the student through a series of sequential interactive animated steps demonstrating how lung volume changes during exercise. Although not tutor-led, the multimedia becomes the tutor, providing immediate feedback in response to answers. This stimulus evokes a response by the student who can repeat the task until selecting the correct answer, resulting in a bell ringing. This is a clear example of behaviourist features (Table 1), illustrating a 'closed system in which the content is pre-defined, responses are anticipated, and the action is controlled by the designer alone' (Ryder and Wilson, 1996: no pagination).

Cognitive tutoring through technology continues to be a major research focus in the field of instructional design (Koedinger and Corbett, 2006); it is used across education and particularly in adult and vocational training (Selwyn, 2011). Selwyn (2011: 71) describes, as an example, the use of a flight simulator to allow students to measure their performance against the ‘ideal’ performance; a classic cognitive approach. Although WileyPlus does not offer such complexity, there are some activities which are based on cognitive principles. For example, the //‘Interactions Section’// within each chapter, presents a number of animated case studies, reflecting scenarios which are good simulations of real-life experiences for medics in practice. Each case study starts with a presentation detailing the patient's history, symptoms and test results, which the student can compare against the "normal values". Interactive animations and anatomy overviews permit the student to confirm knowledge of cellular, organ and tissue changes against the "expected values" that the condition would evoke. The student is finally presented with the opportunity to confirm their diagnosis against the actual diagnosis.

Selwyn (2011: 74) states that the use of technology to facilitate learning ‘is seen as a key means of facilitating a learner’s exploration and construction of knowledge’. WileyPlus has many good examples. In particular, WileyPlus facilitates the construction of knowledge though the //‘Anatomy Overview’// which first provides the basics of 'anatomical structures'. Each structure can be further explored by clicking on its label to access a detailed view. This allows the learner the opportunity enhance their previous knowledge. The WileyPlus section //‘Concepts and Connections’// allow the user reflect on a particular topic and confirm what they have learned by dragging and dropping phrases from a pre-defined appropriate selection to make the connections between concepts. This activity-based approach accords with Selwyn's (2011) summary for constructivist principles (Table 1). Features to support learner-driven experiences are positive affordances of online learning (Johnson et al., 2011; Sit et al., 2005).

WileyPlus offers the student good 'learner-driven' and 'learner-structured' authentic activities, which follow the theories of constructivist and constructionist principles. However, WileyPlus fails to provide the student with opportunities to interact and learn through collaboration with peers and tutors, making learning a very individual and isolated experience. Selwyn (2011: 76) notes the views of many psychologists who ‘would now share the view that learning is a profoundly social process’. Indeed, such features in online learning can be very beneficial (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006) and can be a barrier to student uptake if not present (Muilenburg and Berge, 2005). From the perspective of the student experience of WileyPlus, despite the array of good content from traditional text to a vast selection of technologically innovative and authentic activities, the current lack of real-time interaction with other students to share ideas and co-construct knowledge is limiting. For such a complex and highly specialised subject, this may well prove a useful attribute.

3.0 Conclusions and recommendations
WileyPlus: Tortura, Principals of Anatomy and Physiology, was reviewed in relation to the implementation of multimedia and the student experience. As described above, the Horizon Report (Johnson, et al., 2011) highlights multimedia, interactivity and social interaction as the key affordances (Gibson, 1979) of electronic books. In relation to multimedia, as Littlejohn and Pegler (2007: 40) advocate, WileyPlus offers 'a more seamless blended experience of multi-media within a single course'. As Littlejohn and Pegler (2007) explain, this removes the problem of students accessing different devices, including wasted time and the technical problems that can sometimes arise. The WileyPlus site’s multimedia format is useful, aiding usability and flow of learning, potentially leading to a positive student experience. In relation to interactivity, WileyPlus largely offers 'closed' functionality rather than enabling students to be truly 'interactive' (Ryder and Wilson, 1996). Moreover, in relation to social interaction, this review suggests that WileyPlus currently offers very limited functionality to support this valuable approach to learning (Tallent-Runnels et al., 2006). As it stands, this suggests that the viability of WileyPlus as a possible alternative to an institutional virtual learning environment is limited.

Recommendations:
 * Other than email, no examples of any technology-driven interaction with other students or tutors were found. This may be due to WileyPlus being designed to meet indivividual learning needs of the individual and supplement classroom activities. Future developments should focus on supporting social interaction, for example, discussion boards, which would facilitate instructor-student and student-student communication.
 * There is no evidence of simulated social negotiation within WileyPlus which technology could facilitate (Selwyn, 2011). There is opportunity for WileyPlus to be enhanced in the future, to include a ‘Virtual Ward’, ‘Patient Consultations’ and/or ‘Surgery Simulations’.
 * WileyPlus students would benefit from the addition of real-time interaction (collaborative support) with other student: to share ideas; seek correlation of knowledge gained; and confirmation of understanding. For example, wikis, blogs and other collaborative workspaces. Such features would also offer productive media tools, enabling learners to demonstrate their understanding.
 * A final recommendation for the future development of WileyPlus, is the introduction of more 'social' and 'authentic' features such as virtual communities, online simulations where the learner can take a role and interact with others.

4.0 References
Gibson, J.J. (1979) //The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception//, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K. (2011) //The 2011 horizon report//, Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Koedinger, K.R. and Corbett, A. (2006) 'Technology bringing learning sciences to the classroom', in Sawyer, R.K. (ed.), //The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences//, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Laurillard, D., Stratfold, M., Luckin, R., Plowman, L. and Taylor, J. (2000) 'Affordances for learning in a non-linear narrative medium', //Journal of Interactive Media in Education//, vol. 2, pp. 1-19.

Laurillard, D. (2001) //Rethinking university Teaching: A framework for the effective use of learning technologies//, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.

Littlejohn, A. and Pegler, C. (2007) //Preparing for blended e-learning//, London: Routledge.

Mayer, R. (2003) 'The promise of multimedia learning: using the same instructional design methods across different media', //Learning and Instruction//, vol. 13, pp. 125-139.

Mayer, R. (2010) 'Applying the science of learning to medical education', //Medical Education//, vol. 44, pp. 543-549.

Muilenburg, L.Y. and Berge, Z.L. (2005) 'Student barriers to online learning: A factor analytic study', //Distance Education//, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 29-48.

Ryder, M. and Wilson, B. (1996) //Affordances and constraints of learning on the internet//. Available: http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/aect_96.html, [26 October 2011].

Selwyn, N. (2011) //Education and technology: Key issues and debates//, London: Continuum.

Sit, J.W.H., Chung, J.W.Y., Chow, M.C.M. and Wong, T.K.S. (2005) 'Experiences of online learning: students' perspective', //Nurse Education Today//, vol. 25, pp. 140-147.

Tallent-Runnels, M.K., Thomas, J.A., Lan, W.Y. and Cooper, S. (2006) 'Teaching courses online: A review of the research', //Review of Educational Research//, vol. 76, no. 1, pp.93-135.

Wiley (2009) //How blended learning contributes to more effective course management and enhanced student outcomes//, Available: https://origin.media.wiley.com/assets/2220/15/whitepaper.pdf, [26 October 2011].