The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of adaptive assessment versus learner control in a multimedia learning system designed to help secondary students learn science. Unlike other systems, this paper presents a workflow of adaptive assessment following instructional materials that better align with learners' cognitive…

Providing learners with control over their learning does not always result in improved learning. For instance, research on tool-use in computer-based learning environments has demonstrated that tool-use behavior of learners is often suboptimal and does not fully support learning. Advice, or guided instruction, has been recognized as an…

Short, cause-and-effect instructional multimedia tutorials that provide learner control of instructional pace (segmentation) and verbal representations of content in a conversational tone (personalization) have been demonstrated to benefit problem solving transfer. How might a more comprehensive multimedia instructional environment focused on…

Audit trail analysis can provide valuable insights to researchers and evaluators interested in comparing and contrasting designers' expectations of use and students' actual patterns of use of educational technology environments (ETEs). Sequence analysis techniques are particularly effective but have been neglected to some extent because of real…

Within the field of technology enhanced learning, adaptive educational systems offer an advanced form of learning environment that attempts to meet the needs of different students. Such systems capture and represent, for each student, various characteristics such as knowledge and traits in an individual learner model. Subsequently, using the…

We collected think-aloud and posttest data from 60 undergraduates to examine whether they used different proportions of self-regulated learning (SRL) variables in two related learning tasks about science topics while using a hypermedia environment. We also manipulated the goal structure of the two hypermedia learning tasks to explore whether the…

Components of a case-based teaching architecture in a computer-based learning environment are discussed. Highlights include examples of "Creanimate," a program in which students interactively create a new animal while the "storyteller" monitors their actions looking for opportunities to present stories and questions that will…

Research on multimedia learning has produced a vast body of findings which, however, are not yet being integrated into a comprehensive framework of reference. For a considerable time, cognitive centered approaches have dominated the literature. Although motivational variables are now being taken into account, there is still a large gap in regard…

This study investigated the cognitive style (field dependence/independence) and learning strategies of undergraduate students in learner-controlled computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Three learning strategies were identified, but it was concluded that cognitive styles and learning strategies may be the result of the computer software design,…

Reviews empirical studies from a wide variety of fields to show that computer-based multimedia instruction may be able to help people learn more information more quickly compared to traditional classroom lecture. Topics include interactivity; control of learning pace; novelty; and learners with low prior knowledge or aptitude. (103 references)…

Typically, guidelines for design of interactive multimedia systems have been based on intuitive beliefs of designers rather than being founded on relevant research and theory. As advances in technology create new opportunities for education, it is important to use a range of theoretical perspectives to optimize use of new technology in teaching…

This study found that students using hypertext to learn technical information experienced an increased sense of control, and results provide preliminary evidence of an increased level of intrinsic motivation to learn among hypertext users. Implications for further research regarding the effects of hypermedia on intrinsic motivation are discussed.…