This ethnographic multiple-case study examines how undergraduate students are socialized into the disciplinary norms, values, and practices of a geoscience course at a Canadian university. Transcending logocentric assumptions about academic discourse, this article advances a broader domain of inquiry----"multimodal academic discourse…

As multimodal texts become ubiquitous in the digital age, analyzing how writers interact with readers via visuals is becoming increasingly important. Enlightened by Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996, 2001) semiotic work, D'Angelo (2010) extended Hyland's (2000) text-based metadiscourse model and proposed a new framework for analyzing the visual…

Some educators may view diagrams, pictures, and charts as nice add-on tools for students who are visual thinkers. But Steve Moline sees visual literacy as fundamental to learning and to what it means to be human. In Moline's view, we are all bilingual. Our second language, which we do not speak but which we read and write every day, is visual.…

This article traces the trajectory of one particular scene in the work of three media students writing and filmmaking. The analysis scrutinizes the role of semiotic tools, such as synopsis and storyboard, in students' filmmaking practice. Moreover, the use of interactional data combined with textual data allows for a rich recording of the…

This article reports on the incorporation of visual material as a tool for learning sociology and discusses a poster assignment introduced as a means of assessment in an academic context committed to innovative learning strategies and to teaching and learning enhancement. The article draws on an evaluation of using the poster assignment to assess…

This goal of this study was to examine the differences between lecturers and students' perceptions of the accessibility of instructional materials. The perceptions of 12 mature computing distance education students and 12 computing lecturers were examined using the knowledge elicitation techniques of card sorting and laddering. The study showed…

The present study examines how changes in the amount of on-screen text will influence student learning from a multimedia instructional unit on basic concepts of coordinate geometry. The relative effectiveness of two different versions (short-text and whole-text) of the instructional unit was examined for students who differed in terms of their…

Under some conditions, learning is improved by using a dual mode presentation involving for example, visual diagrams and auditory, rather than written text (modality effect). Under other conditions, learning is improved by asking learners to imagine rather than study instructional material (imagination effect). Both effects have been explained…

Learning Aids stimulate formation of mental images of concepts by increasing sensory input. This article provides a rationale for employing learning aids to help elementary children understand physical fitness concepts, and describes several activities which employ the three categories of learning aids (visual, object, event). (IAH)

Reports the use of two different visual control treatments (self-controlled versus system-imposed) among students with different cognitive styles. Students in middle school were tested to determine how they learned from instructional materials generated using different design approaches. Results indicated that students with different cognitive…

A study investigated the results of previous studies on the effectiveness of pictorial instruction, specifically examining whether the use of black-and-white pictorial instruction as a supplement to verbal instruction is more effective than the use of verbal instruction alone. Thirty-four studies on pictorial instruction that varied widely but…

Psychological and physiological concepts about information transmission are reviewed with a view toward uncovering principles useful to the design of audiovisual teaching materials. Audiovisual materials which transmit information via the visual or auditory channels are considered, including sound motion pictures, film strips, and audio…

Describes a long-term project where middle school students were taught to visually represent key text ideas through idea-mapping techniques. Instruction was inserted in the content area curriculum along with regular textbooks and supplementary material. Positive effects were found in recall, comprehension, and learning. (MJP)