1. What Improves Instruction
For this week’s discussion, I refer to some information that I posted to our class
wiki in the first week. From the Association of Research Libraries (ARL):
People will learn faster and better when they:
• Want to learn
• Know why it is important for them to learn above
• Believe that what they will learn will help them in real ways
• Are in a supportive environment and are free from threat
• Feel good about themselves and feel able to learn what is expected of them
• Are provided the information they are to learn in several different ways
• Learn by doing the task
• Have a chance to practice what they have learned
• Are given feedback on their performance
• Are praised when doing things well
For education and teaching, I think these are indispensable points to remember and
I’d like to add, learning needs to be interesting. Obviously, we have different
interests, so there are always going to be some things that one person will enjoy
learning about more than another. But for much of our student life, we don’t have
much of a choice. In addition, even though we’ve known for a long time how people
learn and how people have different learning styles, we’re still, basically, all taught the
same way. But does the answer to improving learning mean catering to every single
student’s needs? That doesn’t seem feasible. The great challenge for education and
teaching is to reach the most learners with the greatest efficiency. So, is e-learning
and a multimedia approach the answer? Maybe.
Clark & Mayer state that “there is consistent evidence that people learn more
deeply from words and pictures than from words alone” (Clark & Mayer, p.56, 66) and
add that “multimedia presentations can encourage learners to engage in active
learning” (Clark & Mayer, p.57). This approach is consistent with the point of
providing information in several different ways, along with, reaching people with
different learning styles.
There is enormous potential for e-learning and a multimedia approach to improve
instruction. However, Clark & Mayer remind us that there are “pitfalls” if it’s not done
right, such as “media abuse and the overloading of a learner’s processing abilities”
(Clark & Mayer, p.24). “The challenge of e-learning is building lessons in ways that
are compatible with the human learning process and instructional methods must
support these processes” (Clark & Mayer, p.28).
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Association of Research Libraries:
http://www.arl.org/leadership/leadresources/skills/facts.shtml
Clark, R.C. & Mayer, R.E. (2008). e-learning and the Science of Instruction, 2nd Ed.,
Pfeiffer.

2. How do you know if what’s being done to improve instruction is working? Just do a
simple before and after comparison by looking at test results or whatever assessment
criteria have been chosen. The criteria should relate to clearly defined instructional
goals and objectives. Scoring rubrics would be useful in this case. It’s important that
the criteria remain the same before and after implementing any kind of new
instructional methods, in order to have an accurate measurement of improvement.