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Increasing learner interactions with E-learning systems

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Ali Darejeh discusses the effects of increasing interactions between learners and digitally presented subject matter

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 23, 2024

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The research project aimed to evaluate how different elements affect e-learning systems used for teaching complex software applications, like Photoshop and Excel. The focus was on enhancing learning performance while minimizing cognitive load. Cognitive load theory highlights the limitations of short-term memory in learning new concepts.

The study specifically assessed the impact of two elements: interactive animation and a pedagogical agent (essentially a talking avatar). Interactive animation allows users to engage with the material actively, while the pedagogical agent serves as a virtual instructor.

The hypothesis was that interactive animation would reduce cognitive load and enhance learning performance, while the pedagogical agent might have mixed effects depending on its interaction style. Researchers conducted experiments with 80 participants unfamiliar with Microsoft Access, the software taught. The experiment compared traditional static animation with interactive animation, and audio-only content with audio plus a pedagogical agent.

Findings showed that interactive animation significantly improved user performance and reduced perceived difficulty for complex (high interactivity) materials, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing learning. However, the pedagogical agent increased cognitive load, leading to worse performance, due to redundancy and distraction.

The study suggests avoiding additional graphical elements like pedagogical agents in teaching contexts that emphasize software application use while recommending further research into their efficacy in different educational settings, such as language learning or teaching motor skills.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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The main purpose of this research project was evaluating

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the effect of different elements on e-learning systems

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that are designed for teaching software applications,

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because it's really important

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that we can increase learning performance by decreasing,

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cognitive load when we wanna teach software applications,

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because software applications are commonly

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complicated applications.

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Uh, I mean, I'm talking about applications such

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as Photoshop, such as, Excel access,

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SQL.

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And, these systems should be designed in a way

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that users can have, I mean, we can maximize learning

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and decrease learning performance.

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Uh, sorry.

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I mean, we can increase learning performance

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and decrease cognitive load.

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But, before we continue, let me explain the concept

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of cognitive load theory.

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Uh, cognitive load theory is an educational theory

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and also a psychological theory,

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which emphasizes on the limitation of, of a working memory.

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Actually, this theory says that we have unlimited long-term

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memory, which is responsible for,

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memorizing information, but we have a short term.

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We have a limited short term memory, which is responsible

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for learning new concept.

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So we should design e-learning systems in a way

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that we can use.

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The short term memory is an efficient way.

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Uh, in this research project, we, evaluated the effect

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of two elements on cognitive load, for,

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using e-learning systems.

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One of them was, interactive animation,

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and the other one a pedagogical agent.

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Uh, let's start by the interactive animation.

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Uh, interactive animation is a kind of animation

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that in contrast with static animations that uses just

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watch the animation.

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Users can interact with the animation content.

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I mean, they can click on different parts,

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they can get different feedback.

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Let me explain it using an example.

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Imagine that you wanna learn Photoshop with the use

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of an at interactive animation.

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Uh, when the animation is playing, in some parts it'll pause

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and, you need to do something so

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that the animation continues.

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For example, it says, for drawing a circle,

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we should click the circle tool and then move the mouse.

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Uh, in a circular way,

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users should actually move their mouse.

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Click the circle tool, on the video,

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and then the video will continue.

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This is the definition of an interactive animation,

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but, pedagogical agent is

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A, a kind of a talking avatar,

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and maybe the word seems scary when we say pedagogical

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agent, but, the easy word for,

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for pedagogical agent is, talking avatar.

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And I believe all of us are familiar, all of your familiar

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with the concept of talking avatar.

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It's like a virtual instructor

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or a virtual teacher that can have

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human body movement, and it has lip syncing.

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With audio, we wanted

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to see if adding interactive animation

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and the pedagogical agent can either decrease

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or increase user's cognitive load,

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because based on the literature for,

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interactive animation,

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interactive animation overall can enhance learning

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and decrease cognitive load because of embodi cognition.

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Embedded cognition is another theory

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that emphasizes on engaging two sensory memories, including,

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for example, visual and physical sensors at the same time

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because it can distribute the load.

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Um, so based on some studies like Mire or,

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or, Kira, we predict, we hypothesize

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that the interactive animation can decrease cognitive load

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and increase learning performance.

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But for the pedagogical agent,

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this story is more complicated

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because some researchers believe that interactive animation

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can, sorry, the pedagogical agent can increase

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learning performance because it can

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increase user's motivation.

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Uh, the researchers such as Atkinson, such as,

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Zi, Fabio, these researchers believe that

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because of the nature of the pedagogical agent,

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because of that, interesting traction

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and that human-like interaction,

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it can make the learning more engaging.

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But some researchers such as John Swer, such as Fred Pass,

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or Paul Iris, believe that, elements such

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as pedagogical agent

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because of the na their nature, they are redundant

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and they are just, a dec element.

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Uh, I call them redundant

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because they are redundant to the audio,

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and we have the audio, and we have the agent,

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and we have the software user interface.

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So actually,

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this pedagogical agent can be a redundant content

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and it can split users' attention

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because they should have a full concentration on the video

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and on the software user interface.

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But the pedagogical agent can change their focus,

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and it'll be considered as a redundant element

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for the audio.

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So it was the reason that we wanted

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to discover if in the context

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of teaching software application, using e-learning systems,

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using pedagogical agent

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and interactive animation would be efficient methods or not.

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Um, regarding the methodology, we employed 80 participants,

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40 in each experiment.

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Uh, we had,

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and then we divided them into, two groups

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of 2020 in the control group,

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and 20 in the experimental group,

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the participants had the same characteristics,

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which means that we used a screening protocol

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to select homogenized participants.

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Uh, we collected data, at UNSW, the University

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of New South Wales,

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and all the participants had a good English proficiency.

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They didn't have a good computer background.

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They could work with computer, definitely all users can work

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with computers, but they were not professional computer

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users because we wanted to teach them a software.

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And also they didn't have any familiarity

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with Microsoft Access.

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Maybe you ask me why Microsoft Access.

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The reason is Microsoft Access was the experimental

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application that we use, in our e-learning system

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to teach to participants.

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So if participants had any background with Microsoft Access,

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we couldn't actually evaluate the efficiency

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of our e-learning, system.

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So, in the first experiment, we designed two systems.

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One of them had the interactive animation,

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and the other one had a static animation.

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The content were exactly the same. Everything was the same.

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There wasn't any difference between the systems.

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And the only independent variable was the existence

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of the interactive animation

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and the static animation in the control system.

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Um, and also we designed four lessons

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for our e-learning systems.

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Two lessons with low element interactivity materials,

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and two lessons with high element interactivity materials.

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Uh, let me explain the difference between low

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and high element interactivity materials.

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Uh, when we are dealing with, teaching a concept,

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we can divide the concept, the, the teaching

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and, the, the learning concept that, I mean, the concept

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that we want to teach into two different categories, low

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and high element interactivity, low element interactivity.

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This concept are the concept

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that users can learn in isolation.

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They are not integrated with the other elements.

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Uh, but high element inactivity concepts are the elements

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that users need to have a background.

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They are integrated with the other elements,

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and overall, they are more complicated

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and more difficult for users to learn.

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Lemme give you two examples.

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For example, saving a file is considered as an element

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below interactivity,

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because users just need

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to click the save button and that's it.

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They can save it. But, working with,

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for example, chart

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or formulas in Microsoft Excel are considered

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as high element interactivity tasks.

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Because for writing a formula, users need

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to have a background.

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They need to know the logic behind that formula.

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They need, they need to know what parameters they can,

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they can add to that formula,

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or for adding a chart, they should know the difference

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between different types of charts.

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And also how to select a range, how to feed the chart

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and how to draw it.

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So that one is considered as high element interactivity.

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And we wanted to know if interactive animation

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and the pedagogical agent, can have the same performance

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for low and high element interactivity materials.

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This is the reason that we designed,

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four different lessons, two with low

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and two with high element inter activities.

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And, regarding the procedure of data collection,

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we asked participants to come to our HCI Lab,

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human Computer Interaction Lab.

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We collected data one by one.

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First they signed the consent form, and

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after that, they could start learning.

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And, during learning each lesson,

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we measured time duration for learning each lesson.

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And also after finishing each lesson,

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we gave them a lecture scale questionnaire.

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Uh, it was a difficulty liquor scale questionnaire

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with different questions about their experience

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and the difficulty of the teaching material for them.

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Um, and, regarding the data analysis, we used

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a linear mixed model test in SBSS to see,

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if, if there is any difference between the time duration

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and the liquor scale difficulty questionnaire, between,

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low and high element interactivity materials

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and between both systems.

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Uh, I haven't explained the methodology

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for the pedagogical agent.

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One because we had the same, methodology,

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and the only difference was the system.

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In one of the systems we had only audio.

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And in the other one we only had, we had

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the pedagogical agent in addition to the audio,

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but we had, I mean, everything was the same,

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the same content, the same interface.

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And the only independent variable in the experimental

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system, was, the pedagogical agent.

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Yeah, a very good question, regarding the findings.

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Uh, our linear mix model showed that,

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participants in the, in, in the experimental group

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of the interactive animation had a better performance.

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I mean, they could complete the learning tasks in less time,

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and also they reported less difficulty

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based on the liquor scale questionnaire.

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But this one was just

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for high element interactivity materials,

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and it was actually predictable

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because for learning easy concept, users commonly,

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learn it.

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I mean, it's easy,

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and when you wanna learn an easy concept,

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you can learn it with any method.

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But for learning difficult concept, it showed that

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for high element interactivity materials, yes,

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interactive animation can help.

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And for the pedagogical agent, the results showed

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that unfortunately, the pedagogical agent in the context

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of teaching software applications

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can increase cognitive load.

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And consequently, it can decrease learning performance,

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because of the redundancy effect, we can,

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we can justify this based on the redundancy effect.

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Uh, but, the positive effects

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of the interactive animation can be justified based on

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the embodied cognition that I explained,

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before regarding the inter,

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the interpretation of the results.

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We could prove. Other hypothesis, we could prove

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that interactive animation is useful in the context

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of teaching software application,

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because we can engage hand movement

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and mouse movement in addition to visual and audio sensors.

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Uh, and it can distribute the load.

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So participants can have a better concentration,

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we can decrease cognitive load, and

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consequently we could increase the learning performance.

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But for pedagogical agent,

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it increased cognitive load.

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We chose that using the elements such as pedagogical agents,

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especially for teaching applications like Microsoft Access.

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Uh, that has a user interface is not

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actually a good approach.

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So we should avoid using, graphical,

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additional graphical and additional decorative elements

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because it can change users' focus

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and it can in increase learning performance, sorry,

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learning duration and decrease learning performance.

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Uh, for future work, it definitely, wants to

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evaluate the effects of both pedagogical

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Agent and interactive animations in different contexts,

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because now we just evaluated their effects,

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in the context of, software applications,

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but maybe in other contexts.

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Let me give you an example.

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Imagine that we wanna learn, a second language,

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something like Spanish for learning Spanish.

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There isn't any graphical user interface.

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We just have some words

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and we just need an instructor that talk

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and explain the words, sentences and the grammar.

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Um, maybe the, the pedagogical agent

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or the talking avatar is an efficient method in this context

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because it can motivate learners

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to have a better concentration

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and also interactive animation.

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If we talk about this example, I mean, learning

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a second language, maybe the interactive animation is not an

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appropriate method, and we can get completely different

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results if we evaluate the effect of interactive animation

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and the pedagogical agent in different contexts

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and in different situations

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for teaching different materials.

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So for future studies,

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researchers in different areas can definitely

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evaluate these effects, especially

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for teaching motor skill tasks.

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Something like, for example, teaching children how

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to play with Lego pieces.

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Definitely using interactive animations would be an

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efficient method because the nature of

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teaching motor skill tasks are similar to,

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software applications.

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So interactive animation can be useful,

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but pedagogical agent might be harmful in this context.

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