Comments on: Could animations hurt learning?

By: John

John — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 04:50:52 +0000

Your project will probably work. I hope that, once it shows promise, you’ll isolate it’s elements that are effective from those that are not. You might find Adobe Presenter 7 (http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/) which converts PowerPoint to Flash, or their entire eLearning Suite 2 (http://www.adobe.com/products/elearningsuite/) helpful.
However, I don’t think the ‘animation’ you intend has much in common with those critiqued by Cathy. See my earlier comment on her critique (June 19th, 2009). You’re using actual animation not cheap tricks that may be counter productive.
Bye for now,
John

By: Chere

Chere — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:37:15 +0000

Dan Roam states in “Unfolding the Napkin” -
Pictures are pure excitement for our minds – especially when we see them drawn right in front of us. When we see pieces of a picture come together, our brain… starts making connections, guessing, and anticipating what is likely to come next.

The book describes how to present to a group, so building the same in an eLearning course means copying how it feels to watch someone draw on a whiteboard while listening to the speaker.

I plan to use this idea in future eLearning projects. I know Powerpoint will animate custom drawn lines, and I am looking into how to do this in Flash. Anyone else doing this already?

By: Les animations d’un PowerPoint peuvent nuire à la compréhension

Les animations d’un PowerPoint peuvent nuire à la compréhension — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:37:17 +0000

[...] (Source: Making Change) [...]

By: Louise Crane

Louise Crane — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:01:11 +0000

HI – it has been interesting reading the comments, I can only speak for myself in that I have a ‘picture’ memory rather than facts so would be able to recall an image and relate to the reason rather than a slide with just words. I do think the ‘flying in’ is unnecessary though.
I also think if you use an image as character to be seen throughout the course it does bring some personality to the learning. I think the younger generation almost expect there to be interactive images as this is what they look for when they play games/ watch TV etc.
I work in elearning with nhs staff and find interactive images are effective in learning e.g. pulling a virtual shringe to the correct dosage etc.
So in short, I guess I am trying to say that it depends on your target audience!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:42:59 +0000

The samples both seemed to be really good examples of what NOT to do. I tuned out really quickly in both. I think I would have scored badly in the tests.

Flying bullet points have been a no-no since PowerPoint existed. I remember attending a PowerPoint Workship in 1995 with the faciliator drumming it into our heads to minimise stupid animations like bullet points.

I think the real point here is that animation should be used to enhance not distract. You can use text animation – but minimally.

I wrote a course on diversity. I’d recorded a number of employees and asked them what working in a diverse organisation meant to them.

In the module, extracts of those responses were played and key words appeared against a black screen and stayed on screen until the audio component finished. In the testing and review phase – the feedback was that this was incredibly powerful and motivating (unfortunately, the powers that be then wanted this in every module – luckily, I talked them out of it). This was the only animated text in the module.

Animation has many assets – but it must be used only when it will propel learning.

By: vasan

vasan — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:32:10 +0000

I concur with the results with own experience. With some of our clients, our business sponsors have always asked for more text animation. We have many times convinced them to show it to actual users and gain their feedback.

The users have always felt that having the entire information text on hand and listening to audio is better rather than get them fly. All they asked for is animation in visuals that is more useful and edutaining that serves as a refreshing break from their routine job.

By: Eve

Eve — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:26:48 +0000

I certainly share the sentiments expressed in these comments, especially when it comes to the unfortunate tendency to choose style over content. I wonder how giving the learner control over the bullets’ appearance (and cutting the narration) might affect these results?

By: Multimedia Learning » 3 Ways to Create More Engaging E-learning Bullets

Multimedia Learning » 3 Ways to Create More Engaging E-learning Bullets — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:19:00 +0000

[...] know there are some active conversations around animation and learning. I follow those conversations and agree designers should understand [...]

By: John

John — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:47:30 +0000

An important question well discussed,Cathy. Although I suspect that some animations are counterproductive, I am very suspicious of this study, too.
That they neither included a link to the presentations or, at least, its text is odd, There were only 9 questions in the test, your link to “Common mistakes when writing multiple-choice questions” clearly shows how inadequate they were and neither validity nor reliability figures were given. For a quantitative study, these are hardly acceptable. As such, it definitely does not extend “the exploration of PowerPoint animations by assessing the impact of custom animation on student learning across various demographic and performance characteristics” (Mahar, Yaylacicegi & Janicki; 2009; p. 7), as they claim. As much as I agree with their hypothesis, I would never cite such a study.

By: Sergey

Sergey — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:15:13 +0000

Thank you Cathy! That link (http://blog.cathy-moore.com.php5-12.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/2008/02/5-ways-to-make-linear-navigation-more-interesting/) is SO great! )))