By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
You can hardly find a college student who does not seem to
have a little white cord hanging from one or both ears. It is the ubiquitous mp3 player. A question
immediately comes to mind: What is the goal? Are students simply blocking out
reality by spacing out to their favorite tunes?
Many students would tell you an emphatic "no." In fact, many would explain that they are
listening to campus announcements and their professors' lectures as well as
music, talk shows, and audio books they've downloaded from iTunes or from an
aggregator such as Odeo.com.
As an eLearner, you may have wondered if college students
strolling around campus listening to lectures on their iPods are actually
learning or retaining anything. If so,
does it only happen because they are going to a face-to-face lecture
first? Or, alternatively, does the iPod
lecture make sense only because the students can then debate with classmates?
If listening to lectures on iPods in conjunction with
face-to-face lectures and discussions with classmates works, can the technique
also be implemented in online courses?
A key to understanding how listening to course content on
one's mp3 player can facilitate learning is cognitive load theory.
Cognitive load theory is a psychological concept that
suggests that learning occurs most effectively when the delivery of course
content is in alignment with individual cognitive / brain architecture. Cognitive architecture is the way knowledge
is structured and organized in the mind, and it consists of schema (Bartlett,
1932; Bartlett, 1958), or categories.
Novice learners have not yet developed schema or categories
that they can use with ease. As they
learn, they learn how to develop the ways of classifying their knowledge. Experts are adept at taking information and
developing classification schemes that allow for easy and flexible
retrieval. A core competency (as well as
developmental challenge) is to be able to take material in short-term memory
and to transfer it into long-term memory, which is organized in categories
(Miller, 1956). This can be difficult
when the individual's cognitive processing systems are overloaded, often due to
the fact that the material is not being presented in one's preferred style or,
that there may be too many separate packets of information being presented at
the same time (Miller etal, 1960, Sweller, 1988).
To focus back on individual difference, it is important to
keep in mind that each learner has a different learning style. How learners receive knowledge and then
process it depends on their individual preferences. Almost all learners exhibit a combination of
learning preferences, and will process knowledge that comes to them as audio, visual,
textual, and kinaesthetic packets of information (Sweller, 1999).
Now, let's return to the primary question. How can listening to course content on an
iPod while walking, jogging, or taking a stroll in the park help you succeed in
your online course?
The iPod lectures can
help you deal with cognitive overload by taking you out of a situation
where you are bombarded by too many competing and simultaneous ways of
presenting information. The online
environment may have too many distractors - images, text, colors - and you may
need to simply focus on the language and the words. Similarly, the face-to-face lectures may not
be ideal. You may need to combine
listening with walking around and moving your body.
Podcast lectures can
function as explanatory notes. A.
Yeung etal (1998) found that students who had supplemental material presented
in different forms outside the regular classroom (or learning space) were able
to achieve learning goals more successfully.
Audio lectures can
contain cues to help you develop schema. One major element in progressing from novice
to expert is the ability to develop categories or "schema" to help
one organize and process information (Miller 1956, Bartlett, 1932). Podcasts can contain verbal cues that can be
utilized in constructing schema and then organizing information, regardless of
the origin.
Cognitive load can be
optimized. Not only is it possible
to optimize the cognitive load and avoid overload, one can block out potential
distractors and increase focus (Cooper, 1998).
While listening to an audio file may involve what is called the
"split attention effect" (Cooper, 1998, and Yeung, etal, 1998), this
is a positive phenomenon for learners who suffer from attention deficit
problems or who need multiple stimuli in order to maintain engagement.
Many universities are jumping on the bandwagon and taking
advantage of the fact that their students love their mp3 players. It is good to know that research into
learning styles and efficacy are very helpful in determining the best ways to
present the material and make it available across delivery platforms and
modalities.
References
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: An Experimental and Social Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bartlett, F.C. (1958). Thinking. New York: Basic Books.
Cooper, G. (1998) Research into Cognitive Load Theory and
Instructional Design at UNSW. Retrieved April 21, 2006, from http://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/CLT_NET_Aug_97.HTML
Miller, G.A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some
limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological
Review, 63, 81-97.
[Available at http://www.well.com/user/smalin/miller.html]
Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H. (1960). Plans and the
Structure of Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. In Cognitive Science, 12, 257-285.
Sweller, J. (1999). Instructional design in technical areas. Australian
Educational Review No. 43, ACER Press, Camberwell, Australia.
Yeung AS, Jin P, & Sweller J. (1998) Cognitive Load and
Learner Expertise: Split-Attention and Redundancy Effects in Reading
with Explanatory Notes Contemp Educ Psychol. Jan;23(1):1-21.
[Listen to the companion podcast at:
http://community.elearners.com/blogs/inside_elearning/attachment/295.ashx - 1.35 MB]