What do I hope to get from this class? What am I unsure of? 

One thing I hope to come out as more knowledgeable in is the relation of multimedia and learning styles. I am curious about whether or not the various presentations of multimedia learning are more beneficial to certain individuals and their learning differences. A broader question I have involving the entirety of this topic, is how multimedia learning is created and used for students with visual or auditory impairments? I’m curious about this because of the three presentations the delivery media view, presentation modes view and the sensory modalities view each presentation format requires a specific set of circumstances that most visual/auditory impaired learners cannot have met.

Something that could give me some uncertainty for this class is something very relevant to the topic of multimedia. This is my first to be fully online, without the presence of an instructor physically. In many ways this scares me, one; because of the type of learner I am, someone who needs to be able to ask questions and receive immediate feedback, and two; because of the multimedia components of the class. I can assume from the set-up of the first week’s website post that the class will be a mix of readings, videos, and lecture-style zoom sessions,  however, I cannot say how these variations of presentations will help me learn and how I will be able to absorb the information compared to the in-person lecture style of all the classes I have known.

 

Examples of both digital multimedia and non-digital experiences

– As far as a “learning experience” I would say this example falls short in the “learning” components, however, I can say that the experience and experiences of this have impacted my understanding immensely. As someone who falls short in ideal hearing, subtitles have always been a way for me to be able to comprehend exactly what is going on. I find that in general I cannot simply watch a video, listen, and be able to recall the information being given to me.gray TV remote

Subtitles, being a multimedia form, allow me the chance to focus on my deeper thinking of what is happening and why it is occurring in the video. I did a little research on the beneficial aspects of subtitles and found a blog post that supported my own personal experience of watching a video without subtitles is hearing without comprehension. An argument made against subtitles in the post was that the close caption words take away the craftsmanship and talent of the actors and actresses, and that “we” as the audience are supposed to be able to decipher what the subtitles are telling us through the actions of the on-screen persons.  I counter this statement by arguing that subtitles add more understanding of why the events of the video are happening which then leads the watcher to have more of a complete comprehension of the story

– An example from Chapter 1 of Mayer’s The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, “Introduction to Multimedia learning” of a non-digital multimedia learning experience that has aided me is the simplicity of instructional diagrams. Similar to the reading, I cannot comprehend what instructions/manuals are requesting from me when they simply just use printed word to explain how blah blah blah attaches on to blah blah blah. The use of diagrams in a set of instructions allows me to look initially at what I am trying to create is to end up as, and from there work through the instructions to figure out how I am to create the project.

white and blue instruction guide

References:

  • Jackson, L. (2020, February 13). You should watch everything with subtitles on. The Washington Post. 
  • Mayer, R. (2014). Introduction to Multimedia Learning. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI:10.1017/CBO9781139547369.002