Importance of Learning Environments

Table of Contents

While there is no “one-size-fits-all” format to education, different learning envrionments have best practices.

Reiser (2001) defines instructional media as the “physical means, other than the teacher, chalkboard, and textbook, via which instruction is presented to learners.” Clark (2011) quotes Schwen (1977) defining instructional media as “[m]edia is the plural of medium, which in learning and training environments, is the means of communicating and transferring a learning concept or objective to another individual. Media are the replicable ‘means,’ forms, or vehicles by which instruction is formatted, stored, and delivered to the learner.” Overall, both definitions separate the instructor/educator, primary texts, and tools from media. Reiser (2001) also states that many individuals often equate instructional technology and instructional media. Both definitions provide the basis that instructional media are the supplemental materials and displays of information to align with instructional goals. The instructor conveys the lesson through the selected learning environment and can do so using other media. The primary text provides the basis or material of the course. Reiser’s definition mentions tools as chalk and chalkboard. Other devices can include a pencil and paper and a computer to store information to remember and organize facts. However, the tools can produce and preserve media through replicable means.

Instructors employ many different media forms to help convey instruction: videos, animations, sound recordings, audio-visual presentations, static images, interactive activities, manipulatives, supplemental articles, synchronous conferencing, asynchronous discussion boards, and others to provide replicable means. These selected media need to align with the learning environment and goals or objectives. The use of video and audio recordings and images are present within face-to-face, fully online, and blended classrooms. Interactive activities are also available in these different settings. However, within the fully online learning environment, they are not hands-on or tangible manipulatives. Digital manipulatives or laboratory assignments are interactive media within a predefined set of objectives and parameters.

Although many media in the following list can be used appropriately within the face-to-face or traditional classroom environment, due to the rapid shift to online education because of the COVID-19 pandemic, not all are effective. As stated prior, the primary instructional media are videos, animations, sound recordings, audio-visual presentations, static images, interactive activities, manipulatives, supplemental articles, synchronous conferencing, asynchronous discussion boards, and others. During the “shut-down” or self-isolation of non-essential workers to initially minimize or flatten the curve of the infection spread, the educational environment moved to fully online instruction for all subjects. Subjects traditionally held within the classroom because of their hands-on or interactive nature with laboratory equipment or physical manipulatives needed to replicate the in-person setting online. Locating electronic resources to reproduce these experiences is either not available or takes proper implementation to design effective learning and instruction. However, many courses were able to proceed with minimal disruption to the change in the environment.

Studies utilizing the blended modality already use instructional media within a learning management system for the entire semester. These media consist of supplemental readings, static images, content-rich presentations, videos, audio recordings, and animations. Still, the course will meet in-person for a lesson, guest speaker, or face-to-face discussion. These courses most likely utilized synchronous conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Adobe Connect, Blackboard Collaborate, and others to substitute the physical meeting times. Where guest speakers may not have been available, or students could not attend the synchronous sessions, providing a recording of the live session and asynchronous discussion boards could replace those interactions. The drawback to synchronous sessions came to light with technological constraints, poor connectivity to the internet within the home, a lack of capable devices for all household members, and distraction for family members during instruction times provided evidence that asynchronous learning offers more flexibility.

Entirely online courses were not as impacted as in-person or blended classes. However, because the pandemic placed everyone in the household, learners possibly experienced similar drawbacks with low connectivity to the internet within the home, a lack of capable devices for all household members, and distraction from family members during study times. Also, individuals needed to reestablish work, life, and school balance for an indefinite period.

Besides the disruption the COVID-19 pandemic provided within many’s lives, it also allowed for creativity in the use of Web 2.0 technologies, previously unused methods of communication, and media to convey instruction. Greater empathy between students and educators formed as a result of digital inequities of skill and access. Below is a brief listing of each instructional media and its characteristics and appropriate uses:

• Videos and animations - provide a purely visual presentation of an idea, fact, or relationship without audio. These media can offer quick animated visual reinforcements of the textbook or lesson content, make learning faster, improve engagement, and act as a motivator (F.Learning Studio, 2018). Animated gifs, videos without audio, and moving images can be integrated into PowerPoint presentations, embedded within electronic lesson text, and assessment questions.
• Sound recordings - provide a purely aural representation of a discussion topic, an overview of facts and ideas, be a response in place of text, have music to listen to and interpret, or provide an alternative format for the lesson’s textual content or an announcement. Sound recording files are typically smaller than audio-visual presentations and can be listened to on various devices and within the web browser. This form of media can provide all instructional materials in a meaningful way if adequately described. Sound recordings of famous speeches can help illustrate and give a perspective of the textbook content for history lessons and other non-visually based examples. Gray (2017) notes the following benefits for education, “Flexible Availability - 24 hours a day,” “Students Listen for Longer than They’ll Watch or Read,” “Student Created Content,” “Lecture Review,” “Make up for Missed Classes,” “Consistency of Student Experience,” and “Benefits for Mental and Visual Impairments.”
• Audio-visual presentations - provide both visual and aural channels of engagement. The examples of this type of media can include but are not limited to lecture videos, PowerPoint Presentations, performances, feature films, educational films, video summaries and announcements, peer responses to discussion topics, and peer created audio-visual media for a presentation. The classroom environment’s use varies from screencasting, providing social presence, pen casting, slides, and voiceovers (Chorianopoulous, 2018).
• Static or still images - provide a visual representation or illustration of a concept, person, place, object, data, icon, code, and more. Photos are available within PowerPoint presentations, video presentations, web documents, academic papers, and countless other types of publications and formats. Balm (2014), besides quoting the cliché, “a picture tells a thousand words,” mentions that “a large percent of the human brain dedicates itself to visual processing. Our love of images lies with our cognition and ability to pay attention.” Balm also notes that humans can process images at an alarming speed. Images, as mentioned earlier, can provide visualizations for simple and complex data through graphs and charts. Infographics present related facts in the form of a large and engaging image. Images can show the relationships and comparisons between concepts in a simplistic way. Finally, icons can further reinforce the central idea (by showing a lightbulb, for instance) of a document or provide visual consistency.
• Interactive activities and manipulatives - physical and digital manipulatives and interactive activities help to relate abstract topics such as mathematics, scientific study, engineering, prototyping, and other STEAM educational content. The American Institutes for Research (n.d.) mentions virtual (and physical) manipulatives “[h]elp students understand abstract mathematics concepts, lead to a richer and more complex understanding of concepts, help clarify student misconceptions and build connections between concepts and representations.” Although the article focused on virtual manipulatives for mathematics instruction, the same concepts still apply to anatomy and physiology, engineering, architecture, chemistry, computer science, and other subject areas.
• Supplemental articles - provide outside credibility to the instructional content, materials, and possible other engaging images, audio recordings, and audio-visual presentations. The use of supplementary items can also help students share opinions on current events and trends. Adding these recent event articles into discussion board prompts and face-to-face (in-person or virtual) meetings can increase classroom engagement if guidelines and moderation are available. Morgan (2017) notes that effective supplementary articles should provide “Credibility,” “Fairness,” “Currency,” and come from specific “Types of Sites” like library databases and other credible sources.
• Synchronous conferencing - provide a virtual meeting experience in the virtual space. It can allow individuals within different time zones and other parts of the world to connect into one meeting to discuss ideas, receive an educational lecture, give a presentation to peers, and provide social aspects to the learners' educational experiences. Hooker (2020) outlines some benefits of utilizing Zoom for engaging virtual classroom interactions. The benefits include sharing a virtual whiteboard, sharing the screen, annotating the screen, creating breakout rooms, live polls, and surveys, allowing muted participants to ask questions with the “raise hand” feature and chat with peers instructor, and other creative ideas.
• Asynchronous discussion boards - provide an asynchronous discussion experience for learners. The discussion boards in most learning management systems also allow for the posting of rich media such as images, videos, audio responses, and external links. Lieberman (2019) provides tips from Jesse Stommel to make discussion boards more inclusive, “build a community of care, ask genuine, open-ended questions, wait for answers, let conversation wander, model what it looks like to be wrong and to acknowledge when you’re wrong, recognize that the right to speak isn’t distributed equally, make listening visible.” It is important to provide clear expectations for responding to the discussion board. How to reply, use open-ended and genuine questions, and have the instructor moderate the discussion.

Each of the instructional media listed above can have the potential to increase learning experiences within the educational environment, and each has its benefits. Thus learning to the debate between Clark (1994) and Kozma (1994).

The debate between Richard E. Clark and Robert B. Kozma centered around instructional media and its effectiveness within the educational setting. In brief, Clark (1994) concludes, “media research is a triumph of enthusiasm over substantive examination of structural processes in learning and instruction. Media and their attributes have important influences on the cost or speed of learning but only the use of adequate instructional methods will influence learning.” Kozma (1994) concludes, “I believe that if we move from ‘Do media influence learning?’ to ‘In what ways can we use the capabilities of media to influence learning for particular students, tasks, and situations?’ we will both advance the development of our field and contribute to the restructuring of schools and the improvement of education and training.” Both sides of the argument have merit. Clark does not see the media as having substantial effects on learning. In contrast, Kozma is optimistic about media integration to enhance learning for significant impacts on learning.

Taking a side on this debate, I agree with both authors but lean more to the question Kozma (1994) poses of “In what ways can we use the capabilities of media to influence learning for particular students, tasks, and situations?” I feel we can adequately align instructional media within learning experiences if they are at the audience’s level and provide meaningful reinforcement of tasks, presentations, and situations. I feel this does relate to Clark’s (1994) assertion that media “have important influences on the cost or speed of learning but only the use of adequate instructional methods will influence learning.” Media use needs implementation with intention and purpose, and not added because it is flashy or new. As instructional designers, there is always the search for the right presentation method for content and maintaining learner engagement, motivation, and influence on their learning. Plain text content or plain HTML pages can be useful but not as motivating as documents with images and rich text. I have found videos are engaging and allow quick and impactful messages or materials that address the most critical or exciting aspects of an article. Listening to the presidential or vice-presidential debate provides more information than just reading a text transcript. I feel depending on the content, meaningful alignment to media resources can exist.

References

American Institutes for Research. (n.d.). Using virtual manipulatives to teach math.

Balm, J. (2014, August 11). The power of pictures. How we can use images to promote and communicate science. BioMed Central.

Chorianopoulos, K. (2018, February). A taxonomy of asynchronous instructional video styles. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(1). doi:10.19173/irrodl.v19i1.2920

Clark, D. R. (2011, December 20). Instructional design – Media, strategies, & methods.

Clark, R. E. (1994). Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 21-29. doi:10.1007/bf02299088

F.Learning Studio. (2018, July 13). Pros and cons of animated educational videos (based on science).

Gray, C. (2017, January 24). Podcasting in education: What are the benefits? Learning how podcasting in education can increase accessibility and encourage engagement. The Podcast Host.

Hooker, C. (2020, May 13). 25 strategies to engage students on your next Zoom meeting.

Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2), 7-19. doi:10.1007/bf02299087

Lieberman, M. (2019, March 27). Discussion boards: Valuable? Overused? Discuss. Inside Higher Ed.

Morgan, K. (2017, September 26). Why is credibility of online sources important in education?.

Reiser, R. A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(1), 53-64. doi:10.1007/bf02504506

Schwen, T. (1977). Professional scholarship in educational technology: Criteria for judging inquiry. AV Communication Review, 25(1), 5-24.