PROCEEDINGS OF E-LEARN 2003, pp1036-1037
Computer-Animations In Education: The Impact Of Graphical Quality (3D / 2D) And Signals Thomas Huk Learning Lab Lower Saxony, Germany
[email protected] Christian Floto Institute of Social Sciences, Technical University Braunschweig IWF Knowledge and Media, Göttingen, Germany
[email protected] Abstract: The present study compares the educational value of 2D and 3D-animations and the possible impact of graphical quality on the instructional importance of signals. The results of this study revealed an educational superiority of signaled animations whereas significant differences in learning outcome between 2D and 3D-animations could not be detected.
Introduction The impact of signals in multimedia presentation formats has come only recently into the focus of educational scientific research (Craig et al., 2002; Huk, Steinke, & Floto, 2003; Mautone & Mayer, 2001). Previous research showed that cues can be helpful (Huk et al., 2003). The present paper expands this research area while focusing on the educational value of signals in dependence of graphical quality (2D-, 3D-appearance). Commercial e-learning tools show an enhanced tendency to incorporate 3D-animations although their production is rather costly as compared to the productions of 2D-animations. However, empirical studies investigating educational benefits of 3Dappearance are scarce (e.g. Garg et al. 1999). The present paper will therefore experimentally address the question whether the educational power of 2D and 3D-animations is similar or not.
Material and Methods The present study has been performed during the education of 84 students of biology. It was carried out with four different versions of an animation which explains function and structure of the enzyme ATP-Synthase. Narration was the same in all versions and was created according to the contiguity principle (Mayer, 2001), i.e. a high synchronization of pictorial and verbal information. The versions had the same duration of about 3 minutes and 8 seconds and differ solely in their visual instructional design properties. The instructional design of the four versions of the animation was varied in order to allow an experimental investigation with a 2x2 factorial approach. The first factor in our experiments was inclusion/exclusion of visual signals. These cues consisted of additive elements that were presented synchronously with the narration, i.e. highlighting and/or visualization of technical terms. The second factor focused on the graphical appearance: Two animations offered a three-dimensional view, while the other two versions had been created with a two-dimensional appearance by shifting the camera angle and elimination of any shade properties responsible for three-dimensional visual appearance. Before presenting the educational material domain specific knowledge was evaluated by paper and pencil tests and served as a covariate for statistical analyses, since prior knowledge has an impact on learning efficiency and picture processing (Mayer, 2001). Afterwards, students were divided randomly into four groups. Each group watched one version of the animation described above via video-projector. Environmental (e.g. classroom surrounding, time of day) and technical circumstances (i.e. hard- and software) were similar in each group. After watching the animation, students had to fill out a post test evaluating learning outcome. Understanding and knowledge acquisition was assessed by twelve questions.
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Results and Discussion In line with previous studies (e.g. Huk et al. 2003), the inclusion of signals into the animation led to significantly enhanced learning outcomes (Fig. 1, ANOVA, factor signals, F1,79=4.84, p=0.031). This positive effect held true if signals were embedded into the 2D-animation as well as into the 3D-animation (Fig. 1, ANOVA signals*graphical quality, F1,78=1.22, p=0.272).
Figure 1: Learning efficiency of students after watching one version of the animation of the ATP-Synthase. Numbers in the columns represent the sample size of students participating.
3D-animations are an important factor in production costs of commercial educational software. Nevertheless, empirical studies evaluating the educational value are scarce. The data of the present study showed that the educational value of a 2D- and 3D-animation were rather similar (Fig. 1, ANOVA, factor graphical appearance, F1,79=1.22 p=0.555). This result is in line with the study of Garg et al. (1999) who investigated the importance of virtual 3D-models for learning in anatomy. Our results indicate that the creation of 2D-animations should be preferred in educational software since their educational power is similar to 3D-animations but allows easier, faster and cheaper production. However, further studies will be carried out in order to investigate whether a superiority of one format occurs for specific user groups if learner characteristics will be taken into account.
References Craig, S. D., Gholson, B., & Driscoll, D. M. (2002). Animated pedagogical agents in multimedia educational environments: Effects of agent properties, picture features, and redundancy. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 428-434. Garg, A., Norman, G., Spero, L., & Taylor, I. (1999). Learning anatomy: do new computer models improve spatial understanding? Medical Teacher, 21 (5), 519-522. Huk, T., Steinke, M., & Floto, C. (2003a). Helping teachers developing computer animations for improving learning in science education. Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, International Conference Annual, Albuquerque. 3022-3025. Mautone, P. D., & Mayer, R. E. (2001). Signaling as a cognitive guide in multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93 (2), 377-389. Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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