e-Learning and the Science of Instruction
This is the text of a review Mary Hinkle has submitted for publication in Teaching Theology and Religion. If accepted, it will be copyrighted property of the journal, and she will seek permission to continue to post it here.
e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. By Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer. San Francisco, CA : Pfeiffer, 2003. xiv + 322 pages. ISBN # 0-7879-6051-9. $40.00.
Both
instructional designers of web-based course content and instructors themselves
will find e-Learning and the Science of Instruction useful. The
authors have gathered research data on the effectiveness for learning of
various web page design elements (navigation, placement of text and graphics,
etc.) and tools for online collaboration (chat, threaded discussion, etc.)
Their presentation of results from research gathered over the last 25 years
is clear, accessible and compelling. Research indicates that certain practices
for designing online courses and organizing content work better than others.
This book recommends a collection of successful online course design principles
and offers evidence from cognitive learning theory for why those principles
are successful.
Mayer and Clark expect their book to be used by trainers and Human Resources personnel more than professors or instructional designers in higher education. Yet their approach to what they call training is so delightfully broad—encompassing how to foster problem-solving skills using an online curriculum, for example—that professors and academic instructional designers will find the principles and research summaries useful for their course planning and web design.
The authors begin by distinguishing between three types of learning goals. I include here examples from my own field. Learning goal types are: (1) to inform (e.g., reviewing the development of the canon), (2) to perform a certain procedural skill, also called "near transfer" (e.g., using a synopsis to compare gospel accounts) and (3) to perform a certain principle-based skill that does not have one correct approach or outcome, called "far transfer" (e.g., basing a sermon on a particular biblical text). Good web course design begins with an understanding of what the instructor wants to do in the course in terms of (1) offering information and facilitating both (2) near transfer and (3) far transfer in skill development.
Chapter two offers an overview of cognitive theory concerning how people learn, rehearse, retain and retrieve information. As the chapter title suggests, all of this theory is related directly to "How People Learn in e-Courses." The general conclusion is that "less is more" (38). The potential for cognitive overload and opportunities for distraction are high in a hyperlinked learning environment. Many of the principles from Clark and Mayer focus on how to build an e-learning environment that encourages learner choice and collaboration while limiting access to extraneous material and eliminating convoluted paths through a lesson or a course.
Chapters three through eight are dedicated to several e-learning principles. Many of these sound like common sense: "Place corresponding words and graphics near each other." "Use conversational style and virtual coaches." Successful teachers could likely guess these principles based on classroom experience and intuition. Yet having these principles—as well as summaries of research data on which they are based—in one reference book can streamline the task of designing a course for the web.
The most helpful part of the book for those in higher education who are moving classroom-based courses to the web will likely be the chapters on designing collaborative activities and building problem-solving skills in a web-based environment. In "Learning Together on the Web," the authors describe four standard models for collaboration in learning, demonstrating how they can be implemented in web-based courses. Jigsaw discussions, structured controversy (or debate), problem-based learning and peer tutoring are all adapted for use online. The chapter on teaching problem-solving skills offers ideas for making explicit the "typically invisible monitoring and revising processes" (259) that experts in a field go through as they approach a problem they much solve or an idea whose merit they must evaluate. By providing worked examples within the web content of a course and by requiring learners to reflect on their own problem-solving process in a weblog or on a message board, web course design fosters those problem-solving skills that are unique to the course's field of study.
e-Learning and the Science of Instruction is not a "how to" book for getting a web course up and running. (George M. Piskurich's Rapid Instructional Design: Learning ID Fast and Right [ San Francisco : Jossey Bass/Pfeiffer, 2000] would be a better choice for those who want a systematic way to design and plan a course, whether it is web- or classroom-based.) The volume from Clark and Mayer is not the only one you will need to consult as you create lively e-learning experiences, but it will be a valuable asset in any such effort. e-Learning and the Science of Instruction offers clear, practical and empirically verified guidelines and techniques for creating interactive and learner-centered course materials for the web.
Mary E. Hinkle
Luther Seminary
St. Paul, MN 55108