In cooperation with physic educators from LMU eight video-based learning tasks on electrical circuits were created. The learners applied concepts of electrical circuits and transferred given circuits into others forms of representation. The learners were supported by auditory or visual cues (see figure below). The auditory cues contained verbal explanations and references, the visual cues contained textual explanations in rectangular boxes with arrows to the respective elements in the circuits mentioned. The gaze behavior of the learners was recorded while working on the learning tasks.
Presentation of a learning task with auditory cues (left) and visual cues (right).
What has been examined?
Three questions have been investigated in the project:
- The effect of auditory and visual cues
In an experimental study design, it was investigated which of the two learning settings proves to be useful when dealing with complex representations. The effect of auditory and visual cues on learning outcome (recall and transfer) was analyzed. Furthermore, prior knowledge and the different types of cognitive load were incorporated.
- The influence of prior knowledge
Eye tracking was used to examine how learners with different levels of prior knowledge worked on the electrical circuits. A qualitative analysis of eye movements provided insights.
- Cue utilization
Cue utilization was in our research interest as well. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of eye movements provided insights to the use of visual cues of learners with different levels of prior knowledge.