STUDYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ANIMATION AND GRAPHICS WITH TEXT ON FOURTH, FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADERS by Sushma Jolly A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Masters of Arts Major: Curriculum & Instruction Under the Supervision of Professor David W Brooks Lincoln, Nebraska December 2003 STUDYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ANIMATIONS AND GRAPHICS WITH TEXT ON FOURTH, FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADERS Sushma Jolly, M.A University of Nebraska, 2003 Adviser: David W Brooks This study evaluates the degree to which computer animation contributes toward learning With the increasing usability of computers, and everyday usage in life, it is important to know how computers can develop children’s interest in discovering the created knowledge through animated simulations in computer-based environments This is an “experimental” study with the primary purpose of exploring the effectiveness of animations-with-text compared to graphics-with-text in comprehending scientific knowledge on fourth, fifth and sixth grade students This study attempts to capture the difference in the amount of information that was learned by a participant by quizzing them on the information presented to them The subjects were fourth, fifth and sixth grade students visiting the Butterfly Pavilion at the Folsom Children’s Zoo Lincoln, Nebraska The instructional topic used for both the treatments was the Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly The content of the animation-with-text group was delivered in electronic media in form of animations embedded with text, and the content of the graphics-with-text group was delivered in paper-based format in the form of graphicswith-text In both groups each student received a pretest and posttest, which identified the differences in recall, inference and comprehension levels of the scientific concept taught through the two different treatments It was hypothesized that there would be significant learning gains in the animation-with-text group as compared with the graphics-with-text group The results were analyzed using ANOVA In the animation-with-text group, pre and posttest scores show a statistically significant difference with the mean values of 5.5 and 7.1 respectively In the graphic-with-text group pre and post scores show a statistically significant difference with means of 5.1 and 7.1 respectively The above implies that there was a significant difference in the measure of pretreatment knowledge level to post-treatment knowledge level The means of posttest of animation-with text as compared to graphics-with-text group posttest scores were 7.1 and 7.1 respectively Therefore no significant differences in the performance level of the students in two groups were reported iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to all the people who helped guide me through my program I would like to first thank the members of my masters committee: Thank you all for your helpful advice and wise counsel Special thanks to my advisor Dr David Brooks, for his firm support, guidance, valuable suggestions, helpful discussions and for creating the motivation for all the students who participated in the study Thank you for arranging the study at the Zoo and the train ride tickets I am grateful to Dr Tiffany Heng-Moss for giving me an expert advice on the instructional material for the study and for generously giving her time and talent My deepest regards and thanks are also extended to Dr Margaret Latta for consenting to serve on my thesis committee I am grateful to Mimi Wickless, Education Director of the Folsom Childrens’ Zoo, for permitting us to conduct the study at the Zoo Thank you for making my research possible I owe all the volunteers Deana Namuth, Leah Sandall, Marjorie Bisbee, Patricia Hein, Sydney Brown, and Tom Gardner who graciously took their time on a Labor Day weekend and helped me collect the data at the Zoo Finally, I wish to thank my husband, Ashu, who has encouraged and supported me through out my degree program I would also like to thank my parents, Santosh and Parduman, who always have motivated and instilled persistence to go ahead for higher education v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT Page ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES viii I INTRODUCTION Context of Study Effects of combining visuals with text Cognitive processes involved in learning Purpose of the Study Significance of the Study Statement of Problem Research Questions Definition of Terms 10 II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 11 What are Visual Representations? 11 Previous Research on Visual Representations 12 Effect of Visual Representation on Human Cognitive System 26 Mayer’s Principles 32 Research on Dual Modality 33 Research on Computer Based Instruction 34 vi III METHOD 37 General Overview 37 Hypotheses 39 Variables and Measures 39 Population & Sample 40 Treatment 43 Limitations 44 Experimental Site Description 45 Tools and Technology Used 45 Instructional Material Development Process 48 IV RESULTS 69 Analysis 69 Hypothesis 70 Analysis Summary 72 Explanation of Results 73 V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 76 REFERENCES 79 APPENDIX A UNL IRB Approval Letter 86 APPENDIX B Consent Forms 88 APPENDIX C Pretest & Posttest 92 APPENDIX D Paper-Base Instruction 97 APPENDIX E Computer-Base Instruction (Animation Printout) 103 vii APPENDIX F Animation Storyboard 134 viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 2.1 Mayer’s three views of multimedia 16 Table 2.2 Graphics method for teaching content types 18 Figure 2.1 Use of a screen capture for procedure lesson 19 Figure 2.2 Use of mouse over to illustrate the URL 20 Figure 2.3 Screen capture of animation illustrating regeneration of plants from tissue culture 21 Figure 2.4 Principle of herbicide intake by leaf 22 Figure 2.5 Graphics as topic organizers 23 Figure 2.6 Animation of chlorophyll molecule capturing light energy 24 Figure 2.7 Animated graphical interface 25 Figure 2.8 Intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load 28 Figure 2.9 A dual code model of multimedia learning 31 Figure 3.1 Participant group age distribution 41 Figure 3.2 Participant population distribution 41 Figure 3.3 Participant population distribution 42 Table 3.1 Participants demographics 42 Table 3.2 Treatment groups 43 Figure3.4 The experiment 43 Figure3.5 A picture of a drawing tablet 46 Table 3.3 The characteristics of organisms 50 Table 3.4 Life cycle of organisms 51 ix Table 3.5 Organisms and their environment 52 Table 3.6 Content specifics and objectives for the instruction set 54 Table 3.7 Objectives of instruction set 55 Figure 3.6 Storyboard sketch (Finding a place to lay eggs) 56 Figure 3.7 Storyboard sketch (Metamorphosis) 57 Figure 3.8 Storyboard sketch (Eggs hatching) 58 Figure 3.9 Screen Capture of flash animation (Finding a place to lay eggs) 59 Figure 3.10 Screen Capture of flash animation (Metamorphosis) 60 Figure 3.11 Screen Capture of flash animation (Eggs hatching) 61 Table 3.8 Important content topics and anticipated time 62 Figure3.12 Image scan of paper based instruction (Page 1) 64 Figure 3.13 Image scan of paper based instruction (Page 2) 65 Figure 3.14 Image scan of paper based instruction (Page 3) 66 Figure 4.1 Scatter plot for the pretest and posttest scores for two groups Figure 4.2 Means and Tukey plots for the pretest and posttest scores for two groups Figure 4.3 70 71 Box-and-Whisker plots for the pretest and posttest scores for two groups 71 Table 4.1 Summary Statistics for Scores 72 Table 4.2 ANOVA Table for Scores by Group 72 x Table 4.3 Multiple Range Tests for Scores by Group 72 Table 4.4 Multiple Range Tests for Scores by Group 73 Table 4.5 Variance Check 73 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 ... PROBLEM The primary purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of animations and graphics with text on students’ learning Therefore, the study examined whether the animations -with- text. .. self explanatory with the aid of animations and text as compared with static graphics and text The animations with text create a cross referential connection between verbal and visual codes Studies... explanation answers, number each stage of the life cycle, and fill in the blank The instrument compared the effectiveness of animations -with- text and graphics- with- text on learning by measuring the