General Methods of Teaching-6400/1+2-AIOU solved

Assignment No. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKjMEm3IGQM

Q.1 Give answer to the following short questions:           (5x4=20)

i. The personal and professional qualities of teachers.

Ans:A great teacher is one a student remembers and cherishes forever. Teachers have long-lasting impacts on the lives of their students, and the greatest teachers inspire students toward greatness. To be successful, a great teacher must have:

An Engaging Personality and Teaching Style
A great teacher is very engaging and holds the attention of students in all discussions.
Clear Objectives for Lessons
A great teacher establishes clear objectives for each lesson and works to meet those specific objectives during each class.
Effective Discipline Skills
A great teacher has effective discipline skills and can promote positive behaviors and change in the classroom.
Good Classroom Management Skills
A great teacher has good classroom management skills and can ensure good student behavior, effective study and work habits, and an overall sense of respect in the classroom.
Good Communication with Parents
A great teacher maintains open communication with parents and keeps them informed of what is going on in the classroom as far as curriculum, discipline, and other issues. They make themselves available for phone calls, meetings, and email.
High Expectations
A great teacher has high expectations of their students and encourages everyone to always work at their best level.
Knowledge of Curriculum and Standards
A great teacher has thorough knowledge of the school's curriculum and other standards they must uphold in the classroom. They ensure their teaching meets those standards.
Knowledge of Subject Matter
This may seem obvious, but is sometimes overlooked. A great teacher has incredible knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject matter they are teaching. They are prepared to answer questions and keep the material interesting for the students.
Passion for Children and Teaching
A great teacher is passionate about teaching and working with children. They are excited about influencing students' lives and understand the impact they have.
Strong Rapport with Students
A great teacher develops a strong rapport with students and establishes trusting relationships.

ii. What is a case method?

Ans: The case method is a teaching approach that uses decision-forcing cases to put students in the role of people who were faced with difficult decisions at some point in the past. In sharp contrast to many other teaching methods, the case method requires that instructors refrain from providing their own opinions about the decisions in question. Rather, the chief task of instructors who use the case method is asking students to devise and defend solutions to the problems at the heart of each case

iii. Define and compare active learning and cooperative learning.

Ans:Active learning is any teaching method that gets students actively involved; cooperative learning is one variety of active learning which structures students into groups with defined roles for each student and a task for the group to accomplish

iv. What is lesson planning? Write down the five merits of lesson planning for the teachers.

Ans:A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction, or 'learning trajectory' for a lesson.Lessons that are well planned are more likely to help students and teachers...

• Avoid frustrations and unpleasant surprises
• Stay on track
• Achieve their objectives

Lesson planning also allows the teacher to visualize (and, therefore, better prepare for) every step of the teaching process in advance. Lesson plans also provide a record that allows good, reflective teachers to go back, analyze their own teaching (what went well, what didn't), and then improve on it in the future. In addition, this record will save you time in the future. When you teach similar lessons you can refer back to your old lesson plan (kept on file) and "recycle" the successful elements (instead of starting "from scratch").

v. Define the term inquiry approach, enlist the methods that come under the umbrella of this approach.

Ans:“Inquiry-based learning is an umbrella term, encompassing a range of teaching approaches which involve stimulating learning with a question or issue and thereby engaging learners in constructing new knowledge and understandings.

Inquiry-based learning can be done in multiple formats, including:

• Field-work
• Case studies
• Investigations
• Individual and group projects
• Research projects

Q.2 Define and explain the concept of effective teaching. Highlight the principles of effective teaching.            (20)

Ans:The term “teaching effectiveness” had its heyday in the 80s and early 90s during that period when so much work on student ratings was being done. Its connection to evaluation activities remains and even end-of-course ratings are often thought of as measures of teaching effectiveness. Given its continuing importance, it is a term we should regularly revisit.

Definitions for teaching effectiveness abound, which makes it difficult to identify any one as definitive. We’ve defined it by asking those concerned (teachers, students, and administrators) what the term means to them. Here are some examples of how we’ve asked and what’s been answered. When asked to list in order of importance the three most important abilities, students, teachers, and administrators agreed on the same three — cultivate thinking skills, stimulate interest in the subject, and motivate students to learn — but not in the same order.

A few principles of effective teaching are as follows.

Activate Learning
Make sure your students are engaged in the learning process by having them participate at every level of the process. Rarely should teaching be just lecture.

Multiple Methods
Make sure to repeat key concepts in several different medias or venues. Students learn at different paces and through different means. Material should be presented rhetorically, visually and in writing for the most effective learning.

Cooperation
Cooperation between students is as important as the relationship between the teacher and the student. Often, students working in collaboration can work out concepts that may not have come across in a teacher-dominated setting.

Command Respect
While a good relationship depends on mutual consideration, the teacher should command attention and respect. Learning is more effective when the teacher is seen as an authoritative source of information and structure.

Deadlines
Students, and people in general, often enjoy boundaries more than seems obvious. Frequent and precise deadlines, even for multiple stages of a single project, will help students produce real progress.

Feedback
Returning information beyond just a grade can help students more effectively process feedback and improve on subsequent assignments. Evaluation of past effort cements what was learned.

High Expectations
Keeping high expectations for every student, regardless of past performance, is an important part of driving learning forward. Let them know what you expect up front, then help them amend their work until they achieve it.

Q.3 What is Gange s’ frame work for instructional development?                   (20)

According to Robert Gagné (1985) there are nine events that provide a framework for an effective learning process:

The Nine Steps

1. Gain attention:  This can be thought of as a interest device or teaser, such as the short segment often shown in a TV program right before the opening credits that keeps you watching the program. The ideal is to grab the learners' attention so that they will become involved in the learning process. You can use such interest devices as:

• Storytelling
• Demonstrations
• Presenting a problem to be solved
• Identifying why it is important to them

Wick, Pollock, Jefferson, and Flanagan (2006) describe how the research also supports extending the interest device into the workplace in order to increase performance when the learners apply their new skills to the job. 

2. Provide a Learning Objective: This allows the learners to organize their thoughts on what they will learn and perform. There is an old saying among presentation professionals to tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and finally tell them what you told them. This works by helping to cue the learner on the goals of the instruction and how they will be able to use their new skills in the workplace.

 Learning Objectives are normally designed for the instructional designers and trainers, rather than the learners, thus they must be transformed into a more causal language.

3. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge: This allows the learners to use two important learning processes:

• Retrieval Practice: Retrieval enhances learning by retrieval-specific mechanisms rather than by elaborative study processes and is an effective tool to promote conceptual learning (Butler, 2010; Karpicke, Janell, 2011) .
• Scaffolding is building upon the learners' previous knowledge and skills.

Taking practice tests allows learners to retrieve and reconstruct their knowledge. Remembering information we are organizing allows us to create patterns, cues, and connections that our brains can recognize.

Scaffolding is the support that a skilled performer gives her apprentices in carrying out a task (Collins, Brown, Holum, 1991). It is accomplished by building upon the student's prior learning. The basic steps of scaffolding include:

1. Start by building on what the learners already know
2. Add more details and information over a period of time
3. Allowing the learners to perform on their own
4. Afterwards, the fading process begins by slowly removing the support in order to give the learners more responsibility.

In addition, part of stimulating recall is having the learners take notes and drawing mind maps. Learning is enhanced by encouraging the use of graphic representations when taking notes (mind or concept maps). 

4. Present the material: Sequence and chunk the information to avoid cognitive overload. Blend the information to aid in information recall. This is directly related to Skinner's sequenced learning events by allowing the learners to receive feedback on individualized tasks, thereby correcting isolated problems rather than having little idea of where the root of the learning challenge lies. Bloom's Taxonomy and Learning Strategies can be used to help sequence the lesson by helping you chunk them into levels of difficulty.

5. Provide guidance for learning: Provide coaching on how to learn the skill. The rate of learning increases because learners are less likely to lose time and become frustrated by practicing the wrong way or using poorly understood concepts. Coaching the learners to learn-to-learn also has the benefit of helping them to gain metacognitive skills that will aid them with future performance initiatives.

6. Elicit performance: Practice by letting the learner do something with the newly acquired behavior, skills, or knowledge.

In addition, demonstrate as required (modeling). Albert Bandura (1997) noted that observational learning may or may not involve imitation. For example if you see someone driving in front of you hit a pothole, and then you swerve to miss it, you learned from observational learning, not imitation (if you learned from imitation then you would also hit the pothole). What you learned was the information you processed cognitively and then acted upon. Observational learning is much more complex than simple imitation.

Q.4 Why is outlining of goals/objectives necessary before planning a lesson? How are objectives stated in behavioral terms?          (20)

A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting.  Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:

• Objectives for student learning
• Teaching/learning activities
• Strategies to check student understanding

Specifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished (see Fig

Learning objectives tell students what is important

Without learning objectives it is difficult for students to know what they are supposed to be learning. In a lecture, a teacher can talk extensively about a case, but unless she states explicitly, it can be difficult for the students to know where to direct their attention. 

Learning objectives enable good assessment development

Each year as we wrote our assessments we would go through the learning objectives and make sure they were assessed.  This way the assessment was fair and applied to the course. 

Learning objectives encourage reflection and good course design and development

As instructors write and review the learning objectives in a course, they can identify the level of learning that is specified in each. At an entry-level course, it is acceptable to have a number of lower level learning objectives.

 assessment drives learning

 students will learn what is assessed, and nothing else. When we write exams we are also writing learning materials for future students. One of the most common ways to prepare for an assessment is to do exercises from previous assessments.

Information promotes equity and reduces unnecessary stress

The use of learning objectives can help reduce the “gaming” aspects that can proliferate in the absence of clear information. 

Q.5 Define and describe the term motivation. What are different types of motivation? Discuss in detail.      (20)

Definition:

 “Motivation is defined as an internal drive that activates behavior and gives it direction. The term motivation theory is concerned with the processes that describe why and how human behavior is activated and directed” 

 types of motivation

There are many different theories of motivation. In Educational Psychology, we focus specifically on motivation for learning rather than for behavior. The major types of motivation for learning are intrinsic and extrinsic

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from within the student or from factors inherent in the task being performed. For example, students who love to read are intrinsically motivated to read - there is something about reading that they enjoy and that makes them want to do it even if there is no "reward" for it.

Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation comes from sources external to the student and the task. It can come through praise, recognition, or a system of rewards. For example, for students who do not enjoy reading, a token economy involving stickers or a class store may prompt them to read more often.

As teachers, we hope to promote intrinsic motivation in our students as it encourages life-long learning. It is difficult to encourage intrinsic motivation all of the time, however, especially because we spend over 900 hours per year in the classroom. Some strategies for promoting intrinsic motivation include arousing interest in the subject matter, maintaining curiosity, using a variety of interesting presentation modes, and helping students set their own goals. A number of other strategies such as student choice, demonstrating the relevance or usefulness of content, and collaboration can also help encourage intrinsic motivation.

We will sometimes need to use extrinsic motivators, as well. Be sure to use them only when the task is uninteresting to students, and make sure that the motivators are contingent on performance and recognize competence. Extrinsic motivators can also help to develop intrinsic motivation.

 Assignment No. 2

Q.1 What is an activity? Discuss the importance of activity method. Name different types of activities you would use in teaching English.      (20)

Ans  Activity method is a technique adopted by a teacher to emphasize his or her method of teaching through activity in which the students participate rigorously and bring about efficient learning experiences. It is a child-centered   approach. It is a method in which the child is actively involved in participating mentally and physically. Learning by doing is the main focus in this method. 

 Importance of activity method

The information processing theory in psychology views learners as active investigators of their environment. This theory is grounded in the premise that people innately strive to make sense of the world around them.

In the process of learning, they experience, memorize and understand. Students need to be provided with data and materials necessary to focus their thinking and interaction in the lesson for the process of analyzing the information. Teachers need to be actively involved in directing and guiding the students’ analysis of the information.

It requires active problem solving by students in finding patterns in the information through their own investigation and analysis. With continued practice in these processes, students learn not the content of the lesson but also develop many other skills.

·         It enhances creative aspect of experience.

·         It gives reality for learning.

·         Uses all available resources.

·         Provides varied experiences to the students to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, experience, skills and values.

·         Builds the student’s self-confidence and develops understanding through work in his/her group.

·         Gets experiences, develop interest, enriches vocabulary and provides stimulus for reading.

·         Develops happy relationship between students and students, teachers and students.

·         An activity is said to be the language of the child. A child who lacks in verbal expression can make up through use of ideas in the activity.

·         Subjects of all kind can be taught through activity.

·         Social relation provides opportunity to mix with others.

Kinds of activities:

The activities used in this strategy can be generalized under three main categories:

·         Exploratory     -           gathering knowledge, concept and skill.

·         Constructive    -           getting experience through creative works.

·         Expressional    –          presentations.

The Activities you could focus on:-

Experiencing:

• watching, observing, comparing, describing, questioning, discussing, investigating, reporting, collecting, selecting, testing, trying, listening, reading, drawing, calculating, imitating, modeling, playing, acting, taking on roles, talking, writing about what one can see, hear, feel, taste, experimenting and imagining.

Memorizing:

• Sequencing ordering, finding regularities and patterns, connect with given knowledge, use different modes of perception, depict.

Understanding:

• Structuring, ordering, classifying, constructing, solving, planning, predicting, transferring, applying knowledge, formulating ones individual understanding, interpreting, summarizing, evaluating, judging, explaining and teaching.

Organizing activities:

• The process of organizing activities must be based on curricular aims bringing together the needs, ideas, interests and characteristics of the children with the knowledge, skill, experience, and personality of the teacher within a given environment. The extent to which the teacher works with students individually or in groups affect the relation the teacher has with each child.

Steps required for Effective Organization of Activities.

a.       Planning.

b.      Involving children in the learning process.

c.       Each child is made an active learner.

d.      For each activity ensure you follow the principles of:-

• What?
• How? Work directions step by step, including:
• With whom? Where? How long?
• What after?

e.       Ensure you give clear instructions before each activity. It must focus on the above a, b, c, d.

Role of a Teacher in an Activity Based Method

• A planner, an organizer and evaluator.
• Facilitator.
• Decision maker.
• Knowledge imparter
• Disciplinarian
• 
  

Q.2 Analyze the effectiveness of guided discussion method. Explain the structure of guided discussion method.

Ans

The guided discussion pedagogy is an active learning technique which offers many benefits to your students. Guided discussion exposes students to a variety of diverse perspectives, helps them recognize and investigate their assumptions, improves listening and conversation skills, fosters connection to a topic, and affirms students as co-creators of knowledge. 

Effectivenessof guided discussion method

The following list provides a useful framework for teachers to use in assessing participation in class discussions:
 • Initiating: proposing tasks or procedures, defining problems, identifying action steps
 • Eliciting: requesting information, inviting reactions, and soliciting ideas.
 • Informing: offering information, expressing reactions, and stating facts.
 • Blocking: introducing irrelevancies, changing the subject, questioning others' competence. 
• Entrenching: expressing cynicism, posing distractions, digging in.
 • Clarifying: clearing up confusions, restating others' contributions, and suggesting alternative ways of seeing problems or issues.
 • Clouding: creating confusion, claiming that words can't "really" be defined, remaining willfully puzzled, quibbling over semantic distinctions, obscuring issues.
 • Summarizing: pulling together related ideas, offering conclusions, stating implications of others' contributions. • Interpreting: calling attention to individual actions and what they mean
. • Consensus proposing: asking whether the group is nearing a decision, suggesting a conclusion for group agreement. 
• Consensus resisting: persisting in a topic or argument after others have decided or lost interest, going back over old ground, finding endless details that need attention.
 • Harmonizing: trying to reconcile disagreements, joking at the right time to reduce tensions, encouraging inactive members.
 • Disrupting: interfering with the work of the group, trying to increase tensions, making jokes as veiled insults or threats.
 • Evaluating: asking whether the group is satisfied with the proceedings or topic, pointing out implicit or explicit standards the group is using, suggesting alternative tasks and practices.

Structure of guided discussion method

Clarify the objective of the discussion: 
what the topic is and the ground rules (e.g., everyone's contributions will be valued;
a wide range of points of view will be expressed, try to understand points of view different from your own). 
Frame several thought-provoking starter questions to begin the discussion. 
Do not be caught with nothing to say. 
The teacher's role is to facilitate the discussion. 
Try to bring reluctant members into the discussion with encouraging questions.
This means carefully monitoring the discussion and the amount of speaking time each individual is using. 
Take steps to ensure that one or two people do not dominate the discussion. 
This combination of encouragement and knowing how and when to limit discussion takes skill and practice. 
Be prepared to clarify remarks, but refrain from injecting your own point of view. 
Commit to hearing and paraphrasing the students' contributions. 
Summarize the discussion at the end, but be sure that the summary reflects the diverse viewpoints presented. Ask for more information to help clarify or make the response more specific: "Can you give me an example?" or "What exactly do you mean?"
 • Restate what you have heard. Also called paraphrasing, this technique lets the participant know that her or his ideas have been heard correctly or gives her or him the opportunity to correct misunderstandings. It also serves to encourage the speaker to expand on any point made.
• Use questions to introduce larger issues and develop critical thinking: "Can we take this one step further?;" "What solutions do you think might solve this problem?;" "How does this relate to what we have learned about..?;" "What are the differences between ... ?;" "How does this relate to your own experience?;" "What do you think causes .... ?;" "What are the implications of .... ?"
• Accept controversial answers to create an atmosphere of open inquiry and debate. Encourage learners to assess and evaluate each other's solutions. Ask the same question of several participants to elicit a range of responses. 
• Use open-ended questions (those that can't be easily answered with a simple yes or no) to encourage participants to provide longer, more thoughtful answers. Try not to answer your own questions. Avoid rhetorical questions or those that have an obvious answer: "Don't you think that ... ?" Try instead to make a statement and invite a reaction: "[Someone] thinks that.... What do you think?" Encourage learners to share knowledge and experience based in their cultures, without asking them to be spokespersons for that culture. Ask learners to share a "critical incident" from their own lives that relates to the topic. Look for non-verbal cues. If someone seems perplexed, try: "You seem puzzled, "You seem to feel differently, what is your point of view?" If she or he seems angry, try: "Could you give us an idea of what you are disagreeing with?"
• To help your participants look at their ability to participate in group discussions, you might ask one of the students to keep track and provide feedback on the process. Have them look at these factors: Who talks? For how long? How often? Whom do people look at when they talk: individuals, the group, nobody? Who talks after whom, or who interrupts whom?

Q.3 Define the terms “Evaluation” and “Students Evaluation”. Highlight the importance of students’ evaluation.Answer:-

Evaluation: Evaluation is a systematic determination of a subject’s merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, project or any other intervention or initiative to assess any aim, realizable concept/proposal, or any alternative, to help in decision-making; or to ascertain the degree of achievement or value in regard to the aim and objectives and results of any such action that has been completed. The primary purpose of evaluation, in addition to gaining insight into prior or existing initiatives, is to enable reflection and assist in the identification of future change. Evaluation is often used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice, foundations, non-profit organizations, government, health care, and other human services. It is long term and done at the end of a period of time.
STUDENTS EVALUATION IN AIOU SOLVED ASSIGNMENT 2 CODE 8601 AUTUMN 2016
STUDENTS EVALUATION:-
Student evaluation is an assessment by learners of the service provided by the institution, be it solely of the classroom experience or of all aspects of the learning experience. In some countries, such as the United States and Canada, ‘student evaluation’ has the same meaning as assessment of students’ learning.
IMPORTANCE OF STUDENTS’ EVALUATION:-
Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding. Assessment inspire us to ask these hard questions: “Are we teaching what we think we are teaching?” “Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning?” “Is there a way to teach the subject better, thereby promoting better learning?” Today’s students need to know not only the basic reading and arithmetic skills, but also skills that will allow them to face a world that is continually changing. They must be able to think critically, to analyze, and to make inferences. Changes in the skills base and knowledge our students need require new learning goals; these new learning goals change the relationship between assessment and instruction. Teachers need to take an active role in making decisions about the purpose of assessment and the content that is being assessed. When assessment works best, it does the following:-

PROVIDES DIAGNOSTIC FEEDBACK:-
• What is the student’s knowledge base?
• What is the student’s performance base?
• What are the student’s needs?
• What has to be taught?

HELPS EDUCATORS SET STANDARDS:-
• What performance demonstrates understanding?
• What performance demonstrates knowledge?
• What performance demonstrates mastery?

EVALUATES PROGRESS:-
• How is the student doing?
• What teaching methods or approaches are most effective?
• What changes or modifications to a lesson are needed to help the student?

RELATES TO A STUDENT’S PROGRESS:-
• What has the student learned?
• Can the student talk about the new knowledge?
• Can the student demonstrate and use the new skills in other projects?

MOTIVATES PERFORMANCE:-
For student self-evaluation:-
• Now that I’m in charge of my learning, how am I doing?
• Now that I know how I’m doing, how can I do better?
• What else would I like to learn?

FOR TEACHER SELF-EVALUATION:-
• What is working for the students?
• What can I do to help the students more?
• In what direction should we go next?

Q.4 Describe the purpose of teaching tools and how many types of teaching tools are used in the classrooms?                   (20)

Teaching Tools

The world is full of resources you can use to enrich the classroom experience, and you probably have some personal favourites already.
As we all know that today's age is the age of science and technology. The teaching learning programs have also been affected by it. The process of teaching - learning depends upon the different type of equipment available in the classroom.
purpose of teaching tools
 1) Every individual has the tendency to forget. Proper use of teaching aids helps to retain more concepts permanently.
 2) Students can learn better when they are motivated properly through different teaching aids.
 3) Teaching aids develop the proper image when the students see, hear taste and smell properly.
 4) Teaching aids provide complete example for conceptual thinking.
 5) The teaching aids create the environment of interest for the students.
 6) Teaching aids helps to increase the vocabulary of the students.
 7) Teaching aids helps the teacher to get sometime and make learning permanent.
 8) Teaching aids provide direct experience to the students.
 Types of Teaching Aids
There are many aids available these days. We may classify these aids as follows-
 Visual Aids
 Audio Aids
 Audio - Visual Aids
 1) Visual Aids
The aids which use sense of vision are called Visual aids. For example :- actual objects, models, pictures, charts, maps, flash cards, flannel board, bulletin board, chalkboard, overhead projector, slides etc. Out of these black board and chalk are the commonest ones.
2) Audio Aids
The aids that involve the sense of hearing are called Audio aids. For example :- radio, tape recorder, gramophone etc.
3) Audio - Visual Aids
 The aids which involve the sense of vision as well as hearing are called Audio- Visual aids. For example: - television, film projector, film strips etc.
 Importance of teaching aids
Teaching aids play very important role in Teaching- Learning process.
 1) Motivation
 teaching aids motivate the students so that they can learn better.
 2) Clarification
Through teaching aids, the teacher clarifies the subject matter more easily.
 3) Discouragement of Cramming
teaching aids can facilitate the proper understanding to the students which discourage the act of cramming. 4) Increase the Vocabulary
Teaching aids helps to increase the vocabulary of the students more effectively.
5) Saves Time and Money
When the uses teaching aids, it saves him from the long explanations that may take time for students understand
6) Classroom Live and active
Teaching aids make the classroom live and active.
7) Avoids Dullness –
This means the class becomes more active, lively and participatory
8) Direct Experience
Teaching aids provide direct experience to the students which make them learn easily 

Q.5 Write down the advantages and disadvantages of using multimedia.      (20) 

Ans Multimedia is content that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, video and interactive content. Multimedia contrasts with media that use only rudimentary computer displays such as text-only or traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material

Advantages to Using Multimedia

A major advantage to using multimedia sources in the classroom is the ability to bring in images, sounds and videos without leaving the room. Computer programs and internet sites can also give students experiences that might ordinarily be unsafe, such as views from scaling mountains in a geography lesson or a dissection of a rare animal. Additionally, using a projector or individual computers gives students the opportunity to view information or materials up close.
Students who learned from materials containing both text and graphics produced 55 percent to 121 percent more accurate solutions to problems, according to David Taylor at the University of Maryland. The use of images, along with words, diminishes the overwhelming nature of text and helps the student to manage the cognitive load, which increases retention. Specifically, graphics are found to support retention because important elements are focused on via placement, layout and color. Activation of prior knowledge is engaged quickly with visual analogy, and mental models are created easily as diagrams can enhance understanding of how a concept works. Additionally, learning is made easier because simulations allow students to visualize real-life situations, and motivation is increased as students are able to see the relevance of skills.

Disadvantages to Using Multimedia

Multimedia lessons or components of lessons delivered via video or image require computers, projectors and other electronic devices depending upon the subject and the amount of original material a teacher creates. The expense associated with quality projectors or computers for every student can be quite high, and the amount of images and videos in a lesson can slow down the delivery and pace of the class as a result. Student access to computers at home may also cause problems, and varying quality of student electronic devices can create inequity in projects and presentations.

When designing a multimedia learning experience, the role of the teacher shifts from instructor to facilitator. If a lesson allows students to complete learning at their own pace as they move through stages of learning, classroom management becomes increasingly difficult. This is particularly true if students work in groups to view multimedia sources or share computers. Additionally, students who are not as proficient with technology may have to spend more time learning computer skills to access information than focusing on course materials.