Evaluate how you applied research-based guidelines to your lesson and how these guidelines enhance learning.

I used research-based guidelines when applying e-learning principles wherever there were relevant guidelines available. In some cases, I had to do my best to make my lesson work with the current research best practices.

Evidence shows that students respond better to an agent, because it gives learner the appearance that the computer program has a personality. Learners also preferred when that agent communicated in an informal, friendly tone of voice rather than a formal, professional style (Clark & Mayer, 2011).

Providing a worked example allows students to see the thought process and underlying steps they should be focused on when working on problems (Clark & Mayer, 2011). Ideally, the example should be faded so that the last steps are left out, because this requires students to actively think about the example and what needs to be done. This is more challenging in this lesson because making observations is an individual act. However, I instead tried to ensure that students are actively involved in the lesson by requiring them to interact with the program in another fashion such as picking a color or moving a ruler.

The images used were realistic and highly relevant to the lesson, as well as being placed near the text discussing and/or questions about the images. Using minimal and realistic image prevents students from being distracted with unnecessary visual stimuli (Clark & Mayer, 2011). The audio statements made by the agent provided information in addition to the text information provided, which was limited to new vocabulary words and directions. This meant that students could use their audio and visual communications channels separately and also meant that they had critical information available for rereading or reviewing (Clark & Mayer, 2011). The audio was also limited to relevant speech and did not include extraneous speech or noises in order to allow for optimal audio processing (Clark & Mayer, 2011).

Directed feedback captured the moment when students answered a question incorrectly and tried to redirect their attention to the correct answer. This takes advantage of the learning opportunity that comes with a mistake (Clark & Mayer, 2011).

This lesson is considered a basic and fundamental science lesson, so although learners may have prior experience making observations or classifying, this is an important prerequisite skill for the rest of the year. Thus, I aimed the lesson at inexperienced learners who apparently benefit from less learner control (Clark & Mayer, 2011). Students who have prior experience making observations should have quickly been able to correctly answer the observation questions and move on to the classification questions which may prove more challenging.

One way to potentially improve the storyboard in the future is to create a pre-test page that allows learners to skip some of the observation lesson if they can demonstrate pre-knowledge. In addition, I need to remain aware of the use of graphics and diagrams in order to choose ones that are as simple as possible while yet expressing the necessary information.

There are many areas of ongoing education research that Clark & Mayer (2011) discuss which are relevant to future improvements to this storyboard. In particular, I would want to remain current on research that impacts the placement, size, color, location, etc. of graphics and diagrams, as these are fundamental for understanding science. In addition, further information about introducing new vocabulary terms to students as well as evaluating and building upon pre-knowledge are highly relevant areas where additional research could result in drastic changes to my storyboard design. I think science teachers have a particular responsibility to incorporate current research-based educational best practices as our field relies upon building upon prior research, and now that I am aware that online educational strategies are equally relevant to Powerpoint or other computer presentations, I will do my best to create storyboards and lessons that are compatible with current research.

References: Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-Learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumer and designer of multimedia learning (3rd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.