Effective Use of Media in E-learning:

Thanks to everyone that attended our virtual forum on 15th February on the use of media in e-learning. I am thankful to the attendees, particularly for the wonderful interaction we had throughout the session.

During the session we discussed the benefits and pitfalls of media use and a method to evaluate the use of media in our e-learning courses.

The core of the discussion centered on a tool that I developed to help evaluate two aspects of media in elearning. First, we looked at what I termed “media complexity.”  Media complexity analysis allows us to judge media types against each other and determine a relative, weighted score for each media type based on how complex it is to use/edit that media type in elearning.  After that we looked at the instructional effectiveness of media types. The instructional decision analysis allows us to determine a second score for each media type with regard to how they support learning. Finally, we combined these two scores to allow us to determine the media type that best suited our individual organizational needs.

The underlying premise of this discussion and evaluation is that media should enhance learning.  This enhancement should cause some form of interaction, reflection or other cognitive action that supports learning. The discussion during the forum and tool provided will hopefully encourage any organization to conduct a proactive analysis of media use in their e-learning courses. Click HERE to download the tool and HERE to watch the presentation from the virtual forum. Instructions for using the tool follow:

1.       First, assign scores to each media type (the example included in the spreadsheet uses a 3-point scale, with 3 representing the most positive value) in each column of the Media Complexity Analysis table. This table helps judge the intrinsic properties of each media type – remember to factor in any unique attributes of your organization when judging each type; context changes a lot!

2.       Repeat this process for the Instructional Decision Matrix table. This table helps you judge how effectively a particular type of media can help you achieve the goals of your e-learning course.  Again, remember that context can make a profound difference.

3.       In the Total Scores table, add the Complexity Score and Instructional Score for each media type – in general, media types with the highest Total Score are the best suited for your needs. This can change from course to course, or serve as a general guideline for your organizations instructional designs.

As I concluded in the forum; “it is about the message not the media!”

Good luck with your use of the grids!

Denis Finnegan
CLO, CERTPOINT Systems

File to download: Effective use of media in eLearning worksheet.xlsx