Having completed Photography Foundations: Composition, I believe it is a good course for learners who are relatively new to photography, but have an interest and also some background knowledge as well. With some research into cognitive load, I have found that the course fulfills the balance between cognitive load and dynamic delivery. The group TEDdy Bears (specifically Stuart Reed) mention three best practices for video-based learning that I would like to assess here for the Lynda.com course.
Diagrams and Visuals – This is a very simple practice for the instructor to adopt as the course is about photography. Still photos and videos of scenes are used heavily to introduce concepts and prove points. Some compositional methods may be new to learners and showing an image may be the best way to get the thought process across.
Text – Text is actually not used for the most part and this may be because there were not any concepts that were self-explanatory. There were instances where the ability to be able to reference text might have been useful, but concepts are reinforced as you progress in the videos.
Audio/Narration – The instructor taught almost all the way through with narration and explaining what the learner saw throughout the videos. There were also videos of other learners learning in a classroom and discussing what they learned. Pacing of audio was very appropriate as the videos themselves were not too long (~5-10 minutes on average).
It looks like from a cognitive prospective, Lynda.com is fairly successful. As I mention in the beginning, some interest and background knowledge will help a learner complete the course. Interest and background knowledge are necessary for not just cognitive load purposes, but motivation. The cognitive load will be higher for a student who knows absolutely nothing about photography and has no interest as well. If that is the case, why would they be motivated to take the course? The onus is then on the learner to take a course that interests them and that they feel they can be successful in. If the course is marketed properly, then I think both learner and Lynda.com can benefit greatly.
Hi George,
I’m glad to hear you found some of my inquiry useful, and that when evaluating Lynda, you feel it has kept cognitive load to a reasonable level. Not having finished the Composition course, I was wondering though-
a) Did the authors use worked examples to model proper composition? That is also a best practice for reducing cognitive load, and when used with a combination of visuals and narration may promote effective learning.
b) Was this course focused only on composition? If so, I see that as a great approach, given that photography has many elements, and when attempting to combine say exposures could definitely overload learners if not done in a controlled sequence.
c) Do you feel the course only focused on key elements, and had minimal extraneous factors?
I enjoyed your combination of text across the screen in your presentation while you were narrating, as this was a great example of split attention effect, and it was very tough to concentrate and retain all that was being thrown at us.
Hi Stuart, thanks for your comments. I really enjoyed your presentation and as you can see here took away some of your insights. To address your questions:
a) Yes! Worked examples were very plentiful, especially the process in which to go from a bad composition to a good one. I found at the beginning most of the examples composed of what was good. As the course progressed, there were some bad shots that the instructor took along with ways to “work the shot” (catchphrase of the course).
b) Also yes. The focus was composition with limited branching out. I believe the instructor knew that potentially overreaching in content could have a cognitive overload effect. Ben Long (the instructor) actually has a number of other courses (e.g., Photography Foundations: Flash and not surprisingly Photography Foundations: Exposure) which he unabashedly promotes for the learner to take when the relevant topic comes up.
c) I think the course overall did focus on key elements, but with 15 chapters worth of material, it is not unexpected that extraneous factors might appear. For microlearning and teaching of a single concept, it is far simpler to focus on what is most pertinent or what the task to be instructed is. When a whole course is designed, I believe there are more pieces to be put together from a pedagogical perspective to tie everything which may include extraneous information on it’s own, but needed overall for course flow.
Thanks for that George. It sounds like they’ve got a pretty effective system set up there (for courses such as this). I have found so often in the past the concept of ‘worked example’ is often only one which is quickly reviewed without the adequate time taken to promote learner reflection on why it worked or didn’t. Multiple instances which work or don’t with formative type questions or open ended questions followed by ‘faded’ worked examples tend to fit into best practices in the literature on CLT I’ve been reading. Great sharing perspectives with you!