Here is the first entry into my critical inquiry research log. Assignment #1 Part 2 kept me quite busy, so this entry will most likely be longer than subsequent entries.
April 20th 2018
I chose cognitive load theory as my specific issue to explore within Lynda.com (instance of video curated library). In particular, I sought to find what factors play a predominant role in online video courses and if there was a general consensus on best practices in handling factors such as length and content. I also started exploring the Lynda.com course Photography Foundations: Composition.
April 22nd – April 26th 2018
Received feedback from Dr. Irwin DeVries encouraging the exploration of content as an important factor contributing to cognition. Also had blog comment discussions with Steve Minten and Stuart Reed on length effects and ideal length of instructional video and potential differences between Lynda.com and TedED videos. The factors video content and audience were brought up as well.
April 28th 2018
Started digging into literature relating to cognitive load and online media. As expected there is a lot of literature in this area. It was interesting to find that even within video learning there are various defined methods of delivery. For example, there are video-style lectures, such as talking head lecture, voice-over presentation, picture-in-picture, and Khan-style video lectures among others. Each of these methods have different effects on cognitive load by leveraging either more audio or visual information or both.
April 29th 2018
Began working through the videos of the Photography Foundations: Composition course. The instructor Ben Long was very clear and composed in his video lectures. The majority of videos at the beginning were of him with a static background giving theory behind photography. For someone like me who has no previous training, I found my attention drifting on a number of occasions. These videos were thankfully relatively short (<5 minutes).
May 1st 2018
Received feedback from Dr. Irwin DeVries on Assignment #1 Part 1. Recommendations to link my study with more literature explored in previous courses and be more explicit in my identification of cognitive load and how I plan on measuring it.
May 3rd 2018
Received a link from Gavin Sturgeon to a comparative study looking at the effects of instructor visibility and the type of knowledge being taught on cognitive load in video lectures. Yet more factors that contribute to cognitive load. This study along with a number of others used a cognitive load questionnaire for students to assess their mental effort in learning.
May 5th 2018
Continued viewing the videos in Photography Foundations: Composition. Subsequent videos showed more landscapes and photo examples to demonstrate the effects of what the instructor was teaching (e.g., balance, lighting). These lessons were easy to follow and each video was usually restricted to one concept. I believe this was good pacing and found myself retaining the lesson more easily with the format of one concept followed by a few examples.