Articles:Instructional animation versus static pictures: A meta-analysis
From unthinkMedia
According to this article there is a noticeable advantage of using animation rather then static pictures. They could be very effective in "specific areas, under specific circumstances - of facilitating learning even without being interactive". This is especially apparent when:
- the depicted motion in the animation explicitly refers to the topic to be learned
- there is an adequate level of realism, however ‘‘Animations should lean toward the schematic and away from the realistic’’ (p. 258), meaning that you should be aware of the extraneous load that video sometimes contains.
- acquiring procedural-motor knowledge
Note: When visualization are just decoration "fluff" then they are not better then static pictures
