Articles:Role of Guidance, Reflection, and Interactivity in an Agent-based Multimedia Game

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Contents

Question

To what extent do reflection, guidance, and interactivity within a multimedia program promote the learner’s meaning making?

Meaningful Learning

more likely to occur when:

  1. learners receive guidance (to help them select the appropriate material)
  2. engage in reflection and/or interactivity (to help them mentally organize and integrate the material).

less likely to occur when:

  • learners engage in reflection and/or interactivity but without guidance (i.e., organizing and integrating without selecting).

Interactivity

Problem solving: Learner is asked to give an answer to a problem

Reflection Effect

Elaborative interrogation: Learner is asked to explain why an answer is correct

Feedback

Corrective feedback: Learner is told whether an answer is correct

Guidance Effect

Explanatory feedback: Program explains why an answer is correct

Result

  • consistent with the cognitive model of multimedia learning
  • students learn more deeply from guided discovery than pure discovery (Chall, 2000; Mayer, 2002, 2004; McKeough, Lupart, & Marini, 1995; Schauble, 1990; Singley & Anderson, 1989).
  • benefits of guidance extend into the realm of computer games and simulations

Design Recomindations

  • agent-based game designers should incorporate structured guidance rather than rely solely on pure discovery.
  • promote students’ reflection via elaborative interrogation techniques for correct answers.
  • "guidance and reflection produced substantial effect sizes under certain circumstances indicating that the effects have practical significance as well as statistical significance."
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