Students consistently report that they enjoy learning from cartoons, animations and videos!

When to Use Animations to Enhance Student Learning, and

How to Create Cartoons Yourself

Dr. Kathy Zanin, Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

The Citadel

Students consistently report that they enjoy learning from cartoons, animations

and videos!

Student CommentsBIOL 101 05 Evaluations (Non-major Introductory Biology):

Responses to “What did you like most about this course?”

1)The cartoons 2)The cartoons on WebCT helped a lot3)The lecture notes and the cartoons on WebCT4)Interaction, cartoons, and WebCT5)Cartoons

Responses to “What constructive suggestions do you have?”

1)Use more cartoons…2)The cartoons help a lot…3)Make more cartoons, they were very helpful

Undergraduate Cell 205 Evaluations:

Response to, “What did you like most about this course?”1)Cartoons and discussion boards on WebCT2)All the cartoons – videos, they helped a lot.

Undergraduate Immunology 427 Evaluations:

Responses to, “What constructive suggestions do you have?”1)More animations. Animations really helped me grasp the subject

matter.

Graduate-Level Cell Biology 612 Anonymous Midterm Evaluations:

Response to, “Do you feel that the instructor gives clear explanation of the course material?”

1)What I like most of all are the cool videos and cartoons. It makes it easier to comprehend.

Graduate-Level Immunology 610 Anonymous Midterm Evaluations:

Response to, “Do you have any suggestions about how I can improve my teaching skills?

1)I would have like to have seen more animations since some of the process were quite involved.

2)I would like to see more cartoons…

But do students actually learn more from animations than from written lessons?

The answer is unclear; although many studies have been conducted.

Studies That Have Shown Animations Do Significantly Improve

Learning

Studies That Have Shown Animations Do

Not Significantly Improve Learning

Alesandrini and Rigney, 1981

Caraballo, 1985

Kaiser, Proffitt, and Anderson, 1985

King, 1975

Rieber, 1989

(Elementary School)

Moore, Nawrocki, and Simutis, 1979

Rieber and Boyce, 1990

(Adult Learners)

Reed, 1985

Szabo and Poohkay, 1996

Rieber and Hannafin, 1988

Freshman and Sophomore Biology Majors at The Citadel Have Participated in a Pilot Experiment Designed to

Compare Learning From Written Lessons to Learning From Animations

Sophomore Biology Majors 2006Written Lessons vs. Movie Lessons

34.3 25.932.120.3 46.7 45.231.316.10.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

Translation Replication CellularRespiration -

ElectronTransport

Photosynthesis- Light Reactions

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Written Lesson, Post-testimprovement

Movie Lesson, Post-testimprovement

Freshman Biology Majors 2007Written Lessons vs. Movie Lessons

9.830.417.4 17.6 34.126.43.4 20.70.0

20.0

40.0


ElectronTransport


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Sophomore Biology Majors 2007Written Lessons vs. Movie Lessons

42.5 31.329.712.5 32.5 29.226.621.90.0

20.0

40.0

60.0


ElectronTransport


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Written Lessons vs. Movie LessonsFirst Three Trials Combined

23.017.0 17.933.724.09.8 35.132.30.0

20.0

40.0


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Did you prefer learning from written lessons or from movies? Explain

i think i learned better from the movies; not only was i listening to the lesson, i was able to follow along with what was happening. Also having a few of the main points written in the movie helped me to focus.

I preferred learning from the movies because visuals are my sort of thing. I need to see it in order to understand how it works.

I preferred the movies because I learn much better if I am looking at actual examples while learning the material. I liked how it was being explained to me and i didn't have to worry about writing any notes down or try to follow what was being read. I just watched the animations and let the information sink in.

I prefer learning concepts from a movie.... If I need to just learn hard facts I think the written material is actually easier for me to memorize very SPECIFIC terms.

movies, because I'm more of a visual learner than auditory; also watching a video keeps me awake during class

Did you prefer learning from written lessons or from movies? Explain

I enjoyed the animations more.

written lessons, i feel that by doing this and i dont understand something i can go back and re-read it myself until it makes sense to me

I think of myself as a visual learner...I can better recall certain processes when I see it done first.

I think I prefer a mix of the two, but like Dewitt said it definitely helps to visualize the

processes, especially when it comes to the different actions taking place in the cell

I definately prefered learning from the video. I am a visual learner so it helped me

relate how everything worked together.

I prefer the written lessons

i liked the video more because it showed the actual things happening within the cell

Did you feel you learned faster from written lessons or from movies? Explain.

I don't know which I learned faster from, but I understood with the movies more. I hope that makes sense.

I learned faster from the movies due to the fact that if i got stuck on a question, I could run back through the video in my head and find the answer. This is much more difficult to do with text.

Movies, for the same reasons as question one.

I learned faster from the written stuff I think. I think it really depends on what your learning. For something like cell cycle I think a movie is extremely helpful but in order to prepare for a quiz I think it is more beneficial to learn from word documents.

Movies, same reason as Steven, it's easier to replay the video in my head to see what happens next if I get stuck

Did you feel you learned faster from written lessons or from movies? Explain.

Animations; I feel that I learned faster and could recall the material better because I could imagine how a certain process takes place.

i know it would be alot of work, but i think it would be really cool to

have both, notes for in class and then all the movies on Web CT that we could go back and watch for extra help.

I probably learned more, faster from the movie because I am a fairly slow reader and I usually have to read through this a few times, especially in science, in order to put all the pieces together.

i learn better by reading something over and over until i understand it but the movie helps bring everything together in the end.

i think that i learned more from the written lessons

New Hypothesis:

Individual Learning Styles Impact Results!

The Best Way to Improve Classroom LearningIs to Incorporate a Variety of Teaching Methods!

When should we incorporate dynamic animations instead of static images?

When the topic of the lesson involves a moving process

Making animations can be very time-consuming. Do instructors have to create all their animations from scratch?

No!

I have had great success finding good videos using the Google video search!

When you cannot find an acceptable animation, you may want to create one yourself!

For illustration, I will create a very short animation with Microsoft PowerPoint

From our perspective, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west

In reality, Earth is rotating and the sun is still!

Here is a Sample Page from Written Lesson

and a Sample Clip from Movie lesson on Photosynthesis:

Written Lesson

One of the photosystem’selectrons becomes so energetic that it jumps off thephotosystem and ontothe first carrier, and then ispassed along horizontally by redox reactions.

e-

Stroma

Thylakoid space

II

Written Lesson:Stroma

e-

H+ H+

H+

H+H+

H+

As Photosystem II’s electron is passed along, it moves to carriers withhigher and higher redox potentials (more electronegative).Therefore these redox reactionsrelease energy. This energyis used to actively transportH+ ions into the thylakoidspace.

Thylakoid space

II

Movie Lesson

Documents

Students consistently report that they enjoy learning from cartoons, animations and videos!