Free eSeminar: eLearning and the Science of Instruction

Silke Fleischer recently wrote about an upcoming eSeminar that will be put on by Adobe, featuring Dr. Ruth Clark. The seminar, which is on Friday, August 24 (10:00 AM – 11:00 AM US/Pacific), is described as following:

Applying Evidence-based Guidelines for Digital Learning Environment that Teach
Is it better to explain an on-screen visual with text, audio, or both text and audio? Do visuals improve learning? If so, are some visuals more effective than others? Are animations more effective than static graphics? Is it better to use practice exercises, examples, or both practice and examples? What are learning agents and do they improve learning?

Based on the forthcoming second edition of her best selling e-Learning & the Science of Instruction with Richard Mayer, Ruth Clark will summarize research, guidelines, and examples to answer these questions.

Dr. Clark recently published a free white paper, titled Leveraging multimedia for learning, that briefly discusses five principles that should be adhered to when designing eLearning. I’m guessing her book and this eSeminar will go into much more detail with these (and other) principles. The principles are:

1. Use relevant visuals to promote learning
2. Describe complex visuals with audio only
3. Use first and second person language and learning agents
4. Less is usually more
5. Include frequent job-relevant interactions and feedback

It sounds like Dr. Clark will also discuss Adobe Captivate, and how best practices can be applied when using Captivate.

According to Amazon, the second edition of Dr. Clark’s book will be released on September 28, 2007. The first edition, which was released in 2002, is a must-have for eLearning developers. If you don’t own it, get it soon – or pick up the second edition as soon as it comes out.

Register for the eSeminar