Instructional Media Critique - 1

I've enjoyed reading eLearning and the Science of Instruction by Clark and Mayer. The text book adheres to sound instructional design principles in how the content within each chapter is presented with text and graphics. It makes for a good read and also commitment to long term memory. I'll use the principles in the first three chapters to assess two eLearning courses.

What is print? Interactive by Museum of Modern Art, New York. -


After opening up the course, my first thought was my audio must be switched off. It turned out that the course did not have any audio. I've been so used to at an audio narrative or music that having neither made it look like it was missing an important component.

Content Type - The course provides facts about the different types of print such as Woodcut, Etching, Lithography and Screenprint. It also demonstrates the process followed to create each type of print through an interactive Flash animation.

Instructional Goal - The course aims to inform about  different types of print and describe to the audience the procedure used to create that print. The primary goal is to inform the audience about print and also explain how print is created. No expectations are made that audience will gain print making skills through the course

Learning Architecture -  The course architecture is that of a Guided Discovery. The course though informative in nature, uses user driven actions to navigate through animations that describe the procedure used to create different types of print. There is a option for the animation to work automatically to show the next step in the process. I tried both manual and automatic options to progress from one step to the other and found it interactive.

Graphics usage -  Since the course teaches about procedure, it very correctly uses transformational graphics to demonstrate a series of steps through animation in order to create each print type. The animations are very relevant to procedure and the interactivity option helps the user understand the process better. If only graphics were used, instead of animations, I believe it would not commit to the learners long term memory.

Office Ergonomics - Interactive lesson created by Prometheus Training Corporation - My first impression on opening this course was it was dynamic and well designed. There was a pleasant introduction music as a lead into the narration.

Content Type - The course content is strategic principles about office ergonomics.



Instructional Goal - The course's goal adheres to the "Perform principle". It teaches the learner strategic skills so that they can asses themselves, recognize common risks and set up their workstations correctly. It has inform learning objectives also, however the primary goal is for learners to be able to transfer their knowledge and apply it to their own office environment.


Learning Architecture -  The course architecture is that of a Guided Discovery. The course asks the learners to perform real activities such as positioning wrists above the keyboard and to select the chose on screen that is most similar. This is a interactive and involves actual non-computer action on users part. The architecture aims to help the learner construct knowledge.


Graphics usage -  The graphics are very relevant and well designed. It goes very well with the narrative and the on screen text.  The course uses "representational" type of graphics to convey its point.

I'm looking forward to learn about other measures to assess eLearning and analyze eLearning courses in a much broader context.