Recent research has shown that enhancing instructional videos with questions, such as self-explanation prompts, and thus shifting the process from receptive to constructive learning, is beneficial to learning. However, the inclusion of questions is often confounded with the implementation of learner pacing through navigation features. Furthermore, previous studies have often not controlled for learning time. To address these shortcomings, an experiment (N = 128) was conducted. Participants watched an instructional video about cloud formation and lightning, with learning time controlled. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, navigation features (learner pacing vs. system pacing) and self-explanation prompts (prompts vs. no prompts) were manipulated. The results showed no effects of navigation features and self-explanation prompts on learning performance. While navigation features did not affect cognitive load, self-explanation prompts increased both intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. Overall, the quality of responses to prompts was low but positively related to comprehension. The results are discussed in terms of the Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive framework and Cognitive Load Theory. They highlight the importance of boundary conditions when investigating the effects of interactive features in instructional videos.

Current theories suggest that visual and spatial processes in working memory are crucial for learning from animation. However, despite over three decades of research on learning from animation, little is known about how visuospatial working memory relates to learning. Instead, animation research often relies on subjective task load to explain and predict learning performance. To better understand how visuospatial working memory and learning from animation are related, a within-subjects study was conducted. Eighty six students learned from two animations of different complexity. The students’ performance on visual learning tasks, visual and spatial working memory capacity, and perceived task load were assessed. Hierarchical regression analyses show that visuospatial working memory capacity is more critical for learning from a complex animation than for learning from a less complex animation. Moreover, visuospatial working memory capacity predicts learning from a complex animation significantly better than subjective task load. The effect size is large. The results provide a coherent picture of the relationships between learning task demands, learners’ visuospatial working memory, perceived task load and learning performance. They not only allow for a more accurate prediction of learning from animation but can also help to tailor the design and use of animations to the learners’ cognitive resources.

Interactive videos are frequently employed in education. Although several reviews and syntheses indicate that interactively engaging with videos might benefit learning, up until now no quantitative synthesis of the effectiveness of enhanced interaction features in educational videos has been published. Enhanced interaction features explicitly aim to encourage learning processes. Very often, they consist of domain-specific questions and tasks to promote retention and understanding. The presented research evaluates the effectiveness of enhanced interaction features in educational videos. A quantitative synthesis of research on learning from interactive videos was conducted. Sixteen articles reporting 17 studies with 22 effect sizes met the inclusion criteria. Based on a random-effects model, both a meta-analysis and a moderator analysis were conducted. Videos that include enhanced interaction features are significantly more effective than videos that comprise merely navigational interaction features or no interaction features. The analysis resulted in an overall effect size of Hedges's g = 0.522 in favor of videos that include enhanced interaction features. However, if a video is not paused while an enhanced interaction feature is offered to the learners, a split-attention effect occurs, and learning is impeded.

The results of three meta-analyses show that the effectiveness of learning from animations, when compared to learning from static pictures, is rather limited. A recent re-analysis of one of these meta-analyses, however, supports that learning from animations is considerably more effective than learning from static pictures if the specifics of the displayed changes need to be learned. In order to further validate this finding as well as to clarify the educational strengths and weaknesses of animations and static pictures, an experimental study with three groups was conducted. Overall, 88 university students participated in the study. One group of learners ( n = 30) watched a single picture of a gear mechanism, one group of learners ( n = 28) watched four pictures, and one group of learners ( n = 30) watched an animation. All groups had to identify specific motions and spatial arrangements covered by the gear mechanism. While learners who watched the animation exhibited the best performance with respect to the identification of motions, learners who watched the pictures showed the best performance with respect to the identification of spatial arrangements. The effect sizes are large. The results of the study help to clarify when animations and when static pictures are most suitable for learning.

In a systematic review, 194 studies on learning from animation were analysed. The analysis covers the learning domains, the representational characteristics of the animations, the assessed perceptual and cognitive achievements, and the assessment formats. Research on learning from animation focuses on assessing conceptual at the neglect of kinematic mental models. This is in contrast to an important rationale for making use of animations: that it needs to be learned what animations can specifically display, namely, how change in space and time occurs. This might explain why meta-analyses which compared the effectiveness of animations and static pictures found merely small overall effect sizes in favour of animations. To confirm this hypothesis, one meta-analysis was re-analysed with a new moderator. It encodes whether the features of the displayed changes were relevant to learning. Learning from animations was significantly more successful than learning from static pictures, if the features of the displayed changes had to be learned.

Because drawing is a highly successful strategy in learning from text, it has recently been investigated whether drawing can also improve learning from animation. Several theoretical and practical arguments, however, make drawing a questionable strategy for learning from animation. In an experimental study, we investigated the effectiveness of drawing for learning from animation. One group of 26 students had to draw what they had observed in the animation. A second group of 26 students had to reflect on what they had observed in the animation. After learning, all students had to demonstrate their understanding by making use of a physical model. The students' demonstrations were assessed by means of an event unit analysis. More extensive spatiotemporal structures were significantly less recognized by students who drew than by students who reflected. The results suggest that drawing might not be an adequate strategy for learning from visuospatially and spatiotemporally complex animations.

In two studies, we investigated how learning strategies can support learning from multimedia. In the first study, 112 students learned from a web-based learning environment. On the basis of a strategy, one group of students took typewritten notes. The second group of students wrote a summary. Producing typewritten notes did not benefit learning any more than writing a summary. In the second study, 100 students learned the same subject matter from print. On the basis of a strategy, the first group produced written notes, the second group highlighted, wrote notes, and produced sketches. The third group wrote a summary. The students who highlighted, wrote notes, and produced sketches outperformed the other students. The students who produced written notes only did not learn more successfully than those who wrote a summary. The results suggest that externalizations in general and sketches in particular may play an important role in multimedia learning.

In an experimental study, we investigated how the simultaneous and sequential presentation of animation episodes affects learners' perceptual interrogation of the animation as well as their acquisition of higher-order relationships. Of the 60 students who participated in the study, 30 studied the animation episodes presented simultaneously and 30 studied the same episodes presented sequentially. The eye movements of eight participants from each group were recorded while they studied the animation episodes. The simultaneous presentation resulted in significantly more visual transitions between the episodes than the sequential presentation. Further, in case of the simultaneous presentation significantly more bi-directional visual transitions occurred than in case of the sequential presentation. Learning of higher-order relationships was significantly more successful from simultaneously presented episodes than from sequentially presented episodes.

In an experimental study, we investigated how the presentation of cognitive learning aids, as well as the availability of self-monitoring questions affect the frequency of use of cognitive learning aids in a multimedia learning environment. The learning aids were presented either dynamically, statically, or they were initially collapsed and the students had to activate them by clicking on a button. The comparability of all three versions of the multimedia learning environment was assured by means of repeated usability testing. Self-monitoring questions were either presented to the learners or not. A total of 60 undergraduate students participated in the study. Their activities in the learning environment, together with their eye movements were recorded. The students took advantage of the learning aids most when they were dynamically presented, less when they were statically presented, and least when they were presented in a collapsed form. The differences in use of the learning aids were statistically significant with large effect sizes. The availability of self-monitoring questions had no significant effect on the use of learning aids.

Pictorial representations can play a pivotal role in both printed and digital learning material. Although there has been extensive research on cognitive techniques and strategies for learning from text, the same cannot be said for static and dynamic pictorial representations. In this paper we propose a systematic characterization of cognitive learning techniques that is founded on both theoretical and empirical research. The characterization relates the learning techniques to classes of cognitive processes as well as to textual and pictorial representations. We show how successful strategies for learning from both plain text and illustrated text are covered by the characterization. We also exemplify how the construction of new strategies for pictorial representations can be informed by the characterization.

In an experimental study, we investigated whether making use of a cognitive learning strategy (1) improves learning from different expository animations, (2) leads to an acquisition of knowledge which is available beyond the learning period, and (3) equally benefits students with low and high cognitive ability alike. A total of 152 sixth graders participated in the study: 69 students learned from an animation about the dances of honeybees and 83 students learned from an animation about sailing. With respect to both animations, the students who made use of the learning strategy significantly outperformed the students who had to write a summary. Effect sizes are medium to large. The beneficial effects of the learning strategy were also verified one week after the learning took place. The results of this study do not support the assumption that students with low and high cognitive ability benefit differently from the strategy.

Despite the rapid and widespread adoption of animations in education, there is still no systematic account of the main characteristics of expository animations that have been targeted by educational research. A literature search and analysis was conducted to address this deficiency. First, overviews, reviews, and meta-analyses were analysed to extract an initial set of dimensions to characterise expository animations. Next, a representative set of descriptions of expository animations used in past research on learning from animation was retrieved from the research literature. The animations employed in the 44 investigations analysed covered 30 different topics in 14 different domains. The characterisation developed distinguishes attributes that are inherent characteristics of animations from attributes that are external supplements to animations. The potential advantages of the characterisation developed as a framework for future research on learning from animation are discussed.