By Bill Fischer, MFA, Professor of Digital Art and Design and Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University, October 31, 2017
In this field study we have explored three concepts for maximizing engagement, during a multimedia enhanced lecture, by integrating functionality that can influence expectations:
These three concepts can be integrated into media created for multimedia enhanced lectures by including:
We Expect what we get. And, I am using "expect" as a verb because that best embodies the power that expectations can have. Building positive expectations into the front-end of and intermittently throughout educational and informational media can have a profound impact on the experience that follows. The way we humans experience every aspect of our lives is colored by our perceptions, which in turn, are rooted in our expectations. When faced with educational or informational media presentations at work or school, there is typically an expectation that those experiences will be less engaging, than the entertainment media that we wish we were consuming. And, in many cases that expectation turns out to be correct. We can change this by making more engaging media, But we can enhance that more engaging media significantly by manipulating expectations. There are three biologically-driven conceptual frameworks that we can work with when designing maximum expectation.
So, we have three concepts for maximizing engagement by manipulating expectations;
[1] Morten L. Kringelbach, “The Human Orbitofrontal Cortex: Linking Reward to Hedonic Experience,” Nature Reviews 6 (September 2005): 691–702.
[2] Kent C Berridge, Terry E Robinson, and J Wayne Aldridge, (2009). "Dissecting components of reward: ‘liking’, ‘wanting’, and learning," Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2009 Feb; 9(1): 65-73
[3] Chris Berdik, (2013). Mind Over Mind: The Surprising Power of Expectations. New York, MY: Current, a member of the Penguin Group.
[4] The EPIC PRroject (2017, June). Battling Extinction – educational iOS and Android app. Retrieved Oct 31, 2017, from http://epicsite.org/science.html
Multimedia enhanced lecture covering the causes and effects of animal extinction
Screenshots from the Battling Extinction Multimedia App
Battling Extinction Educational App [4] created by KCAD faculty and students in collaboration with Kenowa Hills Public Middle School teachers and students as part of the EPIC Project.
STEM event at the 2016 ArtPrize HUB. We had a large television set up at one of the stations that students visited. The TV was cabled to a laptop where a lecturer was standing facing outward toward the student groups. The overall environment was noisy and full of distractions in the form of nearby hands-on displays, other groups of students passing by and students within their groups bantering with each other.
A lecture was presented to groups of 10-15 middle school aged students who visited the station for 15 minute sessions. There were 30 groups in total. The students stood in a semi-circle during the lecture. They were told that they were helping us test a new method of digital learning and that they would be asked for feedback. They were also observed and data was gathered from the observations. The students were not told that they would be observed because we did not want them to "act" for the observer.
Note: only one variable was assessed at a time (10 sessions for each variable)
We have explored three concepts for maximizing engagement by manipulating expectations:
These three concepts can be integrated into media created for multimedia enhanced lectures by including: