Design Pattern -
Multimedia Explanations

Multimedia Explanations

Name

Multimedia Explanations

Authors

Roxana Moreno, from the University of New Mexico and Richard E. Mayer, from the University of California Santa Barbara reviewed by Ken Wagner

Summary

Improving the empathy of clinic and non-clinical staff towards prisoners/offenders with digital stories via technology.

Illustration

Problem

The problem that we have is how can we educate our learners (clinical and non-clinical staff) about the ethical treatment of prisoners/offenders who come into the hospital to receive treatment on a wide scale.

The training must be:

• Concise

• Engaging

• Accessible to all (within the organisation)

• Develop skills and knowledge

• Offer something of valuable to both the organisation and the individual

Synopsis

How we go about improving the empathy of staff (clinical and non-clinical) towards prisoners/offenders in an effective way.

Forces

Even though we all live in a world where technology is everywhere, not everyone is IT literate. We cannot assume that everyone will have access to a PC or laptop, some will only have access to a mobile device (tablet or mobile phone).

But regardless of whether or not an individual is literate or not, not everyone learns the same way. For instance, you have the following types of learners:

• Visual/spatial learner, these (Smith, 2020) “are those that learn best when they have images to help them process the information”.

• You have aural learners, these are (Smith, 2020) “those who respond primarily to sound and speech”.

• You have verbal learners, these (Smith, 2020) “learn best through the words they hear”.

• You have social learners, (Smith, 2020) “they often prefer direct involvement with others in group projects”.

• And solitary learners, these (Smith, 2020) “are individuals who prefer to learn on their own”.

There are also the equality forces, catering to those with disabilities (dyslexia and colour deficiency/colour blindness). And the use of language, ensuring that the use of inclusive language is used to reduce prejudice and discrimination.

Context

Learners are required to complete the mandatory course. There will be a pre-assessment before the course, as well as a post-assessment after the course to gauge the skills and knowledge development. There will also be various assessments throughout the course, from closed questions, sliding scale answers, to open questions that will be informally discussed with other learners on the course.

Course content is made up of stories with the lessons learnt. These are made up of various pieces of text, links to other resources, audio files, as well as videos.

The text will have the option to use standard fonts such as Calibre, Ariel, New Times Roman, as well as dyslexic fonts such as OpenDyslexic. The learners will have the choice of the standard or high contrast themes to cater for people with vision disabilities. Videos and audio will also have the choice to turn on/off closed captioning.

Learners will be able to access the course via their own mobile device, via their own personal computer, or via the organisations own devices that are available.

Origins

Material

The learner must have access to a network enables and attached device onsite (whether it’s a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer). If off-site (at home or on the go), an internet enabled device.

Social

The learners on this course are both clinical and non-clinical staff. The individual being learnt about would be prisoners/offenders.

Intentional

The beliefs of every individual will be different, anything from treating the prisoner/offender no different from any other patient to treating the individual with contempt.

Solution

For the learners, to use the training system to learn skills and knowledge from the digital stories.

On the open questions to discuss with other learners on the course.

To implement newly developed skills and knowledge for the improved empathy to prisoners/offenders coming in for treatment.

Pedagogical aspects

There are various pedagogical aspects within this, such as:

Constructivism and social constructivism, where our learners learn through their own experiences, other people’s experiences and their own reflection.

High tech approach to learning, where we utilize different types of implemented technologies to aid in the individual’s learners. And

We take a student-centred learning approach, where students create knowledge themselves and not just passively receive information.

Technical aspects

An IT device (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer) that is able to connect to the organisational network (either locally on the organisation’s wired or wireless network or via the internet).

Examples

In 2010 a study was done with 20 student nurses. The outcome was that (Christianses, 2011) “effective patient digital stories are powerful learning tools that offer students an opportunity to transcend their own personal frame of reference and engage with the reality of others. Through a process of meaning making, emotional engagement and reflection students can generate new insights that have the potential to transform their developing sense of professional identity”.

Data and References

Christiansen, A. (2011) ‘Storytelling and professional learning: A phenomenographic study of students' experience of patient digital stories in nurse education’, Nurse education today, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 289-293 [Online]. Available at https://www-sciencedirect-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0260691710001826 (Accessed 28 May 2021).

Moreno, R. and Mayer, R. (2000) ‘A Learner-Centered Approach to Multimedia Explanations: Deriving Instructional Design Principles from Cognitive Theory’, Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning, vol. 2, no. 2 [Online]. Available at http://web.archive.org/web/20160223084032/http://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2000/2/05/index.asp (Accessed 31 May 2021).

Smith, M. (2020) ‘Understanding the 8 Types Of Learning Styles’, Performance, 16 January [Blog]. Available at https://blog.mindvalley.com/types-of-learning-styles/ (Accessed 31 May 2021).