For Module 1, I decided to use my screencast to present a tutorial on how to use Goodnotes as an educational tool for learners, as well as teachers. Goodnotes is an app that I use on my iPad but can also be downloaded on other devices. I felt it was important to share this app as I feel it has helped me greatly to employ many of the principles of multimedia learning. Whether you are a student wanting to take notes directly from your professors’ slides, or you are a teacher wanting to record your math problems for students to refer to, Goodnotes is a great tool for education.
Principles in Mind
When creating my screencast, one of the main principles of multimedia learning that I kept in mind was the Coherence principle. It was my priority to keep any extraneous graphics and sounds out of my tutorial, as this can contribute to cognitive overload. I wanted to ensure that my screencast was primarily graphics and narration, as I felt that this would be the best way to understand how to navigate the app. This also ties into the principle of Redundancy, which explains that people learn the most when they are taught through simple graphics and narration. Due to this, I tried to keep minimal text in my tutorial so that everyone could focus more on the graphics and my instructions.
Additionally, Temporal Contiguity was also one of the principles I kept in mind when creating my screencast. This principle explains that students learn best when words and pictures are presented at the same time, rather than one after the other. For this reason, I tried my best to ensure that my narrations matched very closely to the actions I was showing within my screencast, ensuring that it was easy to follow along. Finally, I feel that I kept in mind the Pre-training principle through the use of my tutorial. This principle emphasizes the baseline of knowledge that must be known for students to be able to use an application or learn deeper concepts. It is my hope that my tutorial educated everyone on the basics of Goodnotes, enough that they would be able to navigate it before diving deep into the various ways that they can personalize their learning.
Target Audience
Upon planning my screencast, the main audience that it was directed towards was post-secondary students, as well as post-secondary professors. Not only have I seen this application being used among my classmates, but many of my professors have used it in class, as well as online for recorded lectures. Due to this, my design choices were geared towards navigating the aspects of Goodnotes that would likely be utilized by this audience. For instance, it was important for me to show how to import documents into Goodnotes, as this can be a great way to actively annotate lecture slides while in class. Furthermore, for professors, I highlighted the pointer feature that can be used to highlight what they are speaking on, which is also a great way to address the Signalling principle.
Hey Delaney love the module one blog! Loved the crash course on good notes will definitely be checking it out to use those study decks for exams! I did my screen cast in a very similar format and agree that the coherence principle seems very important and seems to pertain a lot to the way professors format their tools for online learning as well. I found your screen cast very easy to follow an delved the principles you focused on! Look forward to seeing your next blog!