The social distancing practices enacted as part of society’s response to COVID-19 have brought distance learning into the spotlight. For many teachers, the speed with which education transitioned to distance learning left little time to adapt material intended for the classroom to an online environment. Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Associate Professor of Psychology and two of her research assistants, Nicole Martin (PSY ’21) and Aubrey Sahouria (NEU ‘22), are launching a new study focused on investigating which aspects of online lectures delivered using online collaboration platforms such as Zoom have the greatest impact on students’ cognitive load and ability to learn remotely.
To date, research into different aspects of online learning proficiency has been sparse and shows mixed results with some studies arguing that multimedia learning may serve to facilitate students’ learning (Kizilcec, Bailenson & Gomez, 2015) while others heed caution concerning its potential for increased cognitive load (Homer, Plass & Blake, 2008) and social exhaustion (Bailenson, 2020), which may lead to diminished learning outcomes. Dr. Stiegler-Balfour believes the COVID-19 pandemic is an urgent call to further explore avenues for optimizing online instruction and prevent distance learning from being seen as “crisis learning.”
The study, which is being conducted on the Biddeford campus, will examine the effect that lecture delivery format (e.g., with or without picture overlay) has on cognitive load, fatigue, mind wandering, and retention of the material. While previous research has not been able to conclusively show learning outcome differences for lectures with or without an instructor’s image, Dr. Stiegler-Balfour’s study will explore whether learning preferences, COVID-19-related worry and loss, perceived social presence and exhaustion might moderate these learning effects. The results will help inform teaching strategies for distance learning, and provide much needed best practices and guidance for enabling students to feel socially connected while minimizing cognitive load and fatigue while taking classes remotely.
Publication: https://www.une.edu/news/2020/article-authored-jennifer-stiegler-balfour-appears-teaching-psychology-journal
Radio interview: http://www.une.edu/news/2020/jennifer-stiegler-balfour-discusses-proofreading-slovenian-public-radio