Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1481-3776

Date Available

12-1-2024

Year of Publication

2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Education Sciences

Advisor

Dr. Kun Huang

Co-Director of Graduate Studies

Dr. Gerry Swan

Abstract

The signaling principle states that people learn better when cues are used to highlight important information in a multimedia presentation. Prior research has shown that visual signaling improves learning by directing the learner’s attention to the relevant information of the instruction, improving the learner’s ability to select essential words and pictures. While the visual signaling principle has been applied to learning in the cognitive domain, the effect of visual signaling on learning within the psychomotor domain is limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the signaling principle on learning psychomotor skills from multimedia instruction, specifically instructional video.

This study implemented an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to test the effect of the signaling principle on cognitive and psychomotor learning for first-year students in a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program. The study included two phases; a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. In the first phase, quantitative data was collected concerning the impact of the signaling principle on knowledge retention within the cognitive and psychomotor domains when learning hands-on clinical skills from instructional video. First year DPT students were randomized into the control group (n = 12) and signaling group (n = 13). The control group watched an instructional video with no visual signals while the signaling group watched an identical instructional video with visual signals that highlighted information essential to the skill performance. In the second phase, qualitative data was collected via semi-structured interviews conducted with four participants from each group. The purpose of the qualitative data is to further explain the quantitative results in terms of student perceptions of cognitive load created by multimedia instructional materials.

No significant difference was found between groups in terms of total scores on the cognitive examination or psychomotor examination. Additionally, no difference was found between groups in terms of scores on the cognitive examination and psychomotor examination when skill complexity was taken into account. Three themes emerged from the in-person interviews related to perceptions of cognitive load: (1) interaction with information impacted by complexity of content, (2) deciding what to learn impacted by design of visual information, and (3) schema creation impacted by prior knowledge. Additionally, the theme of practice and feedback being necessary to achieve performance proficiency emerged when learning hands-on clinical skills from instructional video.

The addition of visual signals to instructional videos does not appear to improve learning of hands-on clinical skills in the cognitive or psychomotor domains. Based on the qualitative results, the lack of difference between groups may be due to a low level of cognitive load afforded by the design of the instructional videos. Visual signaling may not have been required to reduce extraneous cognitive load as participants reported that the instructional design of the video helped reduce task difficulty while increasing effectiveness of schema production. In future practice, instructional videos should replace written modalities as the instructional tool used to teach students how to perform hands-on clinical skills.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.444

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