Pictures are commonly used to represent problems. However, it is unclear how the addition of pictures affects students' problem-solving performance. The multimedia effect in problem solving describes the phenomenon whereby an individual's problem-solving performance is enhanced when equivalent pictures are added to illustrate or replace part of…

We present a showcase of our experience with videos complementing analytical chemistry lectures to familiarize undergraduate students with instrumental element analysis. This includes a detailed account of how we planned, produced, and utilized a video to review the course content at the end of the semester. The analytical case study focused on…

In this paper we examine how two groups of middle school students arrive at shared understandings of and solutions to mathematical problems. Our data consists of logs of student participation in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) system as they work on math problems. The project supports interaction both through chat and through a virtual whiteboard. We…

The study challenged the current practices in cognitive load measurement involving complex problem solving by manipulating the presence of pictures in multiple rule-based problem-solving situations and examining the cognitive load resulting from both off-line and online measures associated with complex problem solving. Forty-eight participants…

Two-year college teachers face great difficulty when they teach the principle of operation of the bipolar junction transistor--a subject which forms the basis for electronics studies. The difficulty arises from both the complexity of the device and by the lack of adequate scientific background among the students. We, therefore, developed a unique…

Technological literacy education involves the teaching of basic engineering principles and problem solving, including elementary electrical circuit analysis, to non-engineering students. Learning materials on circuit analysis typically rely on equations and schematic diagrams, which are often unfamiliar to non-engineering students. The goal of…

This study examined the effects of an inductive multimedia program, including graphs, on subjects' ability to create linear functions and conceptualize variables from word problems. Subjects were 98 undergraduate students in two sections of a computer literacy course. Students' achievements were assessed via pre- and posttests, which were parallel…