New Studying Rules

“With many students, it’s not like they can’t remember the material” when they move to a more advanced class, said Henry L. Roediger III, a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s like they’ve never seen it before.”

Seems all the advice I got about studying when I was growing up was wrong. I guessed that way back then, but now someone else—with more credibility than I—has uncovered why. The cognitive scientists cited in a recent New York Times article ("Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits," by Benedict Carey)  that for motivated students (ah, there's a caveat!) these findings will help children, traditional college students, and adult learners. In a nutshell, they say…

• Studying the same thing in different locations helps people remember the subject better.
• Moving from one aspect of a subject to another in a study session is a good thing. It appears that mixing it up makes it all stick better.
• Self-tests, or quizzes, make things stick better, too.
• Spacing study sessions, a little here, a little there, is more effective than one long session in the same place.

(Interesting side note: Tests may not be the best measurement tools, but they're terrific learning tools.)

Some of what these researchers have to say helps to explain why I never could remember anything I ever tried to study while sitting at a library table. The article is worth checking out. Neal Conan, host of the radio program "Talk of the Nation" held a great conversation with Carey, a colleague who went back to school mid-career, and some call-in listeners about all this. It's at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130728588&sc=nl&cc=es-20101031 if you'd like to listen. The whole program segment is about 30 minutes long. Good listening while you clean your desk next time.

The article also addresses the recently disparaged idea of "learning styles" which will no doubt be controversial in some circles. But that's a subject for another day.

Media Richness

One major issue that arises frequently in discussions of distance education is whether the use of electronic media for online education lacks nonverbal cues which are vital for student learning and as a result leading to reduced communication channels, decreased social presence and the learners feeling disconnected. Lack of nonverbal cues can generate problems for both students and teachers. The question on whether the electronic media used in online courses is rich to facilitate outstanding student learning arises. According to Hirschheim (2005), “Students miss the lectures, discussion, questions, assignments, group work, and the professor’s views and perspectives—all part of traditional classes.” (p. 98).

Media richness theory is defined as the degree with which the communication media can eliminate ambiguity and uncertainty. (Daft & Lengel, 1986). The communication that takes place face-to-face is deemed to be rich media because it has less ambiguity whereby computer-mediated communication is considered to have not as much of rich media  to eliminate uncertainty. Media richness theory explains that computer-mediated communication gets rid of nonverbal cues that exist in a face-to-face environment hence lowering the quality of what was being communicated. The type of media used can either positively or negatively affect the success of what is being communicated. Effective communication is very important because it helps increase the students’ self-esteem as well as improve their problem solving skills.

Newberry (2001) did a study to investigate issues that relate to social presence in an online environment. This study proposed some methods of increasing social presence among learners. The study explored seven media types in relation to their richness. (See Table below)

Media Types in Media Richness (Newberry, 2001)

Criteria	Media Rating
	High	Medium	Low
Feedback	Face to Face Video Conferencing Synchronous Audio Text Based Chat		E-mail Threaded Discussion Asynchronous Audio
Multiple cues	Face-to Face	Video Conferencing	Synchronous Audio Asynchronous Audio Text Based Chat E-mail Threaded Discussion
Message Tailoring	Face to Face	Video Conferencing Synchronous Audio E-mail	Text Based Chat Asynchronous Audio Threaded Discussion
Emotions	Face to Face	Video Conferencing Synchronous Audio Asynchronous Audio	Text Based Chat E-mail Threaded Discussion

Newberry (2001) used a criterion to rate media richness based on whether the media has the ability to provide immediate feedback, convey several cues, for example body language, permit the message to be produced or changed specifically for an intended receiver, and relay the feelings or emotions. Newberry (2001) proposed a method to increase social presence in an online environment, which includes the use of interactive elements such as student pictures, use of voice tools and using synchronous tools such as chat and audio to generate greater social presence, student group work which allows the learners to collaborate in projects and assignments hence building their relationships. Interactive elements are essential to improve the learning experience. 

References

Daft, R.L. & Lengel, R.H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science 32(5), 554-572.

Hirschheim, R. (2005). The internet-based education bandwagon: Look before you leap. Communications of the ACM, 48(7), 97–101.

Newberry, B. (2001). Media Richness, Social Presence and Technology Supported Communication Activities in Education. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from Technology Enriched Learning: http://www.learngen.org/resources/module/lgend101_norm1/200/210/211_3.html