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Animation to Improve Learner Engagement in Education

After working in animation for 25 years from broadcast tv, then patient education, commercial education, to teaching. I have seen animation as an effective and engaging educational tool for explaining very simple and very involved concepts. I’ve been creating animated Instructional videos for the past 20 years for clients and also created my own interactive patient education application that houses my animations on various medical topics. The animations can be viewed on mobile as well as from a desktop computer or laptop.The 3D human models can be viewed and studied in AR projections that can be turned and studied . I also create animations as visual aids in an AP Biology course at a Community college which has helped to improve quiz scores in the classrooms for past two years. I have dedicated video channels on YouTube as well as Vimeo for my animations. There are merits to utilizing animation in Instructional videos, Interactive Media.




Concept 1: Instructional Videos - I have been working in animation for 25 years, first in broadcast tv and then patient education. I have been creating animated explainer and Instructional videos for the past 20 years for clients and also created my own interactive patient education application that houses my animations on various medical topics. The animations can be viewed on mobile as well as from a desktop computer or laptop. The animation below is an explainer video for what coronary angioplasty with and without a stent is for patients to have a better understanding of the procedure, what a stent is, instructions for before the procedure and after the procedure.

In the article “Teaching & Learning with Medical Animations & Videos” written by an ESL teacher, Reima Al-Jarf, who provides a rationale for using video and animations in the classroom. (Al-Jarf, R. 2016) Most universities use English to teach so some of students have a difficult time understanding lectures delivered in English in courses such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, biology, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology, and difficulty learning their terminology.The lectures could be supplemented by online medical videos and animations. The videos used with ESL students were effective in enhancing students’ learning. Animations and videos provide a variety of options to make learning easier such as themes, speakers and accents, as well as levels of difficulty, lengths and speeds. They bring courses alive and allow learners to use their visual and auditory senses to learn complex concepts and difficult procedures. Subtitles help students comprehend the content. Videos and animations do not teach by themselves and their use does not guarantee the automatic learning of the content. The students’ active role and the instructor’s guidance are crucial in facilitating learning.

Concept 2: Interactive Media -The 3D heart model seen here is something I created 10 years ago as part of the same patient education software I developed. The interactivity of this platform allows a viewer to watch the videos from home even after leaving a hospital.

Before the software it was called DunaMed as seen in this explainer video I made explaining how the program works.

and then it became Kurkare as seen in this demo of the software.

This platform allows a healthcare provider to essentially create playlists of the relevant animations to save and then later share to specific patient types. The animation has captions in various languages to make understanding easier. The patient gains a better understanding of otherwise more complex topics written at a third grade level so that it helps to level the playing field between patient and healthcare provider. The healthcare provider can touch the screen while animation plays to automatically pause the scene to drawn on top of the animations to call out specific areas. The program then saves this like a screenshot in the patient’s library accessible to them from home any time.

Concept 3: Multimedia in Education - Today, multimedia features such as cool graphics, endless types of sounds, animations and videos enliven the learning experience. Multimedia replacing traditional text instructions allows a wider range of stimuli, verbal and visual, which increases student engagement capable of taking information and making it alive,helping students to make real-world visualizations otherwise unseen. Kearsley (2002) confirmed that, “Imagery has been shown to facilitate recall in many studies. Recall or recognition is enhanced by presenting information in both visual and verbal form”. Students retention in multimedia learning exceeds that of traditional means. When learners are engaged in learning, the likelihood to retain information and sustain the learning process increases. According to Reeves (1998), “Multimedia can stimulate more than one sense at a time, and in doing so, may be more attention-getting and attention-holding.” Researchers indicated that the key distinction between traditional and multimedia instructional strategy is interaction. Interactive multimedia learning cultivates interaction between the learner and the learning content and the content with the learner. Research suggests that when such learning interaction occurs, a learner’s attention and comprehension of the learned subject increases. “Interaction is commonly viewed as stimulus response reinforcement encounters action, an integrated form of between the learner and the instruction” as stated by Stemler (1997). Interactivity makes the learning process responsive and active, governing a learning of participation and doing, not passive watching or merely listening.


References

Al-Jarf, R. (2016). Teaching & Learning with Medical Animations & Videos. Ealthy Magazine: European Association of Language Teachers for Healthcare, December(6), 1–3. https://doi.org/https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED613121

Underdown, Kimber; Martin, Jeff. (2016) Engaging the Online Student: Instructor-Created Video Content for the Online Classroom. Journal of Instructional Research, v5 8-12.ttps://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1127627.pdf


Teoh, Soo-Phing, Neo, Tse-Kian (2007). Interactive Multimedia Learning: Students' Attitudes and Learning Impact in an Animation Course. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET v6 n4 article 3 Octhttps://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED499660.pdf


Kaushal, Rajesh Kumar; Panda, Surya Narayan(2019). A Meta Analysis on Effective Conditions to Offer Animation Based Teaching Style. Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction, v16 n1 p129-153 Jun

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