Instructional and Cognitive Impacts of Web-Based Education

Beverly Abbey.
Instructional and Cognitive Impacts of Web-Based Education.
Hershey, Pa.: Idea Group Publishing, 2000.
paper, 270 p., ISBN 1-878-28959-4, US$64.95.
Idea Group: http://www.idea-group.com/

Beverly Abbey states in her preface that "This book represents a compendium of current international thought and issues on assessing, designing and delivering instruction via the Web" (p. i). While the majority of the contributors are based in the U.S., there are also contributions from the Netherlands, Australia and Norway.

The issues that the collection considers range from aspects of Web site design, such as navigation, to the pedagogical consequences of Web-based courses which place more responsibility on the learner. In the first chapter, Bastiaens and Martens of the Open University of the Netherlands examine the increasing tendency for university distance education to be integrated with the professional context of the student, lending the academic studies practical relevance.

They propose many arguments, both educational and economic, in favour of distance training. One of the major educational advantages is that "demand-driven" education is much more tailored to the needs of the student than traditional "supply-led" education. The use of ICT also emphasizes independent study. Bastiaens and Martens offer a series of guidelines for the use of Embedded Support Devices which attempt to overcome some of the disadvantages of distance learning, by making the materials more supportive. These guidelines can be of great benefit in the production of course materials for distance learning programmes.

This topic is taken up in Chapter II, where Berg, Collins and Dougherty of the University of Maryland provide design guidelines for Web-based courses, and they share the emphasis on students taking responsibility for their own learning. They point out the importance of structuring the content in a form which is attractive and usable by exploiting the features of the Web and moving away from the traditional linear approach to course design. However, this short chapter comprises general guidelines rather than specific techniques, and lacks the experience-based detail of Chapter I.

In Chapter IV, Bonk, Cummings, Hara, Fischler and Lee from Indiana University posit a continuum of levels of Web integration in a course, which will help educators to find a level that they are able to work with to begin to incorporate the Web in their programmes. The continuum ranges from simply using the Web to market a course to offering a range of courses entirely on the Web. For each level, the authors provide instructional design guidelines; an interactive demonstration of the levels is available at http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk.

Similarly, in Chapter VIII, Lowther, Jones and Plants from the University of Memphis identify various levels of use of the Web in education, with each level requiring a particular skill set on the part of the teacher and the student. They provide a summary of the information literacy skills and the technology skills that are required at each level, and use this as a basis for their suggested elements of pre-service teacher training.

Useful as these guidelines are, the most interesting chapters are those which draw on various psychological theories of learning to derive principles for Web site design. A key task for educators is to present information in ways that our students can understand and absorb efficiently, and while the World Wide Web is an excellent medium for disseminating information, it has not yet been proven as a means of promoting the acquisition of knowledge, especially where a critical understanding is required.

"Too often, Web sites are developed for instructional uses without the aid of sound instructional design principles. Content is presented as static, verbal information pages linked to other information pages that may or may not include obvious or intuitive navigational cues for making the cognitive connections necessary for knowledge construction. That is, critical information is delivered in a potentially rich learning environment but the format of the presentation confuses or 'loses' the novice learner" (Rogers, Chapter XIV, p. 217).

Research into the cognitive processes that take place as we interact with material on the Web is at an early stage, but it is clear that these processes are different from those involved in reading a traditionally structured text. It is therefore essential that we design our educational Web sites with these differences in mind.

Berry from the University of Pittsburgh, in Chapter III, focuses on the cognitive effects of Web page design, producing an interesting synthesis of research from various disciplines. He points out that most early research "addressed the perceptual aspects of how users viewed and interacted with data on the screen" (p. 41), and that "little attention has been given to the cognitive effects of screen design and even less to the educational implication of such design" (p. 42).

The main factors of importance that Berry identifies are "those which relate to the physical design of the message and presentation, and those which are derived from how the learner interacts with the pages or site" (p. 45).

Research in text presentation and density supports the suggestion "that text should be presented on Web pages in short chunks and should be edited to simplify content" (p. 46). However, Berry fails to consider the pedagogical consequences of presenting edited and simplified materials, which obviously has a negative impact on the quantity and quality of learning. Similarly, the suggestion that "users may not even read text, but rather skim it" (p. 46) seems to imply that Web-based materials are unlikely to convey detailed content effectively.

The degree of visual complexity that is desirable is still a matter for debate, with some research claiming that the more complex an instructional visual is, the more effectively it will facilitate learning, while others contend that information overload impedes processing. Berry, citing Norman (1983) sensibly cautions that "The potential of information overload due to the combination of browsing forms of interaction and complex visualization may result in imperfect or incomplete processing by students, particularly those who have not developed an adequate mental map or structure of the knowledge being presented" (p. 49).

The learner factors that Berry discusses include the "browser mentality" which means that students do not take time to read carefully and reflect upon the content, as they are impatient to click on the next link. Although Berry does not make the connection explicitly, this tendency may be curbed by materials designers imposing a more linear organization, thus reducing the number of navigational options facing the student. As Berry points out, a key design criterion is to use a simple and consistent design in order to reduce the cognitive demands of navigating the Web site, and maximize the processing of the target material.

In Chapter VI, Leflore of North Carolina A&T takes up the point that "learning can be enhanced if attention is given to how the material to be learned is presented and how students are required to interact with and interpret the material. Learning theories can be used to provide sound guidelines for designing a variety of presentation modes and student activities online" (p. 102).

She provides an insightful overview of the ways in which Gestalt theory, cognitive theory and constructivism can contribute to the more effective design of Web pages. Visual design should be informed by a consideration of the Laws of Perception, including figure-ground contrast, simplicity, proximity, similarity, symmetry and closure. Cognitive theory indicates the use of cognitive mapping, concept attainment activities and the use of motivational graphics, animations and sounds. A Constructivist perspective requires that "students be given active and engaging tasks that require more than minimal intellectual involvement" (p. 103).

The overview of these various theoretical perspectives provides concrete guidelines to help the Web designer who is not a specialist in the psychology of learning to produce pages consonant with the findings of research in that discipline. For each of the psychological theories, Leflore gives a set of guidelines with examples including screenshots to illustrate the principles and help the non-specialist to implement the guidelines in practice.

In Chapter X, Miller and Miller from Texas A&M University-Commerce add depth to the background in learning theories, showing how the shift from objectivist to constructivist epistemological perspectives in recent years has influenced instructional practices and use of Web technology. Indeed the description they give of the Constructivist paradigm is mirrored by the associative, nonlinear and hierarchical structure of the Web. "From the Constructivist perspective, the goal of learning is the construction of meaningful knowledge (i.e., understanding). The added value that the Web offers is a structure that permits expression of learners' evolving comprehension" (p. 164).

A Constructivist approach requires an understanding of how learners create meaning, so that learning environments can be designed to promote the construction of knowledge. The task for designers of Web-based instruction is to integrate Constructivist theoretical assumptions and their instructional implications with the unique structural features of the Web that facilitate the construction of knowledge. Learning can be further enhanced by the use of media to create realistic problem-solving situations, and by collaboration through synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies.

In Chapter XV, Smith-Gratto from North Carolina A&T provides another overview of Constructivism, but also makes a case for combining the Constructivist approach with a stimulus-feedback-response paradigm of programmed instruction as developed by B.F. Skinner (1968) The rationale for this is that Constructivist methods alone may be inadequate in cases where students lack the resources and background knowledge to create meaning from new information. It therefore seems logical to use programmed instruction to provide a foundation on which constructivism can build.

The various chapters on the impact of learning theories in the design of Web-based educational materials complement each other well, and collectively provide a useful insight into the psychological processes that underpin learning. The collection also touches on many other aspects of the design of educational Web sites; its main strength is in the wide variety of perspectives that it presents, and although each of the sixteen chapters is necessarily brief, together they constitute a timely overview of current research.