Come Fly with Me: Screencasts with Zooming Fly-in-style Highlights

Although digital learning objects such as screencasts and video tutorials are increasingly used to teach information literacy and library-related content, the design of those learning objects has been little studied and has been rarely tied to findings from the learning sciences literature. Low-effort, high-impact evidence-based enhancements are especially important with screencasts that teach library interfaces, since they are often updated and redesigned. This study analyzes the performance of library-related tasks by 39 students exposed to digital learning objects, and it tests whether learning is facilitated by highlighting elements known as “callouts.” This study tests a) whether these callouts improve learning and, b) whether gradually revealed, “fly-in” style callouts—in contrast with tutorials with abruptly revealed callouts and with tutorials without callouts—have a more pronounced effect on learning. Study results supported the hypothesis that these highlighting callouts improved learning, although gradually revealed callouts and abruptly revealed callouts were similarly effective. Participants who viewed tutorials with callouts performed twice as well on some library-related tasks. Although the relatively small size of the study sample limits the statistical power, these results suggest that callouts are effective in helping learners select and pay attention to the most relevant aspects of a presentation.