Developing and evaluating a strategy for learning from animations

Based on current theories of multimedia learning, we propose a strategy for learning from animations. Two different experimental studies were conducted in order to evaluate the strategy. In the first study, 22 sixth graders learned from an animation without the strategy while 21 students were encouraged to make use of the proposed strategy during learning; use of the strategy was not monitored. The students who were encouraged to take advantage of the strategy learned significantly more than the students who were not asked to do so. In the second study, three groups of sixth graders were investigated. The first group consisted of 49 students who learned from an animation without the strategy. The second group consisted of 52 students who were encouraged to make use of the strategy during learning; but use of the strategy was not monitored. The third group consisted of 53 students who were also encouraged to make use of the strategy during learning and their use of the strategy was monitored. The results of the second study replicated the findings of the first study. Furthermore, learning was most successful when the students' use of the learning strategy was monitored.