Better Content, Better Learning

There is ample evidence that people learn best when they are engaged--by content which is sensorially appealing; personalized (i.e., adjusted for the learner and offering opportunities to make input); and novel, humorous, or relevant.

ADL reports the results of multiple studies comparing e-learning infused with varying amounts of engaging content to traditional classroom instruction.⁴⁵ As the graph below shows, 233 comparisons of basic computer-based instruction (containing little or no graphical content) indicated an average improvement over classroom instruction of .39 standard deviations. Adding multimedia capabilities (e.g., pictures, sound, and animation) added effectiveness, raising the improvement to .50 standard deviations. Intelligent tutoring systems intended to more directly emulate one teacher interacting with one student, and allowing either the student or computer to ask questions, increased improvement to .84 standard deviations--roughly equivalent to moving a student in the 50th percentile (i.e., in the middle of the "bell curve") to the 65th percentile. More advanced intelligent tutoring systems, featuring more adaptive learning, yielded improvements averaging about 1.05 standard deviations. This improvement enables a student in the 50th percentile to move to the 75th percentile (half-way down the right slope of the bell curve). No e-learning module studied has yet produced the 2.0 standard deviation improvement which has been attained by some professionally tutored individuals; but the trends are promising.