Leveraging Examples in E-Learning

The chapter I am assigned to review in the Clark & Mayer textbook is chapter 11, “Leveraging Examples in E-Learning”. This chapter discusses the importance of worked examples in teaching new concepts. Worked examples are examples that the teacher does step by step as they are teaching the lesson. So, instead of just having a lecture and handing students a paper with problems to work on, the teacher does the lecture and works a couple of the examples for the students, modeling how the problems should be solved. This approach helps students to understand the concepts behind the problem, giving them a greater understanding of the concepts taught (Clark & Mayer, 2011).

The evidence the authors present points to a substantial increase in the retention of knowledge. Students who benefitted from worked examples saw increases in their test scores and faster performance (Clark & Mayer, 2011). The authors gave five principles of worked examples: fade from worked examples to problems, promote self-explanation, include instructional explanations of worked examples in some situations, apply the multimedia principles to examples, and support learning transfer. One other point they made was to use audio only in the worked example, rather than audio and text.

This point is important because it introduces a method of helping your students retain knowledge better. The teacher is there to help the students increase their knowledge. This approach will ensure that the lesson will be more effective. By working example problems for the students, the teacher is helping the students understand the process they need to use to solve those types of problems.

This chapter did not change my views about educational technology, but it did give me some ideas on how to design distance education courses. I understand, after seeing the results of the research conducted on this matter, that worked examples are something that should be a part of distance education lessons. Before reading this book, there was much about instructional design that I was unaware of. But this book, and this chapter in particular, have helped me gain a better understanding of the instructional design process and what it takes to design effective lessons.

This point is relevant to my ISD project in that this very thing was what I was planning on doing. My part of the project is using PowToonTM to create an animated video based on the inventions of Leonardo DaVinci. My plan is to work through the creation of a video for the students while explaining how to use the software.

It is also relevant to my future plans as I am preparing to teach distance education classes once my degree is finished. I will now have a better understanding of how to create effective lessons using worked examples. By pairing my words with the visual of me performing the actions, I will be helping my students come to a deeper understanding of the concepts being taught.

Clark, R., & Mayer, R. (2011). Leveraging examples in e-learning. In Clark, R., &

Mayer, R. (3rd Ed) E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines

for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (pp. 223-247). San

Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

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