Interactive Media
The use of interactive media in education may depend largely on the subject matter. A casual search of interactive, educational media on the internet seems to yield mostly applications about topics in STEM, especially math.
Other media
Immersive Media
When used to describe media, immersion is the replacement of physical reality with virtual reality (Cummings & Bailenson, 2016), and educational media have varying levels of immersion (Figure 1). Immersive learning is advantageous for simulating situations that are physically impossible, counterproductive, too dangerous, or too expensive in the real world (Bailenson, 2018; Johnson-Glenberg, 2019; Makransky et al., 2020).
Visualizing Quantitative Information
Numerical data are commonly presented as tables or graphs (Ainsworth, 2021). Tables have the additional advantage of including non-numerical data, as exemplified in Table 1. A typical reason to display numerical data on a table is so that students can extract these values to perform calculations. Moreover, interactive tables on electronic platforms allow the viewer to sort the table entries in ascending or descending order according to the data in a column of choice. The sorted dataset ranks the entries and facilitates comparisons.
Giving Feedback to Students
Feedback is a signal to learners to let them know whether they are on the right track in meeting the course objectives and to correct faulty knowledge. In Open Learning, students have the opportunity to obtain feedback from the instructor as well as from interactive media. Examples of such interactive media are D2L/Moodle-based questionnaires, H5P (embedded in Pressbooks), WeBWorK, and Lyryx.
Audio | Other media | Video
Too Much Information!
Cognitive capacity is the amount of processing through audio and visual channels of working memory (Mayer & Fiorella, 2021). Essential overload (information overload) occurs when too much necessary information is presented too quickly.
Worked Examples
The learning outcomes of STEM courses frequently require students to perform mathematical computations or apply specific rules to solve problems. The rules may be physical laws, chemical reaction mechanisms, the syntax of programming languages, or financial accounting formulas.
Audio | Other media | Video
Style of Language — Formal Versus Conversational
The style of language refers to the manner of speaking of the instructor or on-screen agent as well as the manner of written instructions. Formal tone speaks from the third-person perspective, while a conversational tone speaks from the first- or second-person perspective to reference the learner explicitly. Instructions given in a direct tone sound commanding; however, when delivered in a polite tone, they may be reworded as suggestions or questions.