Download hyperheart: teaching technology for successful learning

Spencer, K. (1990) HyperHeart: does animated illustration contribute to mastery learning? British Journal of
Educational Technology, Vol. 21 (3), pp. 227-228
HYPERHEART: TEACHING TECHNOLOGY FOR SUCCESSFUL LEARNING
Having been disappointed with the no significant difference performance of educational media
innovations for more than 20 years, I am fortunate to have found that, looking from a slightly
different perspective, there are now some fairly convincing meta-analysis studies which show
that certain approaches to teaching really do offer benefits substantial enough to be
considered educationally significant. Two areas showing consistently superior effects are
mastery learning methods and the use of pictorial illustrations in instructional media.
Effect Size (ES) is generally estimated as the average test score difference between treatment
and control groups divided by the standard deviation of the control group and gives an
indication of when differences are educationally significant. An ES of 1.0 means that the
innovatory method or medium increases the performance of the group by an amount equal to
one standard deviation unit of traditional method; this is a large effect and is educationally
significant. An ES of 0.2 is a small or trivial effect.
Research reviews show a tendency for mastery methods (eg Learning For Mastery or
Personalised System of Instruction) to out-perform traditional approaches, with average ESs
ranging from 0.5 to 0.8, with 35% less variation in the performance of the mastery group, and
a retention ES of 0.7. Illustrations which aid text or verbal explanations also shows
improvements in students' achievement with average ESs ranging from 0.6 to 0.8 in favour of
illustrations whose function was representational, organizational or interpretational. They are
less beneficial when purely verbal tests are used (terminology ES=0.28; comprehension
ES=0.09).
Given the above results, I have looked for a medium which can present information in text
and graphical form and which can assess student performance and provide remedial
information to enable the average student to reach levels of performance more usually
associated with the top 20%. Conventional media fail to do this, being essentially passive and
non-inter-active, but I think I have found it in the form of HyperCard, which runs on the
Apple Macintosh range of computers. It brings to fruition the enabling technology concept,
which suggests that very powerful technology should be placed at the disposal of users to
make difficult jobs easier. This is not a new concept in most walks of life, but it represents a
new approach in the world of desktop computers!
The card is the basic unit in HyperCard and several cards are put together to form a stack.
The card has several components: background and foreground layers, text fields, graphic
tools and buttons. Cards within a stack are controlled by the HyperTalk scripting language,
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Spencer, K. (1990) HyperHeart: does animated illustration contribute to mastery learning? British Journal of
Educational Technology, Vol. 21 (3), pp. 227-228
which really turns the programme into a useful educational tool. Each of the features of
HyperCard can play a dynamic role in the way a user moves through the set of cards when a
script, written in HyperTalk, is associated with it. The HyperTalk language has a syntax
which is very similar to that of English.
HyperHeart
The HyperHeart programme is an attempt to provide instruction in the structure and
functioning of the heart for 14-16 year olds based on the programme which has been used by
Frank Dwyer for many years. There are several versions: text only; text plus simple line
drawings; text plus simple line drawings, with animation sequences. The text only version
has been shown by Dwyer to be inferior to the simple line illustrations, particularly when the
test incorporates illustrations. The version with animation sequences was produced to assess
the value of moving pictures to explain complex, dynamic situations. The previous research
in this area has tended to show that only small gains are likely to accrue from the addition of
motion sequences. This has considerable implications for the new inter-active technologies.
Each of these versions can be of two types: mastery and non-mastery. With the non-mastery
type of programme subjects pass through the structure of the heart material at their own
pace, taking an illustrated test before continuing with the functioning of the heart and ending
with two verbal tests and, finally, a drawing test. The mastery programmes test the subject
after the structure of the heart section and have a 95% criterion level. Each test item diagnoses
the probable reason for an incorrect answer and provides correctives. For example, left-right,
vein-artery and auricle-ventricle confusions are identified and corrected; several confusions
may be identified and each corrected within one response eg left-right/auricle-ventricle. Test
results and completion times are conveniently stored in a log file for each student.
Research has shown that lowering of the criterion level for mastery to 80% (from 95-100%)
results in a halving of the observed ES. Initial trials with the high criterion level in this
programme (95%) have been very encouraging. When the programme was introduced in
schools the teachers felt that such a criterion would deter most students and that they would
simply abandon the programme. This has not been the case. Even students of low ability have
persevered and mastered the material, gaining a positive self-image in the process, much to
the surprise of their teachers. The only mastery condition students who have abandoned their
work were a minority of those assigned to the text-only condition. These students found too
great a discrepancy between the teaching programme and the demands of the illustrated test
items. Certainly, the power of illustrations to aid in understanding and their importance in
maintaining perseverance has been amply demonstrated in the preliminary experimental
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Spencer, K. (1990) HyperHeart: does animated illustration contribute to mastery learning? British Journal of
Educational Technology, Vol. 21 (3), pp. 227-228
studies. The additional time taken to achieve mastery has ranged from 25% to 100%, but in all
cases students have felt that the extra effort has been worthwhile.
The addition of animation sequences, which can be repeated as required by the student,
obviously increases the time taken to complete the programme but does not appear to
influence the performance as measured by the tests. This confirms the prediction based on
previous research in this area, and once again raises the question of the value of motion
sequences for teaching such topics. Indeed, it may be said to challenge the very concept of
inter-active video: why link the computer to an expensive motion video-disc system when
simpler, less expensive systems are just as efficient?
The results of this study, which is in its early stages, strongly support the view that the latest
generation of computers, combining text and graphic displays at an affordable price, can
provide instruction that leads to excellence, provided that educational technologists
designing the educational software apply the knowledge gained through the years from
research and avoid the seduction of superfluous, but superficially more attractive methods of
display.
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Spencer, K. (1990) HyperHeart: does animated illustration contribute to mastery learning? British Journal of
Educational Technology, Vol. 21 (3), pp. 227-228
The animation sequence:
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