Multimedia types as moderators/mediators to the relationship between college students' learning beliefs and the impact on cognitive load in a general education undergraduate course with an asynchronous component

Abstract

In the educational literature, various attempts have been made to understand the complexities of learning and cognitive processing in web-based environments. There have been studies to examine the relationship between multimedia and cognitive processing and other studies have examined the relationship between students’ learning beliefs (i.e. naive or sophisticated) and cognitive processing. However, relatively few studies have explored multimedia types (i.e. text, audio, or video) as moderators/mediators to the relationship between students’ learning beliefs on the impact on cognitive load (i.e. intrinsic, extraneous, and germane). In this dissertation, the researcher has proposed and evaluated models for the potential relationships between learning beliefs, multimedia types, and their impact on cognitive load. Specifically, the models were to determine if multimedia moderated or mediated the relationship between students’ learning beliefs and the impact on cognitive load. A total of 346 students, who attended a general education undergraduate food science and human nutrition course that included an asynchronous component, completed an instrument designed to assess learning beliefs and their demographics. Based upon students’ demographic information, they were randomly placed into one of three multimedia groups to view the food science lecture materials, Group 1 (text + graphics) - 118 students, Group 2 (audio + text + graphics) - 113 students, and Group 3 (video + audio + text + graphics) - 115 students. Within each group, students completed pre-tests associated with course materials, they viewed four food science lecture materials, took post-tests, and then they completed the Leppink and colleagues’ (2013) Cognitive Load Instrument. The multimedia groups were not rearranged if a student did not complete all the aspects of the study. Thus, depending upon the food science lecture material, the total student population differed from 303 students (lecture 12 food science lecture material) to 267 students (lecture 28 material). As the student population differed, data from each of these lecture materials were analyzed separately. Multiple-linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the role of multimedia types (i.e. moderation and/or mediation) in the relationship between students’ learning beliefs and the impact on cognitive load. Results from the moderation analyses showed audio and video formats moderated the relationship between students’ learning beliefs (i.e. the certainty of knowledge and the speed of knowledge acquisition dimensions) and germane cognitive load; where sophisticated learning believers reported their understanding of the material was enhanced after reviewing the food science lecture materials in audio and video formats. There were no consistent results from the mediation analyses. The results from this study invite researchers to explore multimedia types, students’ characteristics (e.g. prior knowledge and learning beliefs), and the impact on germane cognitive load in further detail within various settings and using different methodologies to further understand students’ cognitive processing.