Komma

Speaker: Tessa Voerman

This study examined the effectiveness of timing of practice on learning from video instruction for software training (‘videos’). An experiment is reported in which 53 university students received an alternation of videos complemented with practice as an instructional feature (‘training’). The videos were created using guidelines from multimedia and Demonstration-Based Training research. The following variables were measured: engagement, task relevance, self-efficacy and conceptual and procedural knowledge. The participants were randomly distributed among three conditions. One condition performed a practice activity before watching the tutorial (PT), another the other way around (TP), and the third practiced at both moments in time (PTP). As PTP combines the strengths of both PT and TP, this condition was expected to outperform the other conditions. Video logging showed that almost all videos were watched. Questionnaires before and after training and a knowledge test after training showed an enhancement of task relevance, self-efficacy and conceptual and procedural knowledge scores, attributed to the notable quality of the videos. The timing of practice significantly increased self-efficacy change and procedural knowledge scores. An explanation for this is the availability of external feedback, which enabled the learners’ evaluation and improvement of their performance and therefore learning. Other significant findings are the pairwise comparisons of the TP- and PT-conditions on both self-efficacy growth and procedural knowledge scores. PTP was expected to outperform PT and TP, but barely did so. Future research is needed to create a better understanding of under which circumstances timing of practice is most effective in software training.

Graduation     Committee

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Hans van der Meij Alieke van Dijk