Students’ attitudes towards animated demonstrations as computer learning tools

Abstract

Animated demonstrations are increasingly used for presenting the functionality of various computer applications. Nevertheless, our understanding of whether and how students integrate this technology into their learning strategies remains limited. Although, several studies have examined animated demonstrations’ learning efficiency, this study aims at investigating users’ initial attitudes towards animated demonstrations as computer learning tools. Attitudes about knowledge sources play a determinative role for their acceptance. Quantitative and qualitative information was collected from forty-six interviews with students who used animated demonstrations for the first time. Students appraised animated demonstrations with regard to their authentic representation of task sequences, arguing that comprehension of the demonstrations did not entail intensive metacognitive burdens. On the contrary, students claimed that animated demonstrations had browsing inefficiencies and sometimes failed to satisfy individual learning needs. Interview transcripts revealed that students’ attitudes were influenced by several factors, such as the nature of the computer application to be learnt, students’ prior knowledge of that application, their prior learning practices, narrator’s characteristics, simulated practice options and the procedural segmentation of the presentation. Results of the study can be exploited to enhance the design of educational applications that incorporate animated demonstrations.