Researchers based at Loughborough University have developed a visual learning experience and are looking for collaborators to build a cross-institutional project.
Based on growing evidence to suggest that the prevalence on media – from TV to social media – means that students are increasingly exposed to and interpreting a number of images in daily life.
The method involves decreasing text and increasing the use of images in the learning environment.
It has already worked well in control group tests conducted at Loughborough. The literature suggests this is because it exploits cognitive ‘dual’ processing innate to all sighted people.
The investigators argue that this technique ‘reduces wasteful overload of our short-term memory and simultaneously
engages under-used visual processing capacity.’
The group are now looking for colleagues from a diversity of institutions to see if this method works well beyond Loughborough students.
Organisers will also be showcasing a simple, free, web-based research tool we developed to include and engage distance learners and other students sometimes excluded from pedagogic research.
The intention, as a Community of Practice (CoP), is to discuss, critique and share new practice and develop a bid for funding to develop and test this visual method further, at your own institutions, in academic year 2016-2017.
The data we develop will underpin a range of publishing opportunities and perhaps impact case studies as well. Below are a few ways suggested by organisers who encourage those interested to bring their own ideas:
1) You might create a short image-based presentation on the topic of your choice and give it to students at your own institution (mirroring my own methods), after which they complete an online survey regarding engagement and understanding. You might expand the survey questions as you see fit;
2) You might disseminate a web-based research tool through your own student communities, which students then view and respond to online within a fixed time-frame;
3) You might create a short image-based presentation on the topic of your choice and place it on a home-made website linked to a survey;
4) You might create a different approach able to generate appropriate data.
The group are looking for colleagues from a diversity of institutions to see if this method works well beyond Loughborough students. If you’re interested in attending an informal half-day session at Loughborough university before July, where Dr David Roberts will briefly outline the project been doing and share the test results, please email him: d.roberts@lboro.ac.uk by May 20th 2016.
Callout for Community of Practice