Abstract:

In the modern globalized world, the significance of visual communication is growing. The importance of visuals as a means of learning, perceiving and communicating has continued to grow even more with the advancement of new technologies. Blackboard drawings in the near past, videos and computer animations today, visualization develops with technological progress to support teaching and learning.

Visual literacy training receives little attention in secondary education. This gap in the training of young people is transferred to higher education, where students are expected to have built up a set of literacies. Higher education students in all specialities are constantly offered visual materials, and they are expected to grasp, use and create images in different formats during their studies. Most of the students are from the digital generation, but this does not automatically mean that they are visually literate in the sense that they can effectively interpret the visual elements in the multimedia educational content.

Audience analysis in e-learning design is a condition for creating effective training, tailored to the learners’ characteristics. Visual literacy is an important element of audience analysis. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable visual literacy measurement tool for higher education students and to put it into practice with healthcare students as a requirement in e-learning design. The tool may also serve as a diagnostic test to plan measures to improve students’ visual literacy.

The instrument is presented in this article. We used the test-retest method for validation, R=0,858 between the two surveys. The final set of 33 indicators, constituting the measurement tool, has Cronbach α>0,85. The score x, -66>=x<=66, determines the degree of visual literacy.

The visual literacy of the surveyed 273 students had a mean estimate x=26,75±17,82, SEM=1,08, Me=27,00. Respondents’ scores varied widely, with most of them (63,74%) below the cut of in the middle of the positive part of the scale – 33 points. Students with poor visual literacy, who received results below zero, were 17 (6,23%). Four students (1,47%) demonstrated maximum, according to the measurement scale, visual literacy.

The analysis of the results indicated that the visual literacy of the surveyed healthcare students was at a satisfactory level. The visual skills did not depend on age and gender, but they statistically significantly differed in the speciality. Students – radio laboratory assistants demonstrated the highest visual literacy. The students, whose training was mostly oriented towards the psycho-motor domain skills – specialities ‘Rehabilitator’ and ‘Dental technician’, showed the poorest visual literacy. A statistically significant moderate positive relationship existed between visual literacy and the frequency of computer usage for learning.
These findings imply that different approaches are necessary for embedding visuals in e-learning design for specific educational content in higher education for future specialists in different healthcare areas.

Special supplementary education, an optional course in visual literacy, could help students refine their skills. Enhanced training in information technologies can also play a role as an impetus for improving visual literacy, as technology usage – visual literacy relationship is unambiguous.

Keywords:

Visual literacy, e-learning, healthcare, higher education.