Abstract:

There is evidence showing that during lectures in higher education, undergraduate students are passive, they have reduced performance and they show limited motivation to participate. Research shows that, typically, multimedia is used in university courses as a source of information rather than as a medium for production. Constructionism, where students construct their own representation of knowledge, has been advocated as a way to engage undergraduates and transform them from media consumers to media producers.

Only a few studies were conducted on the implementation of constructionism in media courses in higher education. Studies showed positive results for students’ motivation and understanding but most of them were based on students’ self-reported data.

The present case-study involved 31 undergraduates of a new media course in creating six 3-minute animated videos (including animated characters, text and audio), reflecting their understanding of course material over a semester, in a constructionist environment. It attempted to measure students’ understanding using exams, students’ multimedia production skills using standardized criteria and students’ motivation using validated tests.

The research questions were:
1. What is the relationship between undergraduate students’ multimedia production skills and their understanding of course content in an introductory course on new media?
2. How does students’ motivation change over time when they are engaged in multimedia production in an introductory course on new media?

Data sources for the first research question included:
a) course exams to measure students’ understanding of course content and
b) 186 students’ artifacts to measure their multimedia production skills, evaluated by two researchers using a set of standardized criteria.

Data sources for the second research question included two standardized and validated motivation questionnaires (administered pre- and post-intervention) to measure students’ motivation using 28 statements in a 7-point Likert scale. Interviews were also conducted for triangulation purposes.

Regarding the first research question, a statistically significant moderate positive relationship was found between undergraduate students’ multimedia production skills and their understanding of course content (r=0.523, p=0.003). Thus, the higher the students’ multimedia production skills the higher their understanding of course material.

Regarding the second research question, students’ motivation for learning was very high from the beginning of the course for several dimensions of motivation, including challenge (M=5.74, max=7, SD=1.19), probability of success (M=5.35, SD=1.03) and interest (M=5.76, SD=0.89) and did not differentiate significantly by the end of the course.

This study documented a positive relationship between undergraduates’ multimedia production skills and their understanding of course content and documented students’ high motivation when they participate in courses that involve them in multimedia creation. The study therefore advocates in favor of constructionism for increasing students’ understanding and motivation in higher education media studies.

Limitations of the study that affect generalizability include its small sample size, the lack of a control group and the lack of random assignment. Findings can be validated through further research with larger sample sizes and the inclusion of control groups.

Keywords:

Media construction, motivation, content understanding, constructionism, active learning, higher education.