G. Korakakis, E.A. Pavlatou, J. Palyvos, N.Spyrellis
International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2008) (2008), Madrid (Spain), November 17-19, (CD-rom) (poster)
The aim of this research was to determine whether the use of specific types of visualization (3D illustration, 3D animation and interactive 3D animation) combined with narration and text contributes to the learning process of 17 and 18 years-old students in science courses.The study was carried out in Greece in a sample of 114 students of 12th grade. This exploratory study utilized three different versions of an interactive multimedia application called "Atomic Orbitals", each one differing from the other two in the type of visuals. All the rest of the application components (narration, text, navigation, auxiliary tools, interface, etc.) were common in all three versions. This multimedia application was produced from scratch, based on the latest educationally acceptable theories and researches in various multimedia visualizations. In the last part of the multimedia application, the students were asked to answer questions of various types. The percentage of correct answers was recorded and presented at the end of the application. The questions in all three versions were precisely the same and were presented in the same way. The research results indicated that interactive 3D animations have a greater contribution to the learning process than the other two types of visualization. The findings also suggested that all three types of the multimedia application increase the interest of students and make the material more appealing to them. Furthermore, they suggested that there is an obvious correlation between the total time that the students dedicated to the scenes and the percentage of correct answers, in the application versions with interactive 3D animations, as well as with (non-interactive) 3D animations.