[Tutor] The Reading Documentation problem

[David L Neil]

There is a growing body of serious research proving that people 
generally learn better from a printed-page than from a screen. Indeed a 
visit to a tertiary library will immediately provide you with anecdotal 
evidence that many "digerati" have come to the same conclusion - and 
given a choice will take the 'dead-tree' option.

In my own experience, looking at statistics for EdX courses, the number 
of trainees who actually complete a video lecture is staggeringly small. 
One person criticised that observation by suggesting that the stats were 
biased by second-views: whereby folk (having watched the presentation 
from start-to-finish once) returned to a video later - perhaps for 
'revision' or perhaps to check facts/ensure had absorbed the information 
or particular technique. Unfortunately, if that were significant, then 
the number of (unique) people who actually started a video, would be 
less than 50% of those 'completing' the lesson!
NB trainees don't have to endure my ugly-mug* in the videos, so don't 
have that excuse for bailing - however eminently-reasonable!

* British slang for face/visage (small hat-tip to Alan)

Personally I don't have confidence in *my* learning from video - or even 
an audio lecture. At first I put that down to my (personal) learning 
experience. However, the reality is that we talk to each other 'all day' 
and have no major difficulty remembering the pertinent parts of 
conversations; so maybe that's not a very accurate self-diagnosis.

Interestingly, discussing this with (current) tertiary students, 
revealed their idea that reading was slower than watching video. 
However, my (again, personal) experience is that I read video 
transcripts faster than the video will play - and quite possibly with 
higher comprehension and retention. Accordingly, I began losing faith in 
videos as a learning media, and have found few points to reverse such 
decline.

Perhaps then, the issue may be influenced by reading speed? A slow 
reader may prefer the video approach and ultimately learn more 
effectively that way (I'm not including specific conditions/cases, eg 
dyslexia, in these general cases).

To top that off, the literature generally reveals that if one media 
enables people to read more quickly, either they are essentially equal 
or the advantage/facility lies with books over screens.

That said, another popular view is that training should be oriented 
towards presentation on a smart-phone screen. Good luck (learning) 
coding within such visual constraints! Nevertheless, it is a sound 
marketing observation as to 'medium'. Whether "marketing" (attention 
span, brevity of communication opportunity, 'sizzle over steak', etc, 
etc) closely relates to pedagogy, underlies much of this discussion!



On 11/09/19 8:44 PM, Sean Murphy wrote:
> Nicely summarised I fully agree. I recall of study done many years ago comparing a person who read information via book and someone who looked on the Internet. The concentration and retention with Farlow for someone is getting information via the Internet due to the weight designed. Please excuse any errors because I’m using Siri.
> 
> My experience is the part
> 
>> On 25 Aug 2019, at 5:57 pm, Alan Gauld via Tutor <tutor at python.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On 25/08/2019 00:04, Mike Barnett wrote:
>>> Sorry this is so long, but it's a real problem I'm witnessing and I'm
>>> wondering if it's only a certain portion of the programming world
>>> (self-taught people) or the internet-generation in general does
>>> this regardless of educational training.
>>
>> My own opinion, based on  anecdotal evidence only, is that its a symptom of
>> the YouTube generation.
>>
>> People now learn from YouTube - which is invariably a shallow learning
>> process
>> driven by example rather than deeper explanation. (I'm biased since I write
>> books and a website! :-)
>>
>> But if you "learn" by video, any documentation seems dull and boring.
>>
>> So unless there is a short (one paragraph) text or a video these folks turn
>> to forums etc and ask for an answer (not an explanation, they only want
>> the immediate answer).
>>
>> This is an issue in all manner of areas. I am a keen photographer and I see
>> the same thing there. Just tell me how to improve this shot, No interest in
>> understanding the deeper reasons why the image is wrong and how
>> to avoid the problem in future.
>>
>> There are exceptions of course, but YouTube has created an expectation
>> that you can learn anything from a 15 minute video clip.
>>
>> -- 
>> Alan G
>> Author of the Learn to Program web site
>> http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
>> http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
>> Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at:
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos
>>
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-- 
Regards =dn