The effectiveness of placing temporal constraints on a transmedia STEM learning experience for young children.

April 1st, 2014 | RESEARCH

This article describes a transmedia learning experience for early school-aged children. The experience represented an effort to transition a primarily television-based series to a primarily web-based series. Children watched new animation, completed online activities designed to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) exploration, and participated in (and reported on) offline activities that required them to investigate real-world phenomena. Children were expected to visit the website every weekday, for four weeks, as part of the experience. A single group pre-post test design was utilized to assess the impact of the experience on science knowledge and participants' satisfaction with the temporal and other elements of the multimedia experience. The national sample included 115 children aged five to eight years. Families preferred not to visit the website daily and instead preferred to follow their own pace. We observed no differences in key outcomes based on frequency of use. We observed a significant improvement in children's science knowledge and attitudes towards doing STEM activities at home. We also observed significant improvements in parental attitudes towards doing science activities. This study has implications for the design of transmedia learning experiences that are designed around temporal constraints.

Document

(no document provided)

Team Members

Concord Evaluation Group, Contributor
Jessica Andrews, Contributor, WGBH Educational Foundation
Christine Paulsen, Contributor, Concord Evaluation Group

Citation

Identifier Type: DOI
Identifier: 10.2304/elea.2014.11.2.204

Publication: E-learning and digital media
Volume: 11
Number: 2
Page(s): 204

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL

Related URLs

http://ldm.sagepub.com/content/11/2/204

Tags

Audience: Elementary School Children (6-10) | Evaluators | Museum | ISE Professionals | Pre-K Children (0-5)
Discipline: Education and learning science | Engineering
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Games | Simulations | Interactives | Media and Technology