e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning

2.4. How Can You Identify Relevant Research?

You might wonder how we selected the research we include in this book or how you could determine whether a given research study is applicable to your design decisions. The following list summarizes five questions to consider when reading research studies:

1. How similar are the learners in the research study to your learners? Research conducted on children may be limited in its applicability to adult populations. More relevant studies use subjects of college age or beyond.

2. Are the conclusions based on an experimental research design? Look for subjects randomly assigned to test and control groups.

3. Are the experimental results replicated? Look for reports of research in which conclusions are drawn from a ...