In this blog post, we analyze from various perspectives whether multimedia teaching enhances learning effectiveness or, conversely, causes adverse effects.
When I was a university student, the most important task as a knowledge-seeking student was diligently preparing for classes. Preparing for class involves several elements. Maintaining the right mindset for class, avoiding tardiness, and previewing and reviewing the material were all part of it. However, above all else, what I considered most important was preparing the necessary class materials, such as textbooks and writing supplies. From elementary school through high school, I always ended my day by gathering the textbooks I would need for the next day’s classes. This habit continued after entering university, and I typically prepared for the next day’s classes the night before. While I still maintain this habit today, some things have changed. Since entering university, even when textbooks are available, I often leave them at home or even skip buying them altogether. I increasingly attend classes prepared only with the PowerPoint materials uploaded by professors.
What caused this shift? The primary reason is likely that classes are primarily conducted using PowerPoint presentations rather than textbooks. Of course, not every class centers on PowerPoint, but the majority do. Even in my freshman year, many professors would show PowerPoint slides while writing on the blackboard. However, as I advanced through my studies, professors began using tablets instead of blackboards, writing directly on the PowerPoint materials during lectures. This change was made possible by advances in science and technology, and such changes will likely continue. Advancements in science and technology are transforming teaching methods, and multimedia instruction is now utilized in many classrooms.
So, is multimedia instruction truly helpful, or is it a distraction? First, multimedia instruction can increase student engagement. Video materials or visually appealing PowerPoint presentations capture students’ attention more effectively than lengthy textbook passages, encouraging class participation. Furthermore, PowerPoint presentations summarize textbook content, making it easier for students to grasp the material. These two advantages are likely why multimedia teaching is increasing.
However, multimedia teaching also has a critical drawback. Distributing PowerPoint summaries of lecture content to students poses several problems. First, this teaching method limits students’ ability to summarize and digest lengthy textbook passages on their own. Reading lengthy passages and summarizing them independently allows students to move beyond merely knowing information to actually applying it. However, if students learn solely by viewing the professor’s summarized PPT, they understand the material only through the professor’s framework, not their own. This can diminish their ability to apply knowledge. When students comprehend and digest lengthy passages in their own way, they develop their own unique knowledge system. For example, the speed at which you find books classified in your own way versus those classified by someone else on a bookshelf filled with various books will differ. These small differences create significant disparities in knowledge application skills. The true meaning of learning, as I see it, goes beyond mere knowledge acquisition to the application of that knowledge. Therefore, lectures that distribute PowerPoint slides to students inherently carry risks.
Furthermore, this teaching method can foster laziness. For STEM students, given the nature of classes involving numerous formulas, professors often derive these formulas directly during lectures. While professors strive to explain them simply, students may still encounter difficult parts. In such cases, students might think, “I can just look at the PPT later.” In reality, during class, many students, myself included, observed that when faced with difficult parts, they didn’t ask the professor questions but instead postponed the effort to understand. The consequences of this laziness become most apparent during exam periods. Students who have been lazy during the semester try to cram all their studying into a short period, ignoring the thick textbooks and relying solely on the summarized PowerPoints. Ultimately, this leads to a focus on memorization rather than understanding and applying the knowledge. Considering that the ultimate goal of learning is to understand and apply knowledge, this type of multimedia teaching method should be avoided.
Moreover, this form of multimedia instruction can foster laziness not only in students but also in professors. Listening to students who retake courses reveals that the PowerPoint materials remain completely unchanged. In some cases, even typos pointed out in previous classes were left uncorrected. Can professors truly claim to be diligently researching their lessons when they fail to fix even such simple errors? Could it be that professors, too, are neglecting teaching research by relying on convenient PowerPoint materials?
Thus, while multimedia teaching has the advantage of capturing students’ attention and being convenient for instruction, certain methods of multimedia teaching carry fatal flaws. Particularly, the currently widespread practice of distributing PowerPoint summaries of lecture content to students warrants reconsideration.
