Gwynn Grandy, Graduate in Instructional System
"Marine Mysteries" is an interactive educational module that places the learner in the role of a Marine Biologist. The learner has to determine out what is wrong with the tanks by learning about the various marine creatures. The goal of this module was to maximize learner motivation, learning retention, and problem solving skills. The interactions, visuals, audio, and animation all support this. The majority of the project was created in Articulate, which creates both short quizzes and various flash interactions. I also used CrazyTalk to create short introductory animations. This is a conceptual prototype that could easily be expanded with additional problems to solve.
By immersing the learner in the role of marine biologist, the scenario creates a sense of alternate identity and competency, which increases motivation. The high degree of interactivity is also designed to increase motivation in the learning content. The advantage of an interactive module over simply reading about a subject matter is that it creates a chance to practice problem solving skills. By placing the learning in a contextual setting, and requiring the user to apply their newly gained knowledge to solve a problem, the learner should make more cognitive connections with the information and retain a greater percentage of the new data.
