SL-CN: Project LENS: Leveraging Expertise in Neurotechnologies to Study Individual Differences in Multimedia Learning

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

The use of multimedia in STEM education is undergoing a remarkable growth. Such growth has been so rapid that it has far outstripped the abilities of research to keep pace with its application. Project LENS is designed to establish a Science of Learning Collaborative Network (SL-CN) consisting of the Educational Neuroscience Laboratory and Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention at the University of Florida, the Laboratory for Visual Learning at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the Educational Neuropsychology Laboratory at Washington State University. The network brings together scholars from the following disciplines: STEM Education, Cognitive and Developmental Psychology, Neuroscience, Educational Technology, Computer Science, and Educational Measurement. Experts from the Project LENS network will employ novel methods and neuroimaging technologies to investigate multimedia learning in order to address the gap in knowledge developing in this field. The purpose of this collaborative network is to capitalize on the strengths of each node leveraging expertise in cognitive neurotechnologies (Electroencephalography, functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, and eye tracking) to enable a rigorous interdisciplinary research ecosystem. Project LENS will advance fundamental research about learning through integrative neurocognitive conceptual and empirical approaches. This interdisciplinary team will advance the science of learning in several ways, including: 1) While most existing multimedia learning research focuses on cognitive load and learning without much consideration of individual learner characteristics, these investigators propose a paradigm shift to put the diversity of learners and their individual differences in the center of multimedia learning research; 2) While the few existing studies that use the individual differences paradigm focus primarily on the role of working memory capacity, this project takes a broader approach and study individual differences at a more precise level, exploring the role of such attentional and cognitive variables as visual attention span, inhibitory control etc. 3) The integrative and interdisciplinary research approaches used in this project will reduce educational researchers? reliance on self-reports in the study of attention, cognition and learning and promote the use of relevant cognitive neuroscience frameworks and tools to improve the science of learning; and 4) the accumulated data on individual differences will lay important groundwork for the construction of comprehensive computational models that can be used to personalize and adapt multimedia learning. In addition to advancing the understanding of designing multimedia learning, the network's webinars, guest presentations, and composite mentorship of graduate students will enhance learning, teaching, and student advisement within and across our network nodes. The project will broaden participation of underrepresented groups by focusing on the diverse community college student population with a wide range of demographic, attentional, and cognitive differences, and by recruiting research assistants from groups that are currently underrepresented in STEM. The purpose of Project LENS is to enhance infrastructure for research and education, which would be accomplished by establishing collaborations and partnerships in the science of learning. Project LENS addresses at least three national initiatives: a) the BRAIN initiative (2014), b) American Graduation Initiative (2015), and c) US House Resolution on Dyslexia (#456, 113th Congress).