Can animation be used to improve comprehension of instructional text?

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine whether the animation of a linear process, requiring explanatory text, can assist students to form a better understanding of the text. Tertiary students (N = 61) participated in a pre-test, post-test experimental study during which they were exposed to 4 treatment variables: text (T), video and text (VT), illustration and text (IT), and animation and text (AT) were explored. It was hypothesised that the group who received the animation and text treatment will comprehend the
linear process better than the control group (text only) and the other two groups (text and illustration; text and video). The illustration, the video and the illustrated animation complimented the text and illustrated the process during which items were transported, scanned, recognised, sorted and removed from a conveyor belt. The r esults indicated that no significant differences in achievement existed among the treatment groups.