Running Head: Multimedia Product Critique #3

Multimedia Critique Paper Three:

StarFall.com

Renee Ford

Coastal Carolina University

Overview of the Product

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Starfall (www.starfall.com) was created by the Starfall Education Foundation and was
originally designed as free resources to enhance the learning process for students regarding
reading and phonics skills. It was designed to meet curriculum standards for kindergarten
students, but can be used by any grade level in which students need additional beginning reading
support. About three years ago, they created a paid version which offers access to reading, math,
and educational games. The paid version also focuses on first and second grade curriculum
standards. The website can easily be linked to a desktops home screen, so that it can be
accessed by students. This feature keeps students on the website and limits their ability to access
the rest of the internet. Additionally, this website can be accessed at school, at home, and on
tablets.
Multimedia Principles and Learning Theories
Starfall uses a combination of narration with human voices (particularly a young childs
voice) and animation. The program is designed to allow students to move freely at their own
pace. It does allow beginning learners to start with letter identification and letter sounds (area
one of the program). Students can then rehearse the material, concepts, and skills to help them
remember at their own pace. They can review before moving as needed. This causes them to
begin to encode the material which helps them later in other areas and throughout reading
(Driscoll, 2005). When the student feels confident, they can move to the next area and so forth
(van Merrinboer & Kester, 2014). Additionally, this helps students to connect new information
with old information or to build a variety of schemas. It helps them to build upon their prior
knowledge and continue to develop the necessary skills that will benefit them throughout reading
(Driscoll, 2005). Starfall also helps students to work on their self-regulating skills because it
does not progress them in the program, but requires them to move themselves as they learn (van
Merrinboer & Kester, 2014).
Before students were able to effectively use Starfall, they had to be taught how to use the
website and some had to be taught how to use the computer. I began teaching students about the
website through whole group instruction. I would align the activities on the website with the content
that I was teaching. It was important to pre-train students, so they would be able to use the website
without my assistance during their computer time (Mayer & Pilegard 2014).
Re-Design
In general, the overall design of the website is acceptable and allows students to navigate
at their own pace. The color scheme contrast well with the background cream tint. The
designers used a neutral background with hints of other colors (Malamed, 2015). They also
limited their use of red and overly stimulating colors. The designers provide a hint of white
space at the top of the page. They do this with a cloud design. Tasks within the program are
colorfully, engaging, and allow students to provide feedback to the designers. Feedback is done
through clicking on various faces (happy, straight, and sad faces) that tell how the students felt
about the task (Johnson & Priest, 2014). This is similar to the behavior system that many
teachers use to provide student feedback about their own behavior, so students are familiar with
what each face means.
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If asked to redesign this program, I would change the opening page design. The opening
page is extremely busy for young users. It is essentially divided into two sections. The left side
provides access to the resources in the free version (which is what most students have access to)
and the right side provides details about the resources of the paid version and how to join. I do
understand wanting to promote the paid version to parents. However; in many cases parents
never see this page because it is used at school rather than home. I am saying this based on
experience with the parent population within my district because many do not know what Starfall
is or how it can benefit their child.
To redesign the page, I would move the section that asks parents to join the paid version
to a clickable icon in the upper corner that would lead to information about the paid version and
the resources it offers. Another way this could be dressed would be to have the opening page
with two clickable tabs (one for parents and one for students). It would then take them to the
area of the resource that they need to use or see. This would limit what students are exposed to.
By doing this, I would be able to decrease the split-attention effect and some of the overload
students may experience from having everything on the opening page when it is not relevant to
students anyway (Ayers & Sweller, 2014). Additionally, I would periodically add new tasks,
content, and activities to the website, so that students would be interested in using the website
repeatedly. I have many students who get bored with the site because they have completed all of
the activities and do not have anything to look forward to during their next computer session.
This is where the redundancy principle really comes into effect because students will eventually
get bored and stop wanting to use the website (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2014).
Overall Impression and Analysis
Overall, I feel the program is a positive asset to any primary level classroom and home.
Students are able to navigate the site which uses large icons, so that students are able to click
within the area of their choice. The large icons especially help students who are just beginning
to use computers or who have limited spatial skills. Students who have limited spatial skills will
benefit from designers taking the spatial principle into account when developing the icons and
tasks (Mayer & Fiorella, 2014). This is beneficial in my classroom because several of my
students have trouble clicking on smaller icons or get distracted when related items are too far
apart. The design itself does not over stimulate students due to extremely bright colors which is
beneficial when working with younger students who get distracted easily (Malamed, 2015). Again, I
have students who are unable to handle such distractions.
Students are able to move through the website at their own pace and can pause as needed.
This allows them to stop and evaluate what they are learning and go back as needed (van
Merrinboer & Kester, 2014). The icons are numbered from one to four. This allows students to
grow with the website. There are four main areas that are covered through this resource as well as
some additional tasks that focus on holidays. Area one focuses on letters and letter sounds. Area
two focuses on blending letters and sounds to form words. Area three focuses on producing
simple sentences that the student can read or have read to them. Area four allows the students to
read books or have books read to them. This allows students to progress through the tasks as
they feel comfortable (van Merrinboer & Kester, 2014). At the end of each section or task,
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students have the opportunity to provide feedback to the designers (Johnson & Priest, 2014). I hope
designers look at the feedback because some of the tasks and activities are disliked by students. This
will cause student interest to decrease if not addressed. This would be a wonderful opportunity for
designers to adjust and modify based on feedback.
In all, I like using Starfall in the classroom and it does benefit my students. However; I
would like to see new activities added at least on a yearly basis rather than it being a few years
between each added activity. This way it would meet the needs of my high-level students and
not just my low-level students.

Bibliography

Ayres, P. & Sweller, J. (2014) The split-attention principle in multimedia Learning. In R. E.

Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 206-226). New York:
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Cambridge.
(e.g. Chapter 8)

Johnson, C. & Priest, H. A. (2014). The feedback principle in multimedia learning. In R. E.

Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 449-463). New York:
Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 19)

Kalyuga, S. & Sweller, J. (2014). The redundancy principle in multimedia learning. In R. E.

Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 247-262). New York:
Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 10)

Malamed, C. (2015). Visual design solutions: principles and creative inspiration for learning
professionals. Hoboken: Wiley.

Mayer, R.E. & Fiorella, L. (2014) Principles for reducing extraneous processing in multimedia
learning: coherence, signaling, redundancy, spatial contiguity, and temporal contiguity principles.
In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 279-315). New
York: Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 12)

Mayer, R.E. & Pilegard C. (2014) Principles for managing essential processing in multimedia
learning: segmenting, pre-training, and modality principles. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The
Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 316-344). New York: Cambridge. (e.g.
Chapter 13)

Starfall Education Foundation. (2017). Starfall. Computer Software. Retrieved from

www.starfall.com.

van Merrinboer, J. J., & Kester, L. (2014). The four-component instructional design model:
Multimedia principles in environments for complex learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge
Handbook of Multimedia Learning. (pp. 104-148). New York: Cambridge. (e.g. Chapter 5)