The medium, the content, and the performance: an overview on media-based learning

Abstract

This Paper argues that a correlation exists between the medium of instruction, students’ performance, and the instructional content. Media-based learning is not necessarily more effective, simply because it uses a medium. Several variables exist that influence its success: the medium itself, its properties, production and consumption restraints; the content, and the way it can be presented in the context of a specific medium, and learners’ cognitive styles. All these variables and more have to be taken into consideration, alone and interacting, in order to decide whether and where media-based learning is to be used, and where it might be counterproductive.