March 26 - April 01, 2025

This week, I continued planning my JLPT N3 grammar and vocabulary assessment module, which I’ll be building in Adobe Captivate once I get it installed later this week. I’m still in the early stages—primarily organizing my question sets and watching additional LinkedIn Learning content—but the more I dig into the design, the more I find myself thinking critically about how to implement the instructional principles we’re studying in e-Learning and the Science of Instruction (Clark & Mayer, 2024).

Chapters 7 through 9 offered some timely insights, especially the Modality Principle (Chapter 7), which recommends using spoken words rather than on-screen text when explaining graphics. Since my project is assessment-focused and contains minimal instructional content, I’m leaning more toward visual text than narration. However, the principle still makes me think: could I embed audio pronunciation of some of the more difficult Japanese words or grammar constructs? While probably not feasible for every item (given the volume—190 vocabulary and 190 grammar questions), a few strategically placed audio clips might enhance comprehension without overwhelming the learner.

Chapter 8’s Redundancy Principle also caught my attention. It warns against using both on-screen text and narration when one will do. In earlier brainstorming, I considered adding both Japanese text and audio narration to every question, but now I realize that could lead to cognitive overload, especially for learners already struggling with comprehension. Instead, I’ll selectively apply audio support where it enhances understanding rather than simply duplicating what's already visible.

Chapter 9’s Coherence Principle hit home in a big way. With Japanese language learning, it's tempting to include a lot of cultural references or side notes for context, especially with Kanji. But Clark and Mayer (2024) caution against adding extraneous words, graphics, or sounds that don’t directly support learning goals. This is a reminder I need to keep my design clean and focused. Even though mouse-over Kanji translations or tooltips for radicals would be “cool,” I’m now more cautious about overloading the interface with elements that might distract rather than support learning. If I do implement tooltips or pop-ups, they’ll need to be tightly aligned to the test question’s purpose and not just added for flair.

On the technical side, I’m still concerned about how Japanese characters will render on users’ systems. After diving into a few Reddit threads and Adobe forums, I’ve learned that unsupported glyphs may display as empty boxes if proper fonts aren’t installed. I’ll need to either embed fonts or convert certain text elements into images—which again touches back on the Coherence and Redundancy Principles. The balance between functionality and cognitive clarity is turning out to be trickier than I expected.

Also, I completed the Adobe Animate Essential Training course on LinkedIn Learning this week and earned the training certificate (see image below). While I now better understand its capabilities, I’m confident that Animate is not the right tool for my project. It seems much better suited for in-depth technical training—like animating mechanical systems or processes—than for building a high-volume assessment module like mine. That said, I’m glad to have added Animate to my toolbox for potential future projects.

All in all, these chapters helped me think beyond functionality and aesthetics, pushing me to consider how every design decision affects the learner’s ability to process and retain information. I’m hoping to put these insights into practice over the next two weeks as I begin the building phase.

Reference:

 Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2024). e-Learning and the science of instruction (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.