Previous domain knowledge did not affect e-learning text comprehension, directly or as a moderator¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Previous knowledge (high vs. low) showed no significant effect on comprehension and did not moderate the effects of working memory or Internet skills. → Burin 2018

Evidence¶

Burin 2018¶

Burin, D. I., Irrazabal, N., Injoque Ricle, I., Saux, G., & Barreyro, J. P. (2018). Self-reported internet skills, previous knowledge and working memory in text comprehension in E-learning. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 15:18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0099-9

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Null result from the Study 2 regression (n = 125): the Previous Knowledge factor and its interactions with Operational, Navigation, and WM predictors were not significant in Table 5. The article reports no effect size for this null finding; equivalence was not tested.

"Regarding previous knowledge, even though it has been associated with comprehension, it did not affect comprehension results in this study, neither directly nor moderating other variables."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Prior Knowledge — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• In e-learning text comprehension, higher working memory and lower self-reported navigation behavior predict better comprehension — related
• Advance organizers aided learning in a 1980 meta-analysis, but activating prior topic knowledge did not improve primary pupils' text comprehension in one experiment — related
• Ability moderates the hierarchical-organization advantage: low-ability subjects showed no significant benefit, while medium-ability subjects did — related
• Analytical degrees of freedom in the primary study (prior-knowledge filtering and control-variable selection) affected its results: removing prior knowledge as a control rendered the comprehension interaction nonsignificant — reports the opposite
• IQ and working memory are reliable predictors of academic achievement at the beginning of school when domain knowledge is not controlled — related