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Introduction In learning environments throughout education, the visual elements of courses, lessons, and presentations play an important role in learning. Well-conceived and rendered visuals help any audience understand and retain information 14. The use of visual technology enhances learning by providing a better understanding of the topic as well as motivating the students . Visualization methods are widely credited for simplifying the presentation of difficult subjects as well as aiding cognition; their use in the power engineering industry and education is enjoying significant growth 7. Even though the success by which content visualization will facilitate the learner’s acquisition of information is related to the individual’s level of perceptual and associative learning in the content area, the individual must have sufficient experience and maturity to realize that using visualization is merely an attempt to represent reality vicariously 5. Much of intended visual communication or self-expression is not perceived, or often misunderstood, especially if it is complex 8. In addition individual’s experience, the visualization itself plays an important role in the learning process.

If all visual-based learning materials were equally effective in facilitating student achievement of all kinds of educational objectives, there would virtually be no problem associated with this type of instruction 5. However, this is not the case since there are many different types of visuals, differing in the amount of realistic detail they contain. At the present time, educators, when faced with a choice of selecting one type of visualization from an array of available materials, have no way of knowing whether one type of visual is any more effective than another in transmitting certain types of information 5. From past to current there is a lack of quantifiable measures of quality and benchmarks that will undermine information visualization advances, especially their evaluation and selection 2. The significance of this dilemma is brought into focus when one becomes aware of the amount of visual-based learning materials that are being used today in the private and public educational sector. As might be expected, the types of visual-based materials used for instructional purposes are the ones that have become most readily available 5. However, the extensive use of a certain type of visual-based material does not necessarily justify its effectiveness and efficiency. The profusion of visual displays of information without an educated guide to meanings discerned from the information has led to a groundswell of movements seeking to develop metrics and quantifiable quality measures.

Need for Study The importance of knowing how to select the best type of visual-based learning materials is recognized throughout higher education; however, with the exception of some descriptive literature, few studies have been conducted to identify the essential indicators of visual-based learning materials used in technology education courses for the middle school and high school grades. The reason this study is being emphasized for grades 7-12 is because, technology education is mainly offered for grades 7-12 due to federal funding guidelines such as the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act that provides federal funds "…to help provide vocational-technical education programs and services to youth and adults in middle school, high school and college level " 14. Since

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Katsioloudis, P. (2008, June), Identification Of Quality Indicators Of Visual Based Learning Material In Technology Education Programs For Grades 7 12 Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3161