PRINCIPLES OF MULTIMEDIA LEARNINGBy Victoria Ortiz

Agenda• Multimedia Principle• Contiguity Principle• Modality Principle• Redundancy Principle• Coherence Principle• Personalization Principle

Introduction• The following principles are used for media in eLearning.

Multimedia Principle• People learn better from words and pictures than from

words alone

Multimedia Principle Violations

To many bullet pointsBullet points are not consistentFont sizes are different sizes

Violations:

Too many different fontsThe box colors are too similar The are no arrows indicating the process

Violations:

The background does not need a patternThe red circle does not indicate anything

Violations:

Multimedia Principle Revisions

The information was separated into two slidesThe images are enlargedAll font sizes are consistentAll bullet points are consistent

Corrections:

Adding the arrows to show the processAll text are consistent All the boxes are different colors

Corrections:

Added an arrow Added the text Emphasized in red what you are looking at Removed the background pattern

Corrections:

Contiguity Principle• People learn better when corresponding words and

pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

• People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

Contiguity Principle Violations

This slide shows only the different the levels

Violation:

The levels and the corresponding information are separated. Scrolling two screens to put the information together

Violation:

Contiguity Principle Revision

Both levels and descriptions are on one slide. Using an arrow to connect the description to each level.

The colors for the boxes, arrows and text also correspond to each level.

Corrections:

Modality Principle• People learn better from animation and narration than

from animation and on-screen text.

Modality Principle Violation

With too much information that describes each process on one screen that might be too much to understand if it is fast-paced.

Violation:

Redundancy Principle• People learn better from animation and narration than

from animation, narration, and on on-screen text.• People learn better when the words include cues about

the organization of the presentation.

Redundancy Principle Violations

Showing the same information but in different formats

Having concurrent information and the audio and visual of the same thing can be overwhelming and distracting.

Violations:

Modality and Redundancy Principle Revisions

Cleaning up the slide with no text to read. Just listening the audio as it is narrating through the each step of the process

The attention is being focused on understanding the process and not being distracted or overwhelmed with the both the audio and the text.

Corrections:

Coherence Principle• People learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and

sounds are excluded rather than included.

Coherence Principle Violations

The use of the graphics, fonts styles and on screen text are all irrelevant and distracting.

Violations:

Coherence Principle Revision

Cleaning up the slide with no distracting images and irrelevant wording.

Corrections:

Personalization Principle• People learn better when the words are in conversational

style rather than formal style.• People learn better when words are spoken in a standard-

accented human voice than in a machine voice or foreign-accented human voice.

• People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.

Personalization Principle Violation

The pedagogical agent does not narrate the information in a conversational style.

Violation:

Personalization Principle Revision

The pedagogical agent is friendly and conversational.

Correction:

Summary• Now you should be able to correctly apply all the

principles for multimedia learning.