Multimedia Learning Principles

Contiguity Principle

Research shows, based on the cognitive theory, that when both graphics and text is used, learning is more effective. The presenter should use both printed words and graphics rather than just words alone. Graphics can include drawings, charts, graphs, maps, photos, animation and videos. Images and videos should always be relevant to the material being presented. The contiguity principle helps students to understand material and become more engaged in the lesson. It helps the students to organize the material into a coherent cognitive representation and mentally integrate the material with existing knowledge. 3Modality Principle

Students learn more deeply from multimedia lessons when graphics are explained by audio narration rather than onscreen text. Exceptions include situations in which learners are familiar with the content, are not native speakers of the language being used or when only printed words appear on the screen. It is important to present the material to students as efficient as possible. Even though on screen text is generally easier to produce and present, the teacher should present the material that is best for the student. One that will present an engaging lesson to capture nd keep the students attention. People have separate information processing channels for visual/pictorial processing and auditory/verbal processing. When the student is given concurrent graphics and on screen text, both must be initially processed in the visual/pictorial channel. The capacity of each channel is limited so the graphics and their explanatory on screen text must compete for the same limited visual attention. The eyes can not simaltaneously be looking at the text and the graphics. At this point the visual channels can become overloaded. 4Redundancy Principle

Students learn more deeply from a multimedia lesson when graphics are explained by audio narration alone, rather than audio narration and onscreen text. Some exceptions to the redundancy principle involve screens with no visuals or when learners are not narative speakers of the course language. Some people believe that being redundant is important but the presenter has to be aware that it can overload the learners visual information processing system. Some learners need redundancy when they have difficulty processing spoken words or when they do not have time to process spoken words. If the redundancy does not add to the the learners processing demands or actually diminishes them, it should not be used. 5Coherence Principle

Encourages presenters to avoid any distracting words, graphics, and background music and sounds in their presentations that might distract the students from learning the concepts being taught. Background music and sounds may overload working memory, so they are most dangerous in situations in which the learner may experience heavy cognitive load especially when the material is unfamiliar and is presented at a rapid rate. 6Segmenting Principle

People learn more deeply when the content is broken into smaller segments then when presented as a whole. They can control how fast they can learn the concept this way. Essential processing is important and is understood better in segments. Learners that receive a segmented presentation performed better on transfer tests than the learners that receive a continuous presentation through identical material even when identical material is presented in both conditions. 7Personalization Principle

One way to include the personalization principle is to use onscreen characters who help guide the learning process during an instructional episode. This is very fun to use in the introduction to a lesson to capture the students attention. It makes the lesson for conversational than formal. Students will work harder to understand material when they feel they are in a conversation with a partner rather than receiving information. They work hard to understand what the conversation partner is saying even though it is just a character on the screen. 8

Pretraining Principle

People learn more deeply when lessons present key concepts prior to presenting the processes or procedures related to the concepts. The pretraining principle is relevant in situations in which trying to process the essential material in a lesson whould overwhelm the learners cognitive system. When complex learnin gis involved, some of the processing can be done in advance.. Learners that are familiar with the content area might not need as much pretraining as one that is not familiar with the content. Pretraining can help beginners to manage their processing of complex material by reducing the amount of essential processing they do at the time of the presentation. It helps the learners essential processing by redistributing some of it to a pretraining portion of the lesson. 9