Why It Matters
Whether you're producing videos for an online course, sharing a photograph with students, building a slide-based presentation, or creating any type of multimedia presentation
Our Recommendation
Based on the work of Richard Mayer1, we recommend focusing your use of multimedia by concentrating on three goals:
- Reduce noise
- Clarify complexities
- Build meaning
The following sections outline how to accomplish each goal.
1. Reduce Noise
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| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Coherence | Carefully consider whether each multimedia component is necessary to meet the desired learning outcome. Good and Bad Examples:
|
| Signaling | Highlight essential material. |
| Redundancy | Limit multimedia to narration and animation when possible, avoid including redundant on-screen text. |
| Spatial Contiguity | Display corresponding words and pictures near each another. |
| Temporal Contiguity | Sync corresponding visuals and audio. |
2. Clarify Complexities
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| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Segmenting | Allow the learner to control the pace of multimedia presentations. Good and Bad Examples:
|
| Pretraining | Provide an opportunity for learners to learn basic, prerequisite content before launching a more complex multimedia presentation. |
| Modality | When possible, use graphics with spoken text rather than graphics with written text. On-screen text requires split attention between graphics and text. |
3. Build Meaning
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| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Multimedia | Present words and pictures rather than words alone. Good and Bad Examples:
|
| Personalization | Use a conversational tone rather than a formal tone. |
- Mayer, R.E. (2008). Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction. American Psychologist, 63(8), 760-769.