The instructional design of eLearning content is more important now than ever due to the ease with which designers can incorporate a variety of multimedia tools. As new technologies and delivery methods are released in the market, it is critical instructional designers have a refined understanding of how media can be used to promote meaningful learning outcomes. Richard Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (2009) provides one of the more dynamic and highly researched perspectives into how people interact and learn using media. Mayer's theory is comprised of a series of concise principles and boundary conditions that can be used by instructional designers to improve learning outcomes through the use of multimedia.
The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning is comprised of twelve principles that aim to accomplish three goals when learners interact with multimedia learning content. These goals are to reduce extraneous cognitive processing, provide opportunities for essential cognitive processing, and promote generative cognitive processing. Extraneous cognitive processing occurs when too much, or unneeded information is being processed in working memory. The multimedia learning principles associated with reducing extraneous cognitive processing are: Coherence Principle, Signaling Principle, Redundancy Principle, Spatial Contiguity Principle, and Temporal Contiguity Principle. Providing opportunities for essential cognitive processing through the use of multimedia involves designing way for people to interact with media that is needed to accomplish certain learning objectives. The multimedia learning principles associated with providing opportunities for essential processing are: Segmenting Principle, Pre-training Principle, and Modality Principle. The final goal of multimedia learning is to promote generative cognitive processing when the learner interacts with multimedia content. The multimedia principles associated with promoting generative cognitive processing are: Multimedia Principle, Personalization Principle, Voice Principle, and Image Principle. Each of these goals and multimedia learning principles serve an important role in ensuring learners can interact with multimedia content and learn in the most effective and efficient ways possible.
While the theoretical implications of the Multimedia Learning are important, it is also important to explore how these principles can be applied to actual instructional design projects. In this presentation, several self-paced eLearning programs are analyzed using a Multimedia Learning rubric. The rubric consists of criteria based on the Multimedia Learning principles. The content analysis conducted using the rubric provides an important insight into how multimedia learning principles are used in eLearning programs. This analysis also identifies specific opportunities for instructional designers to improve self-paced eLearning using the Multimedia Learning principles.
This presentation discusses the goals and principles of multimedia learning and reports the findings of the multimedia content analysis. The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate how multimedia learning principles can improve the design of eLearning instruction and provide concise recommendations for integrating multimedia learning principles in specific instructional contexts.
After attending this session, participants will be able to:
Define the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning.
Differentiate between the goals of Multimedia Learning. Describe the principles of Multimedia Learning.
Discuss opportunities for using Multimedia Learning principles in the design of instruction.
Participants in this session will benefit from small group discussions, live demonstrations, and access to multimedia template files. A live community wiki will also be available to encourage sharing and collaboration on the presentation topic.
